Archive for March, 2008

Yours and your baby’s health are the most important factors of healthy and normal pregnancy. So, you should quit smoking, alcohol, excessive caffeine and un-prescribed medications. According to the research, each of these things will cause different risks to you and your unborn baby.

Here are the reasons why you need to avoid these things during your pregnancy:

Smoking:

• Smoking during pregnancy causes your baby to born prematurely and with a low birth weight.
• Smoking causes your baby to born with organs smaller in size when compared to the babies born to non-smokers.
• It results in poorer lung function in your newborn baby.
• Your baby will become ill more frequently. Your baby needs to suffer from frequent colds.
• The baby will get very painful diseases like inflammation of the middle ear and more frequent bronchial asthma during early childhood.
• There are chances that your baby can become a smoker in the later years of life.

Alcohol:

Alcohol consumption during your pregnancy can cause physical and mental birth defects. Each year more than 40,000 babies are born with some type of alcohol related defects. Moderate or light drinking may also harm your fetus.

Nobody wants to develop stretch marks on their body, but pregnancy stretch marks are common along with backaches, nausea, frequent urination and fatigue.

75-90 percent of all pregnant women will develop stretch marks in their pregnancy.

Red lines will be appeared during your 6th or 7th month of pregnancy.

Pregnancy stretch marks not only appears on your belly, but also on the other areas that get larger such as upper thighs, breasts, buttocks and also on your arms, depending on how much weight you gain and your genetic history.

Tips to prevent pregnancy stretch marks:

• Consume a healthy diet in order to nurture your skin. Consume the necessary prenatal vitamins. Take foods in right quantities of calories and also consume the foods high in protein, calcium, whole grains, fruits and vegetables high in vitamins.
• Drink plenty of water and also consume fluids frequently as they can keep your body hydrated and preserve elasticity.
• Follow strategies for steady weight gain. For a healthy pregnant woman, weight gain should be in between 25-35 pounds, little more for underweight women or having twins. [Healthy Pregnancy Weight Gain]

Kegel exercises can also be called as pelvic floor exercises.

These exercises help in strengthening the muscles that support your uterus, rectum, bowels, bladder and also help in strengthening your vaginal muscles.

Kegel exercises during pregnancy help in developing the ability to relax and control the muscles while preparing for labor and delivery.

Also, these exercises are recommended during the postpartum period in order to promote the healing of perennial tissues and control increased urination.

Benefits of kegel exercises:

• Mostly pregnant women are encouraged to do kegel exercises as they make pelvic floor muscles stronger and help during childbirth, especially pushing makes easier.
• Kegel exercises lesses your chance of tears happening during labor.
• During the postpartum period, kegel exercises can help in perennial healing of episiotomy wounds and also in preventing postpartum incontinence and toning your stretched vaginal muscles so that it makes sex better.
• Kegel exercises prevent incontinence from occurring in the later life.
• They create your orgasm healthier.
• They decrease the chance of hemorrhoids.
• They improve the vaginal sensation.
• Help in regaining bladder control and decrease your urinary problems.

Placenta previa is a complication of pregnancy in which the placenta grows in the lowest part of your womb and it covers all or part of your cervix.

Placenta is the organ that helps in nourishing the developing fetus.

During early pregnancy placenta previa is not a problem, but if the condition occurs in the later pregnancy, it can cause bleeding, which leads to early delivery and also leads to other complications.

If you have placenta previa at the time of delivering your baby then you will need to undergo cesarean section.

If the cervix is covered by placenta completely then it is called as total or complete previa. If the placenta just covers the border of the cervix then it is called as marginal previa.

If the placenta edge just covers the cervix edge about 2cm but not at the border then it is called as low-lying placenta. Usually placenta location will be observed during your mid pregnancy ultrasound.

What happens after diagnosing with placenta previa?

Usually this depends on your pregnancy period. Don’t be panic! If placenta previa is recognized during the 2nd trimester then it migrates farther from your cervix and it will no longer be a problem.

After pregnancy, most of the new moms feel happy for a moment and then from the next moment they feel sad.

There are two conditions; they are baby blues and postpartum depression; from which you may suffer after giving birth to your baby.

Baby Blues is the condition; in which you feel moody and sad for a week.

Postpartum depression is the condition which continues for more than two weeks.

Postpartum depression after pregnancy makes you feel anxious, restless, worthless and fatigued.

Most of the new moms will hurt themselves or their babies. Postpartum depression does not go away quickly. In the very rare conditions, new moms will suffer from something more serious.

Sometimes they may not eat, feel trouble while sleeping and finally after the pregnancy this can lead to postpartum depression.

Warning signs of postpartum depression:

These warning signs indicate you that you are in postpartum period, so call your health care provider if you have any of these symptoms:

• Crying that lasts for several days
• Fever greater than 101 F
• Feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, worthless and over guilty
• Feeling irritable, restless and anxious

Recovering from vaginal delivery depends on number of aspects. Most of the women will experience fatigue after the vaginal delivery.

