After my pregnancy, I realized I wanted to bring the 
wonderful nurturing and pampering feeling to more women. By putting together spa recipes in my book, “Spa Mama”, I wanted to make it easier for women to
pamper themselves at home. Each recipe has been formulated to give you all the mental and physical benefits of a luxurious spa treatment without actually having to leave your home! So get comfortable, relax and get ready to make the most out of the opportunity to pamper yourself.

Baby your face: relaxing facial massage

This is a great way to relieve headache or sinus pain. All you need are your own two hands and a comfy place to sit or lie down.

Forehead. Using the fingertips of both hands, stroke your forehead from the midpoint towards to the temple as if you were drawing four rows between your brow and your hairline.

Eyebrow ridge. With both hands poised above the bridge of your nose, inhale deeply. Pinch your eyebrow ridge as you exhale. Inhale and move your fingers to a new position along the ridge. Exhale as you pinch, and so on.

Nose and cheekbones. Using both hands, draw your middle and index fingers down either side of your nose, pausing where cheekbone meets nostril. Inhale and press your fingers towards the back of your head. Continue tracing underneath your cheekbone until you reach your temples.

Jawbone. Make small circles with your fingertips from the temple down along the jawbone until you reach the tip of the chin.

Cheeks. With your hands in a loose fist, use the flat part of your fingers to make soft circles in the fleshy part of your cheeks.

Ears. Pinch the edge of your ears from the top ridge down to the lobe and back, gently pulling as you do so.

Head. With flat fingers, push up from the corner of your jawbone to your temple. Continue up and over your ears, and down along the underside of your jawbone finishing under the tip of your chin. Then massage your whole head with your fingertips as if you were shampooing.

Sweet and Simple Facial Mask: Bye-bye break-outs Although it doesn’t happen to all women, acne is a fairly as we age. Try this natural and gentle facial mask designed to unplug your oily pores without irritating your skin.

- 2 tablespoons bran
- 1 tablespoon baby applesauce
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon dried peppermint

In a small bowl mix the ingredients to make a paste. Spread the gooey (and fairly yummy-looking) mixture on your face. Treat yourself to a quick 20 minute nap and then rinse the mask off with lukewarm water.

Lullaby Time: Moisturizing night cream for normal skin

Use this combination of apple juice, glycerin and sweet almond oil every evening and you’ll wake up with glowing, healthy skin. Apple juice works wonders on fine wrinkles and cracked skin, while the sweet almond oil combats dryness and reduces the appearance of scarring and skin imperfections.

- 1 tablespoon apple juice
- 1 teaspoon glycerin
- 1 tablespoon sweet almond oil

In a pan, mix all ingredients over a low heat to create a viscous liquid the texture of pouring cream. Transfer the cream to a small, sterile plastic container. To use, massage a few drops onto your freshly cleansed skin before going to sleep.

Mums-to-be who chase an ailing diet during abundance are added acceptable to accord bearing to ample babies and access their approaching child’s accident of developing obesity-related illnesses in after life, new analysis suggests. A abstraction conducted at the University of New South Wales begin a hotlink amid prenatal diet and adolescence obesity, which can aftereffect in greater accident of diabetes and added metabolic disorders.

Lead researcher assistant Morris explained: “Maternal blubber and overfeeding aboriginal on in activity acquired cogent changes in the chemicals that adapt appetite, which may advance that the babies were programmed to eat abnormally from those built-in from angular mothers.

“As academician ascendancy of appetence is acceptable set aboriginal in life, comestible availability in the fetal or aboriginal post-natal aeon may accord to developed obesity.”

Previous studies accept apparent that a mother’s comestible choices during abundance can accept an affect on the approaching appetence and aliment preferences of the child.

“Our research has found that light drinking by pregnant mothers does not increase the risk of behavioural difficulties or cognitive deficits,” said lead author of the report, Dr Yvonne Kelly, UCL Epidemiology & Public Health.

“Indeed, for some behavioural and cognitive outcomes children born to light drinkers were less likely to have problems compared to children of abstinent mothers.”

According to the research, boys born to mothers who drank lightly while pregnant were 40 per cent less likely to have ‘conduct’ problems and 30 per cent less likely to be hyperactive.

Dr Kelly suggested: “Light-drinking mothers tend to be more relaxed themselves and this contributes to better behavioural and cognitive outcomes in their children.”

However, until further research has been done expectant mums are advised to avoid alcohol consumption during pregnancy.