Archive for September, 2007

Pregnancy yoga refers to the practice of yoga during pregnancy. It unites your body, mind and spirit.

Practicing yoga during pregnancy helps improve your breathing ability and manage stress related problems.

It also helps to develop resistance as well as control over your body.

In other words, pregnancy yoga is the best therapy to help relieve from illnesses that develops during pregnancy and to prepare your body and mind for labor and delivery.

Thus, practicing pregnancy yoga regularly ensures a healthy environment for you and your developing baby.

Pregnancy yoga comprises of asanas, pranayama, meditation techniques, and deep relaxation techniques. The intensity of pregnancy exercises varies according to the trimesters of pregnancy.

The recommended pregnanc y yogaexercises are butterfly stretch pose, cat-cow pose, seated forward bending pose, standing forward bend, cobra pose, side angle pose, pawanmukta asana, modified child’s pose, cat pose, and wall butterfly pose.

Triangle, knee to ankle, pigeon, and warrior II are recommended poses at the last stages of pregnancy, as they help generate the suppleness that makes your baby to attain proper position (head down and back turned near your belly).

Multiple pregnancy refers to a pregnancy having two or more fetuses in the womb

In this pregnancy, the fetus can be similar (identical) or different (fraternal).

The identical twins or triplets generally come from a single fertilized egg and always have same sex and blood type.

However, fraternal multiple fetuses come from various fertilized eggs and also have separate placentas and amniotic sacs.

The sex and blood groups will be different.

Remember that having two fetuses is known as twins and having three fetuses is known as triplets.

Quadruplets refer to four fetuses and quintuplets indicate five fetuses.

Twins are the most common type of this pregnancy. However, today, the occurrence of multiple pregnancies having twins, triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets and more is becoming common worldwide. The biggest multiple pregnancy on record is the birth of nine babies.

The factors related to having a multiple pregnancy are several. These factors can be natural or technical.

Heredity is a natural factor of multiple pregnancies. Having a family medical history of this pregnancy can increase your chances of having twins or triplets. Having pregnancy at an age of thirty or more also has high chances of developing multiple fetuses.

Pregnancy is the most fantastic period in the life of a woman.

It requires a special care that ensures a safe pregnancy with healthy development of the unborn baby from conception to childbirth [Things to consider before planning pregnancy].

Taking a healthy diet is very essential for you and your unborn baby during pregnancy.

However, some foods contain harmful bacteria and parasites that harm you and your unborn baby.

Maintaining a healthy pregnancy is the key to protect you and your unborn baby from food poisoning.

Listeria monocytogenes (Listeria) is a bacterium found mostly in cheese, un-pasteurized dairy products, and instant or raw meat, chicken, or fish. The bacteria also develop in frozen foods.

This bacteria, when enters your body, causes flu-like symptoms that can be mild or severe. The bacteria in your body can also pass to your unborn child.

Thus, the infection of the fetus leads to premature baby, birth defects, miscarriage, and blood poisoning. The bacteria (Listeria) can be easily treated with antibiotics.

Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) is a parasite that is found in contaminated or impure food, water. It is also found in dust and soil. The disease caused by T. gondii is known as toxoplasmosis.

Episiotomy is a surgical incision of the vulva made by the attending physician to prevent laceration at the time of delivery.

In this procedure, an incision will be made between the vagina and the anus (the muscular area called perineum) to assist childbirth.

At the time of your labor when your baby is exposed three to four centimeters, with the help of sterile scissors, your surgeon will cut the perineum to enlarge the vagina.

It will make the baby’s head to come forward easily. Before doing this surgical procedure, you will be injected with local anesthesia.

Depending on the incision made by your doctor, there are different types of episiotomies. They include midline episiotomy, mediolateral episiotomy, hockey stick episiotomy, etc. The midline episiotomy is the most common episiotomy in the United States.

Episiotomy can be done only in certain situations in order to reduce the oxygen deficiency to your baby and also to avoid perineal tears.

You can avoid episiotomy by following some preventive measures during your pregnancy time.

Some of the preventive measures include good prenatal nutrition, prenatal perineal massage, Kegel exercises, etc. Good nutrition provides you healthy skin and healthy skin stretches easily during your labor.

Teen pregnancy is a pregnancy that occurs in young females aged between 13 and 19.

Teen pregnancy is also known as adolescent pregnancy.

The rate of teen pregnancy is very high in the United States when compared to other developed countries.

It is found that, in the United States, yearly, approximately one million teenage girls are becoming pregnant.

Out of these, ninety-five percent are unintended pregnancies and nearly one-third of these results in pregnancy termination.

The chances of having teen pregnancy are more if you begin dating at early stages of your teenage.

It is estimated that dating at an age 12 has ninety-one percent chances of involving in sexually activities prior to age 19. However, dating at age 13 has only fifty-six percent chance of sexual involvement.

The main cause of teen pregnancy is adolescent sexual behavior. Remember that all teenage pregnancies develop due to sexual activities during adolescent stage, whether intentional or unintentional.