The extent of fatigue that you experience will depend on your general health and well-being.

Also, the problems associated with vaginal delivery will depend on amount of labor hours that you had experienced and the rest that you had taken before labor.

Most of the women will undergo during a stage of both emotional and physical changes after delivery.

The time it needs you to stand on your own after the birth depends on number of aspects such as, your labor experience and the level of tearing. For most of the women a problematical birth will lead in a quick recovery.

For those who had a difficult, need some time to feel normal. Whether it is your first delivery or not helps in deciding how much energetic you will be after the delivery.

Pregnancy and delivery need an emotional and physical period for adjustment. For most of the women, often physical healing is considered as the easier step. Emotionally there are number of changes that the body will undergo because of rapid fluctuations of the hormones.

Every pregnant woman thinks that drinking coffee and tea are harmful to their baby and they must be cut from the diet.

They can be harmful only when you consume them in increased quantities.

Moderate intake of coffee won’t cause any problems to your developing fetus.

According to the past studies, drinking coffee and tea are linked to the problems like heart defects, stillbirths and other congenital problems.

Caffeine causes same effects on your baby as it does on you. Consuming large amounts of caffeine during your pregnancy will develop an addiction in your developing child. Even when the mother consumes moderate amounts of caffeine can cause low birth weights and miscarriages.

Herbal teas are safe for some extent in your pregnancy. Even herbal teas are also harmful when you consume them in large quantities. Some ingredients in this pregnancy tea are safe but most of them are not.

Usually, herbs can be used as drugs and thus they can be as effective as certain medications. Only few herbs are used as pregnancy teas.

Which herbal pregnancy teas are safe?

The pregnancy teas made from peppermint, rose hips, lime blossom, roasted barley, thyme and ginger are safe to drink in smaller amounts and that too occasionally.

The early signs of pregnancy include nausea and vomiting. Usually they appear around the 6th week of pregnancy.

You can experience them at any time during the day. For most of the women, these symptoms will disappear around 12th week of pregnancy.

No need to worry about pregnancy morning sickness. It won’t cause any harm to you and your baby.

Experiencing excessive vomiting and can not keeping food levels down can cause hyperemesis gravidarum.

This is a very harmful condition for you and your baby. It will become more severe due to the electrolyte imbalance and lack of nutrients.

Most of the pregnant women will experience morning sickness. This is a nauseated feeling that you experience in your pregnancy. But, this condition is not always accompanied with vomiting.

Increased levels of hormones in your body cause nausea. Most of the practitioners assume that this symptom is a good sign which means that your placenta is well developing.

You can follow number of techniques to get relief from this irritating condition.

Do’s and don’ts to get relief from pregnancy morning sickness:

• Avoid eating large meals at a time. It is better to take smaller ones.

As baby develops during your pregnancy, the weight presses on your cervix.

This leads to opening of the cervix before the arrival of pregnancy due date and without any labor or contractions.

This situation is referred to as incompetent cervix or weakened cervix, which again lead to premature delivery or miscarriage.

Though, incompetent cervix occurs in only 1 out of 100 pregnancies.

Generally, this condition happens during the early part of the second trimester, but sometimes as late as in the early third trimester.

The reasons behind incompetent cervix:

There are various reasons associated with incompetent cervix. They include:

• Any surgeries previously performed on the cervix
• Diethylstilbestrol (DES) exposure
• Any damages that occur in a difficult birth
• Any trauma experienced previously to your cervix, like dilation and curettage (D&C) from any termination or miscarriage
• Abnormal uterus or cervix resulting from the birth defect
• Congenitally short cervix
• Uterine anomalies
• Influence of some hormones

Recognizing an incompetent cervix:

Usually, this condition is not checked in your pregnancy until after a 2nd or 3rd trimester miscarriage has occurred.

In vitro fertilization is usually called as IVF. Generally, it is the method of fertilizing an egg with sperm in the laboratory dish.

Once in vitro fertilization is successful then it is combined with a method called as embryo transfer. This procedure is used in order to set the embryo in your uterus.

In vitro fertilization - What is there in the process?

In vitro fertilization and embryo transfer basically consist of five steps. They include:

• Monitoring and stimulating the production of a healthy egg in the ovaries.
• Collecting the egg
• Securing the sperm
• Combine the egg with the sperm in the laboratory and offer the suitable environment for fertilizing and for the growth of the embryo.
• Embryo transferring into the uterus

Step 1: Prescribed fertility medications used to control the period of egg ripening, also, they increase the chance to collect more eggs during your menstrual cycle. Often, this procedure is called as ovulation induction.

The reason behind the need of multiple eggs is most of the eggs will not fertilize after the retrieval. The development of eggs is monitored by using ultrasound. This test helps to check your ovaries and urine.