Things to know about the health of you and your baby.

The most important thing you can do when you have decided to have a baby is to take good care of yourself.  The parental period is a time to build a strong foundation for you, your baby and your family.

One of the best things you can do for you and your baby is to eat healthy. Making smart nutritional choices will help promote your baby’s growth and development.

Pregnancy Nutrition

During pregnancy a balanced diet is the most important part of good health.  Pregnancy Nutrition is the only source of nutrients for your baby.  You will need to learn how to make good food choices for you and your baby as well as the nutrients your baby will need.  You have to avoid things that can be harmful like alcohol, drugs,smoking cigarettes.  These things are very harmful to you and your baby.

Emotional Changes

We all think of pregnancy as an exciting time and you think mostly of how your body will change.  Some of us don’t realize the emotional changes that occur.  Feeling sad or worried about every little thing is normal and is usually due to changes in hormone levels.  The following represent some of the most common changes even though every woman’s pregnancy is unique to them.

• Hormones – Mood swings are very common because of these hormone changes.
• Self Image – You will start feeling bad about yourself that you are fat and unattractive.  Instead you should feel proud of the signs of your fertility.
• Anxiety about the health of the baby – You will feel and worry about the health of your baby. Talking with other mothers will help.
• Concerns about Labor – It’s very normal for mother’s to worry about childbirth, the pain, if you will embarrass yourself are common.

Although you will have ups and downs in your emotional crises most will be perfectly manageable.  Just remember that all the emotions you feel are felt by most pregnant women.

Pregnancy Complications

As we have mentioned before how important it is to visit your doctor on a regular basis to make sure you are on top of any complications with your pregnancy.  There are tests done in the beginning stages and some screenings later in pregnancy to help prevent these problems.  It’s important to follow your doctor’s advice so you have a safe delivery and a health baby.

Here are a few complication that could occur:

• Gestational Diabetes
• Ectopic Pregnancy
• Hepatitis B
• Hyperemesis gravidarum (HG)
• HIV Infection
• Placenta Previa
• Urinary Tract Infection
• Toxoplasmosis
• Listeriosis
• Fetal Problems
• Premature or Pre-term Labor
• High – Blood Pressure
• Placental Abruption
• Post-partum Depression
• Mastitis

Nutrition Before Pregnancy

So you have decided to have a baby and you know that eating well and eating the right healthy foods will ensure the well being of your baby.  Now is the time to plan for the good health of your baby by eating nutritionally sound meals so your baby will have a good health environment to grow in. 

Since you have decided to start a family you should begin evaluating what you are eating to make sure you are getting enough nutrient stored in your body to carry your baby full term.  First thing to do to make sure you have the nutrients you need is to take  a prenatal supplement with the proper amount of folic acid.  Check with your doctor for recommendation of the amount  you should take.  Some of the benefits of Folic Acid are:

• Helps to prevent congenital disorder like spinal bifida
• Helps facilitate proper cell growth
• Helps proper development of the embryo
• Helps reduce risk of neural tube defects
• Helps reduce the risk of recurrent miscarriage
• Helps reduce the risk of preterm delivery and even low birth weight babies.

The importance of a balanced diet is a known part of good health in anyone’s life, but it’s even more important when you are pregnant.  Just remember that the only nutrients your baby gets is through you and what you eat.

Nutrition During Pregnancy

Now you are pregnant it’s essential for you to continue eating as good as you can through the nine months of your pregnancy.  One thing to realize and be careful of within the first three months is how hard it is to eat a balanced diet when you are having morning sickness and food aversions.  Eating junk food is not going to help your baby and give your baby the nutrients they need.

When you eat well during your pregnancy it helps your baby eat well after she/he is born.  Research has shown that what your baby is exposed to when developing like fruit and vegetables will be less fussy when they are growing up.

One of the most important nutrients that you and your baby needs is iron.  Not having enough iron could lead to anemia.  If you think that you are not getting enough iron check with your doctor about taking an iron supplement.

Finally, one of the best things you can do for your baby and yourself for that matter is eating right during your pregnancy.  Just look at the foods in your diet and make sure that they provide the nutrients you and your baby needs.

Nutrition After Pregnancy

Just as important as good nutrition before and during pregnancy is the importance of proper nutrition after the birth of your baby. It should be easy to continue your good eating habits by eating a good-quality diet just as you have been doing.  If you are not going to breastfeed you should eat just the way you were prior to getting pregnant.  If you are breastfeeding you need special nutritional management.

You will have a few problems after the birth of the baby as far as you are concerned like getting your iron back up to normal again, dealing with fatigue, maybe a little constipation here and there but just take a creative approach to your eating habits by choosing the right foods will help.  The secret to post-pregnancy nutrition is to gradually regain a desirable figure, while maintaining or restocking nutrient stores.

It is also important to first consult your physician before starting any physical activity program to start your healing process.  Ask your doctor about any precautions you need to take before you start getting your body back in shape again to prevent any injuries you could experience.

So you think that you have a pregnant cat?  You know it’s quite different for a cat than it is for a woman.  Where the full term pregnancy for a women is 9 months it’s about 60 to 69 days for a cat.  It also would depend on what breed of the cat because it’s different for different breeds.

You can figure the average length for a cat’s pregnancy is around 65 days.  It’s understood that you have a variation of about 4 days one way or the other.  You could say that the whole cat gestation period may be on the low end 61 days and on the high end 69 days.

As far as the cat pregnancy calendar and for a better understanding of how the calendar works you need to know what the date that your cat mated.  Lets look at an example.  Lets say your cat mated on February 2 which means the date of birth should be on April 8 (65 Days).

Remembering the 4 days one way or the other birth could be as early as April 4 or 4 days later than the average which would be April 12.  For your information the idea for the cat pregnancy calendar was taken from How To Take Care Of Your Pregnant Cat which is a very good source for information on your pregnant cat and also will give you a one year cat pregnancy calendar.  

One last thing, what do you do if you do not know the mating date of your cat’s pregnancy.  The best way to determine if and when your cat became or is pregnant go see your veterinarian.  Your vet can use a sonogram to detect a pregnancy as early as two weeks into gestation.  You vet can also feel the developing kittens through the abdominal wall by three weeks pregnant.  Around the fifth week your cat’s belly will start getting bigger.

The passageway in the human birth canal  is where the fluid passes during menstrual period and where the baby passes during birth.

The human birth canal is the passageway through which the fluid passes out of the body during menstrual periods and also where the baby passes during birth. 

There is no way to say exactly how long the vaginal canal is during pregnancy without understanding the way it works.  The average vagina canal could be anywhere between 3 to 7 inches deep depending on if the vagina canal is relaxed or aroused.

The average depth when relaxed is around 3 to 4 inches deep.  When aroused it could go as deep as 7 inches and in some cases more. 

When relaxed the vaginal walls are tighter bringing the back of the vagina and cervix closer to the opening.  The vagina also has the capacity to expand letting the baby pass through the canal during childbirth.  Just as it does during intercourse it accommodates the penis expanding the upper two thirds of the vagina to lengthen by forcing the cervix and uterus to ascend.

Because the birth canal will expand only so far, sometimes when you have a very large baby you could end up with a birth injury. A birth injury could occur when the baby passes through the birth canal.

The baby being to large or birth canal being too small could cause a birth injury.  You could have difficulty delivering your baby if the shoulders or to large and could cause the clavicle to break.