The Pregnancy and the Baby
Published by My Ebook Publishing House at Smashwords
Copyright 2011 My Ebook Publishing House
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
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Table of Contents
1 – THE STAGES OF LABOR
2 – TOP TEN SIGNS YOU MIGHT BE PREGNANT
3 – OVULATION
4 – BOY OR GIRL?
5 – WHAT SHOULD I EAT DURING PREGNANCY?
6 - EXERCISING DURING PREGNANCY
7 - PETS, PREGNANCY AND YOUR BABY
8 - PREGNANCY AND SMOKING
9 - PREGNANCY AND TRAVEL
10 - SEX DURING PREGNANCY
11 - TO EAT OR NOT TO EAT
12 - HOW TO HOLD YOUR BABY
13 - THE WELL BABY
14 - CALMING YOUR CRYING BABY
15 - BATHING YOUR NEWBORN
16 – BREASTFEEDING
17 - 12 REASONS BABIES CRY AND HOW TO SOOTHE THEM
18 – DIAPERS
19 - TEETHING
20 - BABY SLEEP SCHEDULES
Chapter 1 – The Stages of Labor
What stages will I go through during labor and birth?
The process of labor and birth is divided into three stages.
The first stage begins with the onset of contractions that cause progressive changes in your cervix and ends when your cervix is fully dilated. This stage is divided into two phases: early (or latent) and active labor.
During early labor, your cervix gradually effaces (thins out) and dilates (opens). That's followed by active labor, when your cervix begins to dilate more rapidly and contractions are longer, stronger, and closer together. People often refer to the last part of active labor as transition.
The second stage of labor begins once you're fully dilated and ends with the birth of your baby. This is sometimes referred to as the pushing stage.
The third and final stage begins right after the birth of your baby and ends with the separation and subsequent delivery of the placenta.
Every pregnancy is different, and there's wide variation in the length of labor. For first-time moms who are at least 37 weeks along, labor often takes between ten and 20 hours. For some women, though, it lasts much longer, while for others it's over much sooner. Labor generally progresses more quickly for women who've already given birth vaginally.
Inducing labor
What does it mean to induce labor?
If your labor doesn't start on its own, your practitioner can use medication and other techniques to bring on (or induce) contractions. She can use some of the same methods to augment, or speed up, your labor if it stops progressing for some reason. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than one in five births in the United States is induced.
Why would my labor be induced?
Your practitioner will recommend induction when the risks of waiting for labor to start on its own are higher than the risks of the procedures used to get your labor going. This may be the case when:
You're still pregnant one to two weeks past your due date. Most practitioners won't let you wait longer than that to give birth because it puts you and your baby at greater risk for a host of problems. For example, the placenta may become less effective at delivering nutrients to your baby, increasing the risk of a stillbirth or serious problems for your newborn.
In addition, if your baby gets too big, your labor is more likely to be prolonged or stalled, your chances of needing a c-section are higher, and both you and your baby have an increased risk...
What are some of the techniques used to induce labor?
This depends in large part on the condition of your cervix at the time. If your cervix hasn't started to soften, efface (thin out), or dilate (open up), it's considered "unripe," or not yet ready for labor.
In that case, your practitioner would use either hormones or "mechanical" methods to ripen your cervix before the induction. Sometimes these procedures end up jump-starting your labor as well.
What risks are associated with inducing labor?
While induction is generally safe, it does carry some risk, which may vary according to the methods used and your individual situation. Pitocin, prostaglandins, or nipple stimulation occasionally hyperstimulate the uterus, meaning that the contractions come too frequently or are abnormally long and strong. This in turn can stress your baby.
Are there any circumstances in which my labor shouldn't be induced?
Yes. You'll need to have a c-section rather than an induction whenever it would be unsafe to labor and deliver vaginally.
Back labor
What is back labor?
Back labor refers to the intense lower back pain that many women feel during contractions when they're giving birth. Some women even feel it between contractions.
This pain is usually attributed to the pressure your baby's head puts on your lower back, but other factors may be at work, too. One unproven but interesting theory is that the pain is "referred" to your lower back from your uterus.
That idea is supported by the fact that some women complain of low back pain when they have menstrual cramps - which clearly can't be blamed on a baby! One study found that women who had back pain during their periods were more likely to have back pain during labor.
Chapter 2 – Top Ten Signs You Might Be Pregnant
Could you be pregnant? Most likely you won't notice any symptoms until about the time you've missed a period - or a week or two later.
If you're not keeping track of your menstrual cycle or if it varies widely from one month to the next, you may not be sure when to expect your period. But if you start to experience some of the symptoms below - not all women get them all - and you haven't had a period for a while, you may very well be pregnant. Take a home pregnancy test to find out for sure!
