Archive for the 'PREPARING FOR PREGNANCY' Category

Fertility yoga is a therapeutic form of yoga, which helps to make the holistic link between your body, mind, spirit and emotions.

In preparing your body for a successful conception and pregnancy, fertility yoga involves specific postures and practices that help to stimulate and tone your reproductive system, improve the energy flow and circulation throughout your body and balance hormone levels.

Fertility yoga helps to regulate your body’s hormone levels by improving endocrine function.

Also, yoga reduces your stress levels, depression and anxiety, all of which stunt your fertility rate.

The main difference between fertility yoga and other yoga [Pregnancy yoga] practices is that it concentrates specifically on reproductive health.

The main emphasis of fertility yoga is on the advantages gained from incorporating breath with the movement. It also helps you gain the right balance, vitality and strength for the reproductive and hormonal areas of your body.

Each yoga posture focuses on different parts of your body and system. Some postures help to re-balance your hormones or glandular system, whereas others improve the blood flow to other organs to stimulate and strengthen them.

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.

The first few weeks of your pregnancy are most important for baby development.

You should be healthy and away from the type of activities at the conception time, which can harm your baby.

Those habits which you need to avoid from your daily routine for the safe growth of your baby include:

Alcohol consumption: Even a single sip of alcohol is not safe for your baby growth. So, you should avoid alcohol consumption [Fetal alcohol syndrome].

Caffeine: High levels of caffeine consumption can lead to delayed conception. Also, some studies proved that there is an increased risk of miscarriage in women who took more than 300 mg a day.

Smoking: According to the studies, smoking during pregnancy can lead to low-birth weight babies, preterm deliveries and infant deaths.

Herbs: There are no approved herbs by FDA. If you want to take any herb, it is better to discuss with your doctor about the safety of the drug.

Stress: Delayed or missed menstrual cycles are the results of stress. So, it will be very difficult for you to track the ovulation period and to become pregnant. So, you should limit the stress levels as much as you can.

Are you planning for a baby? So, before going to conceive, it is essential for you to make a health checkup of your body.

Before going to conceive, here are the tests and procedures that you need to ensure by your doctor. This helps in giving birth to a healthy baby.

1. Medical history: You need to tell your doctor about the eating and exercising habits and also about the exposure to any environmental hazards. Inform your doctor if you have any conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes or any other genetic disorders.

Inform your doctor about the type of birth control option that you used. Also, inform about the conditions like menstrual problems, abortions, miscarriages or ectopic pregnancy.

2. Blood pressure checkup: High blood pressure during pregnancy can lead to preeclampsia and also cause placental problems. So, ask your doctor about a plan to control the blood pressure levels during your pregnancy.

3. Pap smear: Pap smear is an essential part of pelvic examination. Usually, it is conducted twice a year or whenever required. Inform your doctor if you have any sexually transmitted diseases like Chlamydia, HIV/AIDS or herpes. Having successful screening and treating your disease before you conceive will considerably improve the chances of successful pregnancies.

According to an analysis of data from a Danish study, exposure to certain maternal infections in the womb increases the odds of epilepsy in childhood.

Among the infections cited were vaginal yeast infection, cystitis, and pyelonephritis (inflammation of the kidney and upper urinary tract).

Of the maternal conditions evaluated, pyelonephritis, cystitis, diarrhea, coughs lasing longer than one week, and vaginal yeast infection were all linked to epilepsy.

In preterm infants, the relative risks ranged from 1.23 for diarrhea to 2.56 for vaginal yeast infections.

Exposure to cough during pregnancy increased the risk of epilepsy only during the first year of life.

The Researches reported that herpes, genital herpes and venereal warts did not significantly increase the odds of epilepsy.

According to the researchers; long term studies can shed more light on link between maternal infections and epilepsy risk.

Source: Reuters

If you are woman in a normal state of health having regular periods previously and fail to menstruate for ten days after your due date, it can be presumed that you have become pregnant.

The first sign of pregnancy is your breasts undergo considerable changes in shape and size. The blood vessels of the uterus dilate to increase the supply of nutrients to the fetus.

The blood supply to your brain therefore decreases to some extent. This can cause fainting or dizziness sometimes.

From second or third week of pregnancy, you can experience nausea and vomiting in the morning and it can continue up to twelve weeks which is a sign of pregnancy.

The other sign of pregnancy is, in the first three months, the uterus development exerts pressure on the urinary bladder causing urination frequency to increase.

