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

The Benefits OF Regular Exercise While Your Are Pregnant

Pregnancy exercise during pregnancy can help you stay in shape and prepare you for all the upcoming pregnancy stages.

When you find out that you are pregnant it seems like a perfect time to sit back and relax and not worry about what you are eating and how mush exercise that you are not getting.

In the old days pregnancy was treated as if it was an illness and you should rest for 9 months and not worry about exercise until your baby is born.   You need to be physically active during pregnancy.  Today we know that exercising before, during and after pregnancy along with good pregnancy nutrition has many benefits for the mom and the baby.

Most mothers do not realize that pregnancy exercise is so important, and is the key to a happy and healthy pregnancy and birth.  For those that have been following a regular exercise program prior to their pregnancy should be able to maintain a good exercise program throughout their pregnancy.

By continuing your current exercise program you will experience benefits from less fatigue and pain to feeling more emotionally stable during a difficult and emotion driven time in your life.  A guideline to go by calls for women to get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise during pregnancy per week and should be spread out over the week.

Exercise will also help mothers during labor, one of the most stressful times during the pregnancy.  Labor is known to progress faster, lowering the risk of medication and possible Caesarian section.  Many mothers will have a shorter, uncomplicated vaginal delivery due to the exercise that they are doing.

Regular physical exercise after pregnancy continues to benefit a woman’s overall health and increase her cardio respiratory fitness as well as helps women achieve and maintain a healthy weight.

Taking care of yourself and your baby while you are pregnant is important to avoid and pregnancy complications.  That is why doing pregnancy exercise is one of the most important steps that you can take for pregnancy wellness.  You will see just how easy it is to have a happy uncomplicated pregnancy and labor, simply by adding exercise.

Gestational Diabetes: What it Means for Me and My Baby

What is gestational diabetes?

Gestational diabetes is first recognized or develops during pregnancy. A women loses the ability to control the level of sugar in her blood automatically. This means that your blood glucose is too high.

What causes gestational diabetes?

In pregnancy, the placenta produces hormones to sustain your pregnancy. Theses hormones make your cells more resistant to insulin.  In the second and third trimesters pregnancy complications can occur when your placenta grows larger which secretes more of these hormones.  This makes it harder for insulin to do its job.  
Your pancreas responds by producing extra insulin to fight this resistance. Your pancreas sometimes can not keep up with the higher demand for insulin then the body falls behind in processing glucose and the result, gestational diabetes. 

What are the symptoms and signs of gestational diabetes?

Usually there are no symptoms for gestational diabetes so for good pregnancy wellness you need to be tested for the condition. It’s very important to be tested for gestational diabetes because high blood sugar can cause problems for you and your baby.

If a women has another type of diabetes without knowing it she could have symptoms, they may include:

• Increased thirst
• Increased urination
• Weight loss in spite of increased appetite
• Fatigue
• Nausea and vomiting
• Frequent infections including those of the bladder,  vagina, and skin
• Blurred vision

Beware that having these symptoms does not mean that a women has diabetes.  What you need to do is talk with your doctor and be tested for diabetes.

Will my baby have diabetes?

Babies are not born with diabetes when their mother had diabetes when pregnant.  The most common problem would be if the mothers diabetes was not controlled during pregnancy could cause low blood sugar in the newborn baby.  The baby will have to be watched closely to make sure the babies body adjusts the amount of insulin it makes.

How is gestational diabetes treated?

Gestational diabetes can be treated by controlling your blood sugar level.  You can control your blood sugar level by changing your diet and make sure you get the right pregnancy exercises .  You may need to check your gestational diabetes at home and make sure you see your doctor on a regular basic.  Just do not discard the importance of good pregnancy nutrition.

I have diabetes and want to get pregnant how do I prevent problems to myself and my baby? 

Here are some of the things to look at to prevent problems to the mother and her baby.

• Need to plan the pregnancy – It’s important for a women with diabetes to get her body ready before getting pregnant. 
• Eat Health Foods – A women with diabetes should eat the foods from a meal plan that was made for a women with diabetes.
• Exercise Regularly – A women should be on an exercise program prior to getting pregnant. Help keep blood sugar under control.
• Regular Visits To Your Doctor – Your doctor can recommend the things you need to do prior to getting pregnant.
• Take Required Medications – Very important to take your medications on time.
• Monitor Blood Sugar At Home Regularly – Checking blood sugar levels often can help a woman keep her blood sugar in control.

There are some preconception planning  you want to do prior to getting pregnant.  You want to give your baby the best start in life by getting yourself healthy before you get pregnant.

Before pregnancy and having a baby you want to consider some preconception planning, the things you need to do to prepare for all the pregnancy stages.

Some things like chart your menstrual cycle, reading your cervical mucus and pinpointing ovulation. Other things like learning about pregnancy test, how to use it, how accurate the tests are and when to test and even dealing with fertility problems if any.

Here are a few preconception tips for a healthy conception:

• Preconception care visit with your doctor.. you can’t have a healthy pregnancy if you are not healthy yourself.
• Start taking a prenatal vitamin with folic acid… think about what medications you should stop taking in the preconception stage.
• Get to your ideal body weight and keep it with a healthy diet… Eating healthy before you get pregnant will make a big difference in the health of your baby.
• Quite Smoking, quite alcohol and drugs…. do I need to even go here.  Do you know what these bad habits will do to your baby?
• Genetic History… getting a genetic screening may determine any genetic diseases.
• Minimize or eliminate exposure to toxins and infection… some toxins and infections may take awhile to get out of your system.
• Check your Immunizations… are you up to date on your shots.  You don’t want to get them while you are pregnancy because they could cause birth defects.
• Chart Your Cycles… it helps to keep up with what you need to do.
• Talk with your husband and get financially prepared.

As you can see preconception planning can go a long way.  You do not want to have to worry about these things after you are pregnant.

There are a lot of pregnancy signs and symptoms you want to know about as well. Pregnancy symptoms are different from woman to woman but understanding the signs and symptoms is important because the symptom you having could be related to something that is not pregnancy related.

Some of the symptoms to look far:

• Missed menstrual period.
• Morning sickness
• Fatigue
• Tender breasts
• Constipation
• Fainting
• Dizziness
• Weight Gain
• Swollen Feet/Ankles
• Frequent Urination
• Nausea
• Tired
• Vomiting
• Weakness
• Lightheadedness

Other things you will want to know about are the pregnancy types because there are many types of pregnancies and not all of them are normal and could cause some serious pregnancy complications.

You may want to consider cord blood banking .  The blood in your babies umbilical cord  is rich in stem cells which are used in the treatment of several life threatening diseases. Your baby may need them later.

Now that your head is spinning, you need to think about what you want to do after pregnancy ,like are you considering breastfeeding?

While nothing can guarantee a perfectly healthy pregnancy, following some simple advice can give both you and your baby the best chance possible just by some preconception planning.