Archive for June, 2008

It is amazing to hear that our body is built for natural childbirth.

You can give birth to your baby without any medical intervention.

Most of the women prefer to give birth to their child without using any medications.

Giving birth naturally is the best choice for mom and her baby. It is a low-tech way of giving birth to a baby. Natural childbirth involves, going through the labor and delivery without taking any medications along with pain relievers, like epidural [Epidural for labor pains].

If you are having low-risk pregnancy then you can choose the natural way to avoid the side effects of the medications on you and your baby.

Medications used for pain may affect your labor; blood pressure can drop suddenly, fluctuations in your labor i.e. sudden rise and sudden fall, feeling nauseous, feeling somewhat confusing and out of control.

But, natural childbirth is a great choice for many women as they can feel more in touch with the birth experience and also to deal with the labor in a more proactive manner.

There are many benefits associated with natural childbirth, but you must be an active participant throughout your labor. With proper support and preparation, you will feel very much satisfied and empowered by natural childbirth.

Low birth weight and preterm delivery increase the likelihood that a child will be autistic, with girls being at particular risk, researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report.

“Pediatricians are probably sensitive to the fact that low birth weight children or children born too soon have special developmental needs,” researcher Dr. Diana Schendel of the CDC’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, told Reuters Health.

“This study simply supports that they should not overlook the behavioral aspects of development.”

She noted that while boys far outnumber girls in the general population of children with autism, physicians “may need to be aware that they will see more equal numbers of boys and girls” with autism among low birth weight and preterm children, based on the current findings.

The researchers found that among low-birth-weight and preterm children, autism was less common than other developmental disabilities, such as cerebral palsy and hearing or vision loss.

However, children born weighing less than 2,500 grams — or roughly 5.5 pounds — had about twice the risk of autism as those with a normal birth weight. Similarly, children born before the 33rd week of pregnancy were twice as likely to develop the disorder as those born at full-term.

As you approach towards the end of first trimester of the pregnancy, for most of you, your pregnancy begins to appear. This is the right time to inform others about the good news particularly in professional circle.

During this week, various changes are observed in you and your baby’s body.

What are the physical changes that occur in your body during pregnancy week 11?

If you still experience morning sickness, this comes to an end by the end of this week. Growing placenta along with your baby’s growing pituitary gland gives you a break on the production of hormones by this week.

Now the focus is on the beginning of second trimester of pregnancy. The second trimester is most appropriately characterized by plenty of growth for both you and your little one.

By the end of this week, your uterus will rise above the pelvic bones; your doctor can recognize it with an external examination. A vertical dark line of pigmentation called as linea-nigra, which comes from your naval down to your pubic hair will appear shortly.

Care you need to take during pregnancy week 11:

According to the research, severe emotional stress during pregnancy can cause abnormalities in your unborn child.

The frequency of malformations is twice among stressful pregnancies when compared with normal pregnancy.

A pregnant woman who is experiencing stressful events in two successive pregnancies is particularly at greater risk. Stress during pregnancy not only affects the gender of your child, but also your baby’s future health.

The reasons behind experiencing stress during pregnancy are many, such as emotional or physical abuse, break-up of marriage relationship, disinterested or uninvolved partner and open infidelity.

Women who experience these types of situations can face highly stressful circumstances. They face loneliness, constant stress, clinical depression, shame and loneliness during or after the birth.

Stress encourages a pregnant woman to drink alcohol thus consuming less healthy diet.

Effects of stress during pregnancy on your baby:

• Mothers who experience stress have a possibility to expose their children to highly stressful hormones, malnutrition and toxins inside their womb.
• The hormone released with stress during pregnancy is cartisone. This hormone leads to raised blood sugar levels and a decrease in the supply of oxygen to the tissues. Both of these conditions can cause birth defects.

Women who worked hard to climb the corporate ladder worry the boss will put them on the “mummy track,” giving them less-challenging projects.

This is of particular concern to women who are on a partnership track and need to demonstrate certain skills to advance.

Others fear their manager will work them extra hard so they can do as much as possible before taking maternity leave.

But you can’t keep your pregnancy a secret forever, and it’s best to start planning early how you’ll transition to maternity leave. Most experts suggest telling the boss your news after the first trimester, a time when the risk for a miscarriage greatly decreases.

The only time to tell the boss sooner would be if you’re experiencing a difficult pregnancy or severe morning sickness, and need to take time off from work. No matter what, tell the boss before other colleagues–it’s a sign of respect.

Once you inform the boss, meet with human resources to discuss how much maternity leave your state and company offers and what portion of the leave is paid. Each state provides different leave plans. It’s also a good time to re-read the company handbook, since it provides information on the firm’s policies.

Premature babies undergoing medical procedures may be in pain even if there is no obvious physical hint of it, brain scans reveal.

University College London researchers found changes in brain oxygen levels - a response to pain - did not match other signs.