Later on, this problem decreases, though it recurs later when the baby descends to the lower parts of the abdomen in the final stages of pregnancy.

Skin color changes due to the shift in the hormonal balance which is a sign of pregnancy. Your skin color becomes darker from the breasts to the lower abdomen, thighs, genitals and the area surrounding the nipples, which often does not revert to normal even after the delivery.

Giving birth to a child is one of the most exciting experiences in a woman’s life.

During pregnancy, your body undergoes several changes due to hormone fluctuations.

The huge fluctuations in hormone levels results in several pregnancy symptoms.

The good news is that pregnant guide can help ease your pregnancy symptoms.

A pregnancy guide provides all the essential tips to maintain a healthy pregnancy.

One of the most common pregnancy symptoms is morning sickness. It is characterized by nausea and vomiting. To reduce this symptom, avoid intake of extremely fatty and spicy foods. Stay away from strong odors. Have small meals several times a day. Increase carbohydrate foods in your diet.

Also, increase your intake of vitamin B6. Taking 10-25mg of this vitamin thrice a day can help ease the symptom fastly. Ginger can help reduce nausea quickly. So, take ginger in tea or chew directly, but use only fresh ginger for effectiveness.

Constipation is one more pregnancy symptom that can develop due to several reasons: changes in hormone levels and increased iron levels. To reduce this symptom, it is better to follow pregnant guide.

Pregnancy symptoms generally develop starting from conception to childbirth, as your body undergoes the changes that occur during the process of fertilization, implantation and growth of the fetus.

The early pregnancy sign and symptom develops 2-3 weeks after fertilization. Conception or fertilization normally takes place approximately two weeks prior to the commencement of your next menstrual period.

Generally, it takes a minimum of six days for the fertilized egg to reach the uterus from the fallopian tubes and another six days to implant completely in the uterus lining.

Once the implantation process takes place successfully, your body starts releasing a pregnancy hormone called human gonadotrophin hormone (or HCG) into the blood stream. Initially, the production of HCG will be very low.

However, the amount of hormone production increases quickly as your pregnancy progresses. These high levels of pregnancy hormone affect your body and develop early pregnancy sign and symptoms during pregnancy.

In other words, the early pregnancy sign and symptoms develop due to the changes of hormone levels in the body during pregnancy. Remember that these pregnancy symptoms may also develop by other factors.

Some of the pregnancy symptoms can develop due to stress, illness, unhygienic diet or lifestyle behaviors (alcohol consumption, smoking, drug use).

Suspecting that you might be a pregnant? Look for the most common early pregnant signs to confirm your pregnancy.

The first and foremost pregnant sign is missed menstrual period.

It is a sign of pregnancy only when your menstrual periods are regular and the period doesn’t occur on time.

However, in some case, missed menstrual periods may occur due to several other factors such as stress, illness, weight fluctuations or hormonal imbalance.

So, confirm your pregnancy with several other pregnant signs, home pregnancy test or by consulting your doctor.

Pregnancy spotting is another pregnant sign to confirm your pregnancy. Generally, the bleeding will be very light or short and lasts for one or two days.

This sign usually develops two weeks after conception. This bleeding is known as implantation bleeding, as it occurs at the time of implantation where the fertilized egg is embedded into the uterus lining for further development.

Morning sickness is a pregnant sign that usually develops in the early stages of pregnancy, mostly two weeks after conception due to the increased production of hCG hormone by the body.

In order to become pregnant, a woman should know when the ovulation process takes place in the body.

Ovulation process plays an important role for conception because it is the period where the released egg or ovum is pushed down the fallopian tubes for fertilization.

Remember that the timing of ovulation process in the body depends on the menstrual cycle length. The length of the menstrual cycle refers to total number of days from the first day of menstrual bleeding to the day before the next menstrual period.

For an average 28 days menstrual cycle, the ovulation process generally takes place around 13-15 days before the commencement of next menstrual cycle. The ovulation process will occur much early in a short menstrual cycle whereas much later in a long menstrual cycle.

The time of ovulation process can be determined easily using ovulation calendar. It helps determine the ovulation period and the most fertile days for you to become pregnant.

On the other hand, there are several factors that need to be taken into consideration when trying to become pregnant. A proper nutrition is most essential when trying to become pregnant, as a healthy and balanced diet can help improve your fertility and also increases the chances of becoming pregnant.