Signs of labour vary across women. Because of this there is no simple precise way to determine the things you are going through are signs of labour. That said, there are common sensations that women will experience during the prelude to labour, and early labour. Below we consider these sensations and what you should do if you believe you are experiencing signs of labour. Signs of labour will be characterised by painful contractions that will occur more frequently than you regular contractions. They will be longer and sharper as well....
Pregnancy planning is an important part of becoming pregnant. Understanding what you can expect, and making the according adjustments to your lifestyle can soften the blow of the demands that will be hoist upon you when you are pregnant, and beyond when you are parenting. Putting some things into practice can give you peace of mind for when the baby arrives. The first thing you can do for pregnancy planning is chat to your doctor. For one they can tell you what kind of nutritional and lifestyle changes you can make to accomodate a healthy...
Miscarriages can arise either due to problems with the development of the baby at the embryonic stage or later. Sometimes they can arise due to genetic factors. Technically a miscarriage occurs where the baby is lost 20 weeks into the pregnancy. Whilst a miscarriage is a common experience for many women, with up to 20% of expecting women experience it in their lifetimes, it can cause significant grief. A miscarriage can come about due to a variety of factors. If you experience illness, or an infection of a high severity whilst you are...
How many weeks far along in your pregnancy do you think you are? It’s something you’ll wonder yourself, and get asked repeatedly by others. The web now has a plethora of pregnancy calculator applications that make that job pretty easy. Typically a pregnancy calculator will estimate where you are at based on your last menstrual cycle. Let’s rewind a little, can a pregnancy calculator assist you to determine whether you are pregnant in the first place? Again, based on your menstrual cycle, your current symptoms and experiences since...
Your basal metabolic rate, that is the energy that you burn through during the day goes up dramatically whilst you are pregnant. At the same time you will find that your body temperature i.e pregnant temperature increases markedly as you progress in your pregnancy. This puts you at a higher risk of both dehydration and hypothermia. Studies have established that developing fetuses can be affected by this heat as well, so its important you manage your pregnant temperature throughout all trimesters. This basically happens as heat causes...
Something like around one in four women will experience depression in their lifetimes. And though the post-natal aspect of depression gets a lot of air time, people rarely talk about the depression women can experience whilst they are pregnant. Statistically, more women experience antenatal depression (i.e. depression during pregnancy) than post-natal (after pregnancy). Antenatal depression can have psychological, as well as chemical origins. The abundance of stressful situations a woman faces when she is pregnant (fatigue, morning sickness,...
During pregnancy your body is flooded with various hormones such as progesterone as part of the process of conceiving and carrying a brand new human. This release of hormones unfortunately makes your gums more sensitive to dental plaque. Around two thirds of women will be struck by pregnancy gingivitis, an inflammation of the gums. Pregnancy gingivitis can be a problem, as it can lead to loss of bone around the tooth, tooth decay or even the loss of a tooth. For this reason, it’s important to brush thoroughly twice a day and floss...
When we mention your fertility here where talking about your ability to conceive a child from your partner’s sperm, and the fertility of your partners sperm. Obviously it takes two to tango, though there are now a number of solutions to fertility issues. Interestingly, a lot of people naturally assume they are still fertile at a given age whether because of their lifestyle, their health or other factors. Let’s consider what bearing certain things have on fertility. Just because you get adequate vitamins from your diet, have a good...
During pregnancy caffeine can pass to the baby via the placenta as with most of the things you ingest on a daily basis. For this reason there are limitations on the amount of coffee a pregnant woman should drink. This currently sits at around 300mg per day. But let’s consider it in a bit more depth. In pregnancy caffeine ingestion can result in your baby being ‘smaller’ for its age and increasing the gestational period of your pregnancy. Researchers found that 100mg of coffee could increase a woman’s gestational period by around...
Since its Friday, let’s keep it simple with some important pregnancy tips that are vital for you to know and understand when you conceive: Pregnancy Tips – Rule 1: Proper Nutrition The primary error expecting women make is taking in too many calories, under the belief that they are now ‘eating for two’. The fact is you are not eating for another fully grown adult human, but rather a developing child. A foetus developing in the womb only needs about an extra 300 calories per day. What you do need to ensure is that...