The findings suggest commonly used scales to rate pain in babies may produce misleadingly low scores.

The ability of premature babies to feel pain, and the level of painkiller needed to prevent this, has been the subject of debate in medicine.

Some babies do not cry out in response even to procedures such as the “heel prick” test, carried out regularly in neonatal units to obtain a blood sample.

Doctors and nurses frequently have to rely not only on facial changes, and disturbed sleep patterns, but also subtle changes in heart rate and blood oxygen saturation to predict whether an infant is in pain.

The UCL research recorded these responses to the heel prick test in 12 babies while also measuring brain changes in an area of the brain called the somatosensory cortex.

These changes in oxygen levels in certain areas of the brain are believed to be a byproduct of nerve activity in reaction to pain.

Artificial insemination is the process in which the sperm is placed into the female’s vagina or into the female’s uterus.

These types of inseminations include: intracervical insemination, intrauterine insemination, intrafallopian insemination, intravaginal insemination, and intraperitoneal insemination.

During these processes, the sperm is placed inside the pelvis, near the mouth of the fallopian tubes in order to combine with the released egg.

Among these techniques, the most commonly used ones are intrauterine insemination which is followed by intravaginal and intracerivical insemination.

Artificial insemination (AI) is greatly helpful for the couples with unexplained fertility problems. Also, this process is helpful if you have the sperm allergy or if your partner has low sperm mortality or low sperm count.

In order to improve the odds of becoming pregnant, your health care provider will initially suggest fertility drugs before undergoing artificial insemination. You need to start taking the drugs at the beginning of your menstrual cycle in order to stimulate the ovaries to grow several mature eggs for fertilization.

The process of artificial insemination takes about an hour, but you need to take fertility drugs for about a week before ovulation. Based on the cause of your fertility problem, mostly you undergo 3-6 cycles of artificial insemination before you become pregnant or try for another treatment.

By this week, you will find some relief from morning sickness, but you still appear as tired, moody and nauseated. You may begin to notice some blotchiness on your face. You can also recognize the skin problems to the changes in your body’s level of hormones.

What are the physical changes that occur in your body during pregnancy week 10?

During this week, there is more good news for moms-to-be. There is substantial growth in the placenta both in size and also in functioning. This changes some of the hormones in your baby’s body and finally it removes some of the hormonal burden on you.

Hormonal changes that occur during pregnancy can affect your gums and thus they become swollen and inflamed. This condition is called as pregnancy gingivitis. Usually this condition appears in between third to ninth month of your pregnancy.

This week, your pregnancy enters into more stable state and there is a smaller amount of shift in the hormone levels. There is 40-50% increase in your blood volume so that you will particularly notice the veins in your tummy, legs and breasts.

By this week, you can hear your baby’s heartbeat at the doctor’s office. By this week, your waistline slowly disappears.

Gingivitis is usually defined as the swelling or inflammation of the gum tissues. Most of the pregnant women will experience some signs of gingivitis during their pregnancy. In most of the cases, this condition is due to the result of poor oral hygiene.

Usually, the bacterial film that is developed on your teeth cannot be removed by flossing and brushing. The plaque can irritate your gums thus making them swollen, tender, sensitive, red and they also bleed regularly.

What factors can contribute to pregnancy gingivitis?

There are various causes of gum disease during pregnancy. Increased blood flow is one among those. During pregnancy, the blood level is increased up to 40-50% than usual. This increased blood flow makes your gums to swell and therefore they become very tender. This can also lead to gum bleeding, thus leaving the gums at a greater risk of gingivitis.

Rise in hormones is also another reason for pregnancy gingivitis. The higher levels of hormones make your gums and teeth more sensitive to the bacteria that hide in the plaque.

Morning sickness is another reason that plays a great role in causing pregnancy gingivitis. Most of the pregnant women cannot tolerate the smell or taste of the toothpaste, thus it becomes very difficult to preserve good oral hygiene.

According to a new study, for pregnant women with inflammatory bowel disease, a relapse increases the risk that they’ll give birth prematurely and have a low-birth-weight infant.

Inflammatory bowel disease includes Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. While treatment can keep the conditions under control, relatively little is known about treatment and response among women who experience a severe relapse during pregnancy — and about the effect on the baby.

Dr. Deepa Reddy at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York and colleagues compared 18 pregnant women with inflammatory bowel disease who were hospitalized for a disease relapse and 41 age-matched pregnant women with inflammatory bowel disease who did not relapse.

All 18 patients received intravenous hydrocortisone to control the inflammation and 7 were treated with additional immune suppressing drugs. While 15 had a clinical response to the treatments, 3 had to have a section of bowel removed, the team reports in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.

They found that the hospitalized patients delivered at an average of 35 weeks compared to almost 39 weeks for those in the comparison group.

Significant differences were also seen in pre-term birth rates and in average birth weights between the two groups.