Archive for October, 2008

The child growth during the third trimester is very rapid because within few weeks he/she has to enter into the new world.

Check and record each and every movement of your baby inside the womb. You need to observe the kicks and movements of your baby inside your womb.

You can buy the fetal kick monitor to record the kicks for every hour. If you observe any change in the movements of your baby, then immediately inform to your health care provider.

There are some changes that take place in you and your baby during this week.

What are the physical changes that occur in your body during pregnancy week 29?

If you are a working woman, from this week onwards you will feel little more discomfort to work. This is the time to make necessary arrangements for the maternity leave in order to stay away from any undesired hassles.

By this week, on average you will gain the weight of 20-24 pounds.

You will experience few discomforts like pregnancy constipation and heartburn. You need to suffer from the breathing problems for the remaining period until your child birth.

Babies move into the delivery position a few weeks before the birth. Usually the head of your baby is closer to the birth canal.

If this is not the case, your baby’s feet and/or buttocks will be in the delivery position. This position, known as breech presentation, happens in one out of 25 full-term pregnancies.

Generally, there are no symptoms to detect that the baby is in breech position, though some women feel the baby’s position by their kicks.

Most women, however, are unable to determine in which position their baby is in at any given moment.

Determining baby’s position:

Your doctor can outline the baby’s position by feeling it through the abdominal wall. Another clue to determine your baby’s position is the position where the baby’s heartbeat is heard well. However, the ultrasound examination is the best way to determine the baby’s position accurately.

Reasons for breech birth:

While there are no known genetic causes for breech presentation, certain conditions can increase the chances of presenting a baby in breech position:

• If the fetus is smaller than average size and is not cradled tightly in the uterus, then the baby moves more freely into breech position.

A study has found that the risks of a premature birth quadruple if flaxseed oil is consumed in the last two trimesters of pregnancy.

In Canada, 50 percent of pregnant women take prescription medication. Yet many of them prefer to use natural health products during the pregnancy.

“We believe these products to be safe because they are natural. But in reality, they are chemical products and we don’t know many of the risks and benefits of these products contrarily to medication,” says Bérard, who is one of the researchers.

Bérard and Moussally set out to conduct one of the largest studies ever undertaken on by analyzing data from 3354 Quebec women.

The first part of the research established that close to 10 percent of women between 1998 and 2003 used natural health products during their pregnancy.

Before and after pregnancy they were respectively 15 and 14 percent to use these products. The increase means that about a third of women consuming natural health products stopped during the pregnancy.

The most consumed natural health products by pregnant women are chamomile (19 percent), green tea (17 percent), peppered mint (12 percent), and flaxseed oil (12 percent).

When the cervix of a pregnant woman is weak, the chances of giving birth to a premature baby are raised by the shortening or premature opening of the cervix.

To prevent premature birth, the opening to the uterus is stitched or closed by means of a method called cervical cerclage, which ensures the developing baby stays inside the uterus until the gestational period of 37-38 weeks.

Causes of incompetent cervix:

• Cervical damage due to pregnancy termination;
• History of miscarriage during second trimester;
• Undergoing LEEP procedure or cone biopsy previously.

When to undergo cervical cerclage:

The best time to undergo this method is in the third month, i.e. between the gestational ages of 12 to 14 weeks. But, some pregnant women require cerclage in late pregnancy, a procedure called emergent cerclage. If you undergo emergent cerclage, your future pregnancies will also need a cervical cerclage.

Alternatives to cervical cerclage:

If cervical changes only surface during late pregnancy or if the cervix is already opened up, the best solution is complete bed rest.

Risk Factors:

Doctors recommend cervical cerclage if you have any of the following risks:

• Hormonal influences;
• Previous pre-term delivery;

During pregnancy week 28, your little baby kicks hard and gains fuller looks as he/she can get the fat cover over the skin.

At this time, your baby looks almost like what he/she would during the birth. By this time, the baby’s features are very well developed.

Your health care provider gives you indications regarding the position of your child in your womb.

What are the physical changes that occur in your body during pregnancy week 28?

Now you are busy in searching the name for your baby because naming is not always the most straightforward or easy thing and most of the couples can’t find a name even after the birth of the child.

These days, your baby’s kicks will become stronger. If you observe any significant drop in the number of kicks, it is better to inform your practitioner or mid-wife.

But, don’t become anxious. As the weeks pass on, there are significantly less kicks. This is because of less space in the womb to move about forcefully.

Depression in pregnant women could help explain the growing problem of preterm delivery, scientists suggest.