10. Tender, swollen breasts
One of the early signs of pregnancy is sensitive, sore breasts caused by increasing levels of hormones. The soreness may feel like...
9. Fatigue
Feeling tired all of a sudden? No, make that exhausted. No one knows for sure what causes early pregnancy fatigue, but it's possible that rapidly increasing levels of the hormone progesterone are contributing to your sleepiness.
8. Implantation bleeding
Some women have a small amount of vaginal bleeding around 11 or 12 days after conception (close to the time you might notice a missed period). The bleeding may be caused by the fertilized egg burrowing into the blood-rich lining of your uterus.
7. Nausea or vomiting
If you're like most women, morning sickness won't hit until about a month after conception. (A lucky few escape it altogether.) But some women do start to feel queasy a bit earlier. And not just in the morning, either - pregnancy-related nausea and vomiting can be a problem morning, noon, or night.
6. Increased sensitivity to odors
If you're newly pregnant, it's not uncommon to feel repelled by the smell of a bologna sandwich or cup of coffee and for certain aromas to trigger your gag reflex. Though no one knows for sure, this may be a side effect of rapidly increasing amounts of estrogen in your system. You may also find that certain foods you used to enjoy are suddenly completely repulsive to you.
5. Abdominal bloating
Hormonal changes in early pregnancy may leave you feeling bloated, similar to the feeling some women have just before their period arrives. That's why your clothes may feel snugger than usual at the waistline, even early on when your uterus is still quite small.
4. Frequent urination
Shortly after you become pregnant, you may find yourself hurrying to the bathroom all the time. Why? Mostly because during pregnancy the amount of blood and other fluids in your body increases, which leads to extra fluid being processed by your kidneys and ending up in your bladder.
3. A missed period
If you're usually pretty regular and your period doesn't arrive on time, you'll probably take a pregnancy test long before you notice any of the above symptoms. But if you're not regular or you're not keeping track of your cycle, nausea and breast tenderness and...
2. Your basal body temperature stays high
If you've been charting your basal body temperature and you see that your temperature has stayed elevated for 18 days in a row, you're probably pregnant.
And finally...
1. The proof: A positive home pregnancy test
In spite of what you might read on the box, many home pregnancy tests are not sensitive enough to detect most pregnancies until about a week after a missed period. So if you decide to take one earlier than that and get a negative result, try again in a few days.
Chapter 3 – Ovulation
What is ovulation?
Ovulation is when an egg (and, occasionally, more than one egg) is released from the ovary, and it's the fertile time of your menstrual cycle. Each month, an egg matures inside your ovary. Once it reaches a certain size, the egg is released from the ovary and is swept into the fallopian tube toward the uterus. Which ovary releases the egg is fairly arbitrary. Ovulation does not necessarily rotate between ovaries each cycle.
How does ovulation determine when I can get pregnant?
To be fruitful and multiply, you must have sexual intercourse during the period spanning one to two days before ovulation to about 24 hours afterward. The reason: Sperm cells can live for two or three days, but an egg survives no more than 24 hours after ovulation - unless, of course, fertilization occurs.
How can I tell when I'm ovulating and most fertile?
Figure out when your next period is due to begin and count back 12 to 16 days. This will give you a range of days when you will probably be ovulating. For women with a 28-day cycle, the 14th day is often the day of ovulation. To use this method, you must know how long your cycle usually lasts.
The best way to determine your most fertile time, though, is to pay attention to your body and learn to spot the signs that ovulation is imminent.
How do ovulation predictor kits work?
Available at drugstores and grocery stores without a prescription, ovulation predictor kits detect the surge in luteinizing hormone (LH) in your urine just before ovulation. They're easier to use and often more accurate than the BBT method, and they can predict ovulation 12 to 36 hours in advance and help you maximize your chance of conception the very first month you use them.
But they're not foolproof. Rarely, they can measure LH (you get either a positive or a negative result, not a number), but can't indicate whether you ovulate after a positive response; LH can surge with or without the release of an egg. False LH surges can also take place before the real one.
Chapter 4 – Boy or Girl?
Old Wives Tales & Fun Ways to "Guess" Pink or Blue
There are no shortage of people out there telling you non-medical ways to find out the sex of your baby. Many of these ways are inaccurate old wives tales. They are fun to play with and most of them don't involve anything dangerous. Some of the more common ones involve wedding rings spinning or swaying, the size or shape of your pregnant belly and other questions about pregnancy cravings or bed positioning. Do watch out for some of the sketchy ones that include chemicals like Drano.
How can you find out if baby is a girl or boy?
The most commonly used method to find out the sex of your baby is ultrasound or sonogram. This method is most accurate between 18-22 weeks. It is normally done at the fetal anatomy survey done in the mid-second trimester.
At this point it is usually easier to tell the sex of the baby. Earlier dates are usually too difficult to tell and later dates become difficult because of crowding in the uterus.
