Before There's an After There Has to Be a Before

When we look at "before," it is a word that we will experience at some point in our life. Why? I'm glad you asked. We all have had a before: "before I was this" or "before I was that." Most importantly, you must or will have a period of time preceding. It may a date, event, or time in your before that prepares you for your after. In your before, it's the preparation for but the anticipation of after that is birthed out of your before.

When a woman is pregnant, she experiences the trimesters. The first trimester is the first twelve weeks, where you may not look pregnant but the body is going through enormous changes. The second trimester is thirteen to twenty-seven weeks and is normally the most comfortable period of the pregnancy because most of the early symptoms will be over, though a few new symptoms will start, like heartburn and leg cramps. The third trimester is the twenty-eighth week through to the birthing of the baby, then the body goes back but to another level of change. She starts to really feel the weight of the baby she's carrying. There will be more visits to the doctor to check blood pressure, test urine, listen to the fetal heart rate, and measure the fundal height and the length of the uterus. Finally, she reaches the full term, the water breaks, and the child comes forth.

Medical science says that when a woman is having a baby, she will have the most stress, tension, and pressure on her heart and body that a woman ever experiences through all the trimesters in the before leading up to the baby being born. After the baby is delivered, she is in the mother's arms and care. The mother remembers the before, but the after makes it so joyful and happy to the point that she remembers the stage of trimesters and pain but only from a place of grace and gratitude because she went from the three trimesters to a new semester, a life of joy with her baby.

Remember again that your before is the very catalyst to your after.