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Chelsea: I just reached my third trimester myself, and I'm wondering if you ever ran into challenges with doing henna while pregnant. For example, I'm starting to cramp in my stomach if I bend forward too long while doing henna. Did you ever have to take a break from henna because your stomach wouldn't allow you to maneuver like before or are there ways of getting around it?

So this is a good question. So I- I've been through two pregnancies throughout the length of my henna journey and um, in both pregnancies I worked late into the pregnancy. Um, I personally, I haven't had an issue with it, but there were different, um, like setups that I would, that I would, um, build for myself so that I could work more comfortably.

First thing, I definitely didn't want to lean, and I wouldn't, so I, um, I would have, instead of working over like the, standard, larger table, I would work on a very small, um, you guys know like the TV tables. It's like a little, literally just like, a fold- you know what I'm talking about, if you know what I'm talking about, like, give me a like. If not, I'll have to like find a picture and put it in the comments or something. But, um, you know, like the folding tables, like, and they fold flat and they will stand up. Normally they're like on a rack or whatever. They're very small. They're literally just meant for one person, um, to like, eat a meal on when you're watching TV or something. I don't know. I think they're literally called 'TV tables'. Um, but so I would get one of those because they were really -- okay, cool -- So I would get one of those because they were, they were the perfect height for me. Um, and I'm tall, I'm quite tall, I'm six feet. So, uh, but it was the perfect height for me when I was sitting. And so instead of me leaning forward to do henna, I would put this table and I would, I would position it. On these TV tables, one side is open, uh, where you put your legs and then one side has like a bar across it. And normally I would have the open part facing my client so that it was closer to them, but as I got further along in my pregnancy and I knew that I needed to move furth- closer in, um, then I would turn it so that they just didn't have to deal with the bar on their side, so that I could get closer, close enough so that I wasn't stressing my body to be able to do the henna.

Another thing, um, when working while pregnant is that, um, if you have to get lower, like, if I was working on feet or if I was working, like, even if I was doing someone else's belly, um, what I would do is I had a stool. I have a stool. I have multiple stools. Um, so I have little stools that I would take with me to bookings so that if I had to get lower, I could like sit on the stool and then like, I can't do it here, but like, I can sit on the stool and like, like, do the frog leg. Like, I just had my legs all splayed open. It didn't matter. Um, but then that way my belly could just kinda like hang in the middle and I'd be comfy on my little stool and work that way and be as close to them as I could. Um, honestly it's, uh, as you get later into your pregnancy, it's going to be more like proximity being the thing because you're just, you have this thing like in your way so you are going to have to get closer to be able to lean forward to get to it without actually leaning forward.

Um, and so like as I get, as I would get later into my pregnancy, I would just make comments, um, to my clients about, "Hey, we're going to get really personal right now because I've got this watermelon that I have to account for." And it was no big deal.

Um, but I will say this, um, if you're already finding that you're cramping and whatnot in your belly, then do be cautious. Do be cautious. You don't want, um, you don't want to have any sort of issues with, you know, with your pregnancy for- for henna. We love henna, but we don't want to have issues with, with that.

So, um, you might consider like visiting with a chiropractor, you might consider visiting with a physical therapist or, um, with a physiologist, someone who can just check you out and make sure like your gait is doing well, and like your balance is in what's right and what not so that you can move around more comfortably. I, in my last trimester, um, would go to the chiropractor, um, and just make sure that like my hips were in alignment and I- my chiropractor knew that like, I'm a henna artist and I often do like the lean and like, whatever. And so having that rapport with a chiropractor is also really, really good.