What other ways can you find out the sex of the baby?
Other methods of sex prediction are more accurate but carry more risk to the pregnancy. These methods can usually be done slightly earlier but are usually only done if other factors are involved that require genetic testing.
The most commonly used methods are amniocentesis and chorionic villus sampling (CVS). These tests can be used earlier in pregnancy. They are also much more accurate than ultrasound, with results very close to 100%. Most practitioners will tell you 100%, but there have been lab errors. These are most often done in the first trimester or early second trimester.
Sex Preference for Baby
Let's face it, there are people who have very strong preferences for the sex of their baby. Sometimes it comes from really feeling a strong connection to raising a son or daughter. There are also families who have had a loss and feel that a specific sex would be better for their families. Family balancing is another reason that some families have a sex preference for one or more of the children.
Sex Selection Techniques: Choosing the Sex of Your Baby:
There are families who have such strong sex preferences that they choose to do sex selection. Using techniques like MicroSort, preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) and Haplotyping (PGH), Shettles and other methods of sex selection, they attempt to influence nature. Some techniques are very accurate while others are not as reliable.
Do you want to know if your baby is a boy or girl?:
About half of people surveyed say that they do want to know the sex of the baby they are carrying. Some people want to have a surprise. Sometimes they want to know but only in a second or subsequent pregnancy.
The most often stated reasons for finding out in pregnancy are planning reasons and why not know. Some people want to plan for a nursery for their baby or buy clothes for a specific sex of baby rather than wait until after the birth to find out the sex. It's a personal issue and one hotly debated.
Fun Ideas for Finding Out the Sex
If you decide to find out, you may want to find out the sex of your baby in a special way - something other than the ultrasound tech blurting it out. You can get some ideas below or feel free to share what you did when you found out.
Chapter 5 – What Should I Eat During Pregnancy?
Does a pregnant woman need to eat twice as much?
It has often been said that a pregnant woman should eat for two people, but this is not true.
What is true is that during pregnancy a woman has to provide good nutrition for two individuals. The growing baby gets all its nourishment from its mother through the umbilical cord, so diet is very important. If the mother is lacking in any vitamins and nutrients her baby might lack them too.
If a woman has had trouble keeping her weight up or down before the pregnancy, she should make a nutritional plan with the help of her doctor or midwife.
How much energy does a woman need during pregnancy?
• A woman who is not pregnant needs approximately 2100 calories per day.
• A pregnant woman needs approximately 2500 calories per day.
• A breastfeeding woman needs approximately 3000 calories per day.
• Calories are sometimes called Kilocalories or KCals.
What sort of food should pregnant women eat?
A well-balanced diet should contain something from all the food groups: dairy products, fruit, vegetables, fish, meat, eggs, fat and carbohydrates. A pregnant woman needs to eat something from all these food groups every day in order to get the proper amounts of energy.
• Approximately 10 per cent of calories should come from protein. Protein is mainly found in meat, fish, eggs, dairy products and beans.
• Approximately 35 per cent of calories should come from fat, which is mainly found in butter, oils, margarine, dairy products and nuts.
• Approximately 55 per cent of calories should come from carbohydrates, which are found in bread, pasta, potatoes, rice, corn and other grain products.
What other vitamins and minerals are essential during pregnancy?
Folic acid
During the first three months of pregnancy (and preferably before becoming pregnant) a woman needs folic acid. This is one of the B-group vitamins and is also known as vitamin B9. It is important during pregnancy for the creation of the baby's nervous system.
Folic acid can help prevent neural tube defects such as spina bifida and other congenital malformations such as cleft palate or cleft lip.
Good natural sources of folic acid are barley beans, fruit, green vegetables, orange juice, lentils, peas and rice. It is recommended that all pregnant women take a daily 400 microgram supplement of folic acid a day for two months before conception and three months into their pregnancy.
The dosage of the supplement should be larger – 5 mg per day - if a woman has previously given birth to a child with a neural tube defect, if she or her partner has spina bifida or a family history of neural tube defects, or if she has coeliac disease (or other malabsorption state), diabetes mellitus, sickle-cell anaemia, or is taking antiepileptic medicines. She should discuss this matter with her doctor.
Iron
During pregnancy, a woman's body needs more iron than usual to produce all the blood needed to supply nutrition to the placenta. Good sources of iron are green vegetables such as broccoli and spinach, strawberries, muesli and wholemeal bread.
Iron is more easily absorbed if it is taken in conjunction with vitamin C - either as a supplement or in citrus fruit or juice. Tea and coffee can interfere with the body's absorption of iron.
It is often recommended that all pregnant women take an iron supplement every day from the 20th week of pregnancy. This is not necessary if a woman has a good diet and routine blood tests show that she is not anaemic. Iron supplements may cause constipation.