While post-partum depression “has long been recognized as a serious public health problem,” Kaiser Permanente researchers write, “depression during pregnancy has not been well-studied.”

It’s not clear how common depression is in pregnant women and how it affects their babies, the authors write.

“Depression during pregnancy is really under-diagnosed, both by women and by obstetricians,” lead author De-Kun Li, a reproductive and perinatal epidemiologist at Kaiser Permanente’s Division of Research in Oakland, said in an interview.

Li and his co-authors screened women for depression about 10 weeks into their pregnancies. More than 40% reported having significant depressive symptoms, and half of those women reported having severe depressive symptoms.

A total of 791 women completed the screening and delivered a live baby. Women who, after being screened, went on to miscarry — defined as a pregnancy loss before 20 weeks’ gestation — were excluded from the analysis.

Read more at USA Today

Besides providing relief for the mother, research shows that one acupuncture session a month during pregnancy can greatly improve your baby’s health.

How does acupuncture work?

An increasingly popular form of medication, the ancient Chinese art of acupuncture is used by about five million Americans for relief from common ailments.

Based on the premise that the vital force (“qi”) flows through the body along the paths known as “meridians”, acupuncture aims to balance the energy when it is blocked.

Using thin gold needles, the acupuncturist maneuvers affected points, of which there are over 2000, to boost energy flow through the body.

Acupuncture points used during pregnancy:

Good neiguan: This acupuncture point is situated at two fingers over the inner wrist. When the acupuncturist targets this point, it provides relief from morning sickness.

Zusanli: This point is situated above the kneecap. Targeting of this point can reduce water retention and also encourage digestion.

Zhubin: Situated below the calf muscles and just on top of the inner anklebone, stimulation of this point, provides relief from symptoms like anxiety and hypertension.

Research shows that acupuncture administered during pregnancy provides quicker relief from nausea than those who don’t have acupuncture.

The odds of a woman dying from the anesthesia she may be given during childbirth have fallen to about one in a million, according to a study described at the American Society of Anesthesiologists.

The new finding “should be very reassuring for women,” Dr. Joy L. Hawkins, professor of anesthesiology at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, who led the study, told.

“Anesthetic deaths are a very rare cause of maternal mortality in the United States, but even one death is important and should be prevented,” she said.

An analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s ongoing Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance project for 1997 through 2002 suggest that anesthetic deaths hover around 1.1 maternal deaths per million live births, Hawkins told the conference.

Over the 6-year study period, a total of 49 pregnancy-related deaths due to anesthesia were reported. Thirty-one were associated with live births or still births and 16 were associated with abortion; one was an ectopic pregnancy and one had missing information.

Eighty percent of the anesthesia-related deaths during childbirth were associated with cesarean delivery.

Also known as fetal blood sampling or Percutaneous Umbilical Cord Blood Sampling (PUBS), cordocentesis is a diagnostic test mainly used to examine the blood of the fetus for detecting fetal abnormalities.

This prenatal testing is used to diagnose in utero complications along with Down syndrome and heart defects.

How is the test performed?

Advanced imaging ultrasound is used to find the area where the baby’s umbilical cord joins the placenta.

During the procedure, a thin needle is passed through the abdomen and uterine walls to the umbilical cord to get a blood sample. The only difference between this test procedure and amniocentesis is that blood is retrieved from the fetus.

When is the test performed?

Usually, the test is done when the required information is inconclusive or cannot be obtained from amniocentesis, ultrasound or CVs. Usually, the right time to undergo this test is after the gestational period of 17 weeks, i.e. after the complete development of the umbilical cord.

How is cordocentesis useful?

The test is used to detect chromosomal abnormalities such as Down syndrome and other blood disorders like fetal hemolytic disease. It also helps diagnose the following abnormalities:

• Fetal anemia;

During this week, you will enter into the third trimester of your pregnancy. This is the time to plan for the labor and birth.

From this week onwards, changes will be radical. There are various changes that take place in you and your developing baby.

What physical changes occur in your body during week 27?

During this week, your levels of fatigue will increase to a great extent. There are several factors that lead to this condition such as increased weight gain, shortness of breath and also sleep deprivation.

From this week onwards, you will experience frequent urination because of the compression of your bladder size with the increased size of your baby. Urinate for every 10 minutes and don’t try to stop it. Stress incontinence is also very common during this period.

You will observe leakage of urine when you laugh, cough, exercise, change position, move to pick anything or chase after your children.

You will experience breast tenderness at this time because the production of milk is kicking in.

You will also experience more swelling during this period and may feel like you are living in a sweat factory because of increased basal body temperature.