Maternal Resources

Get Motivated & Stay Motivated

We made it 2021!  Happy New Year.  This is often the time when we take a step back and reflect on the good, the bad, and consider setting goals and resolutions.  Sometimes it’s just resetting a past goal, celebrating a past success in the year, or updating and refreshing current goals.

Goals are be really helpful in pregnancy planning. pregnancy. labor, birth and even the postpartum period. Setting and working towards goals in these areas can help set you up for success when it comes to what is important to you in your pregnancy whether its birth without an epidural or avoid an unnecessary cesarean delivery. 

Goal setting is a great exercise because it utilized our reticular activating system (RAS) and harnesses the power of the mind to making things happen. The reticular activating system or the RAS is part of the brainstem or the most primitive part of our brain. 

 The RAS is responsible for sleep and wake patterns, arousal, as well as tuning out unimportant info and focusing on what’s important around you, like when your name is called in a crowd. This filtering of information is the key to using your mind to work for you when it comes to goals.  This concept is the topic of best sellers such as Rewire your Brain and Change your Brain Change your Life

Where focus goes energy flows.  The more you focus on something like your goals, the more you will move towards them consciously and unconsciously. 

Have you ever noticed after you buy a car or a new snazzy sneaker, you seem to see that sneaker or car everywhere you go?  This is your RAS at work. There aren’t actually more of that car or shoe in the universe, you are just noticing it more.   

By writing down your goals and putting them in a place where they are in you consciousness often, can help the goals come to actuality.   Our amazing docs have offered to share some of their goals as some inspiration to utilize the new year milestone to make some of your own for your pregnancy birth and life. 

Dr. Abdelhak

Dr. Abdelhak’s goals for 2021 include finishing his book: How to Avoid a C-Section: An Experts Guide.  We can’t wait read it.   And some of his New Year’s Resolutions and Goals are listed below:

1. Get the majority of his hard first serves to land when he plays tennis.  (According to him, his serve in its current state sadly resembles tennis. We can’t say, we’ve never seen him play)

2. Watch less broadcast news.

3. Stop kicking himself for not buying more Bitcoin. (Don’t we all, lol)

4. Take a tour of Gettysburg. Eventually he would like to visit all the major Civil War battle sites.

Dr. Amanda Resnikoff shares her goals of getting more involved with women’s health politics and policy in 2021.  What a great idea!  She is so well spoke and passionate, she would do a phenomenal job!

Dr. Leora Joel has the goal of hitting 150 rides on her peloton bike this year. Woot to that!.

She also has the new year’s resolutions of:

Finding and engaging in a meaningful volunteer project with her kids Staying better hydrated  Finish her needlepoint project  Make a joke funny enough for Dr. Abdelhak to actually laugh .

Our midwife Kristin Mallon shares what helps to keep her motivated.  She says that writing her goals down, sharing them with friends and keeping them up where she can review them daily is really helpful in keeping her on track to achieving her goals.   She also finds motivation from others who have had the success or achieved the same goal she striving to achieve. Success leaves clues.    Finally, she likes surround herself with inspirational people, people she knows friends and family and also people she doesn’t know through podcasts, books and 

Goals can be a great way to focus on what you do want and stop focusing on what you don’t want for what you fear.  When you replace good positive thoughts with fear focused thoughts this can be a great way to have a beautiful 2021.