It is found that teen pregnancy is more in high-school-aged virgins who are getting engaged in sexual activities during teenage, thus acquiring sexual transmitted diseases.

Sexual transmitted diseases are the diseases that transmit from person to person during sexual activities.

Is pregnant sex safe during pregnancy? It is a common query that rises among pregnant women. Yes.

You can have sexual activities throughout your pregnancy, as long as your health care professional recommends otherwise.

The health care professional may advise you to avoid pregnant sex early in pregnancy if you have complications during your pregnancy such as history of miscarriages, vaginal bleeding, incompetent cervix, seepage of amniotic fluid or breaking of water, placenta previa, infection, gestational diabetes, pre-term labor or any other complications.

It is always good to consult your health care provider in order to clarify your sexual troubles, as different complications will have different limitations.

Remember that pregnant sex will not harm your baby because the fetus in your womb is well protected by the strong muscles of uterus and a fluid called amniotic fluid, which surrounds the baby during pregnancy.

From recent researches, it is found that having pregnant sex throughout pregnancy can reduce the chances of having premature delivery. So, with a normal pregnancy, pregnant sex is safe into the last weeks of third trimester.

On the other hand, the position that is comfortable before pregnancy and in early stages of pregnancy can become painful or unsafe at later stages of your pregnancy.

Pregnancy termination is a medical process of terminating a pregnancy. It is also known as abortion.

Pregnancy termination can be done in two ways: using medical procedure and surgical abortion.

There are options of pregnancy termination depending on stage of your pregnancy [Abortion Procedures].

There will be more options for the earlier stage of pregnancy and almost all pregnancies that are unplanned will end in termination of pregnancy.

Pregnancy termination is a common gynecological process that will be performed in medical clinics and is a safe procedure with less risk involved.

If you make a decision of abortion, then it will be helpful to have information on pregnancy termination and its procedures, its cost, etc. before you proceed with pregnancy termination.

In the first trimester, if you chose to have pregnancy termination then you have two options. One is medication abortion and the other is vacuum aspiration.

In medication abortion, medicine will be used to abort your baby. It can be done during forty nine to sixty two days of your first trimester. It will be successful up to 95%.

Period and pregnancy is an essential thing for a woman to plan for having a child.

Before having further information about period and pregnancy, it is important to know about menstrual periods and how pregnancy takes place.

Your menstrual period is first sign of pregnancy and is a major factor in determining the due date of your pregnancy.

Menstrual period refers to the discharge of blood and tissue periodically from the uterus. The average menstrual cycle for a woman ranges from 26‑31 days.

You can evaluate your fertile days of the period and pregnancy using ovulation calculator.

All that required for calculating fertile days through ovulation calculator is menstrual period information. Thus, you can easily trace the most fertile days of your menstrual cycle and can plan for having a baby.

Fertile days are the days where an ovulation takes place for fertilization. For a regular twenty-eight days cycle, the fertile days will be fourteen days before another menstrual period.

Fertile days are safe period to have conception because your chance of becoming pregnant is more in these days. However, you can avoid pregnancy by avoiding sexual activities during these fertile days.

A fit pregnancy refers to maintaining a perfect health during pregnancy period. Having fit pregnancy is very beneficial for you and your baby.

To attain this kind of pregnancy, you need to follow a balanced diet with healthy lifestyle.

For a fit pregnancy, at first, you need to consult your gynecologist to identify the condition of your pregnancy as well as the baby’s position.

At your first visit, the doctor provides you a schedule of regular monthly check-ups in order to ensure that your pregnancy is in good condition.

Never fail your appointments with the health care provider.

However, if you have any chronic medical conditions such as asthma, diabetes, blood pressure, hypertension, it is always good to control them by consulting your health care professional regularly[Diabetes and Pregnancy]. Thus, you can control and attain a fit pregnancy.

The doctor also prescribes prenatal vitamins or supplements to maintain a fit pregnancy. The most important prenatal vitamins during pregnancy are folic acid, iron and calcium, which are essential for the growth of the baby.

So, take these supplements regularly as per your doctor recommendations. This helps to maintain a good supply of all the essential vitamins to the developing fetus from the mother’s body.

The physical or structural abnormality that occurs at birth is called birth defect.

Birth defect mostly happens in the first three months.In the United States, one baby out of thirty-three babies will come across this type of problem.

There are many reasons for the birth defect that include toxic effect of the fetus of the uterus, inherited conditions, injury at the birth, and unknown reason.

Birth defect can lead to mental or physical disorder, some of which results in death and some are treatable.

Birth defects are explained as abnormalities of function, structure, or metabolism.

Metabolic and structural abnormalities occur when a body part is imperfectly formed or missed and functional abnormalities occur when any part of the body does not function well.

Birth defect includes congenital heart disease, autism, cerebral palsy, cleft lip and palate, spina bifida, Turner’s syndrome, Down syndrome, progeria, fetal alcohol syndrome, etc.

Congenital heart defects occur when the parts of the heart does not form completely. They include coarctation of the aorta, aortic and pulmonary valve stenosis, atrial and ventricular septal defect, patent ductus arteriosus etc.