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I don’t know if you’ve noticed but there seems to have been a bit of a baby boom going on in Hollywood over the last few years. Every time you turn around another beautiful and fashionable celebrity is announcing that they are expecting. What does this have to do with us regular folks? Well, a lot when it comes to what we wear during our own pregnancies. Suddenly maternity wear has become maternity fashion. Maternity clothing has become cool, fashionable, and dare I saw even a little sexy.
Gone are the days of hiding your growing belly behind a tent like shirt complete with “cute” patterns and little bows. It used to be that our options were very limited when it came to maternity wear. Apparently designers of maternity wear seemed to think that a woman lost all sense of style and desire to look pretty as soon as her belly out grew her regular clothing. Fortunately today things are very different.
Thanks to the influence of celebrity moms and a demand by the rest of us for our maternity wear to be fashionable and pretty. Designers have created maternity fashion that is just that, fashion. Today you can find maternity wear that is comfortable, beautiful, and trendy.
There are now so many options when it comes to maternity clothing. You can still, of course, find maternity clothing at department stores like JCPenney, and Target. But it doesn’t stop there. Retailers like The Gap and Old Navy now offer a maternity clothing line along with retailers like Mimi Maternity and Motherhood Maternity who carry maternity wear exclusively. The options are endless.
I am comforted in knowing I can still wear my beloved khakis and perfect T’s, care of the Gap, when I’m pregnant.
Each of us is different, just as each of our pregnancies will be different. Our outlook on how the pregnancy will be, what sort of control we want to have over our pregnancy and childbirth experience, and what degree of input we want from our prenatal caregiver will all influence the choice we make on who will be the best fit to provide prenatal care.
Before deciding on the exact caregiver that you want to work with you have to decide on what type of caregiver meets your needs. The decision might not be available if you are experiencing a high-risk pregnancy (you will likely have to receive care from an OB/GYN), but if your pregnancy is low risk then you certainly have some options.
There are basically three types of prenatal caregivers available to offer pregnancy and childbirth care. They are the traditional obstetrician, a family practitioner, or a certified nurse-midwife. Each caregiver brings something different to the table and depending on what you are looking for in prenatal care will influence your decision. Here is a brief over view of what each caregiver can provide.
Obstetrician: an OB/GYN is the most traditional and commonly used prenatal caregiver, according to “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” 80% of pregnant women use an OB/GYN for their prenatal, delivery, and post-partum care. An OB/GYN is a medical doctor who has gone through special training in obstetrical care. They can handle all aspects of your prenatal care, the delivery of the baby, and your post-partum care. If you are looking for a highly specialized caregiver, who can handle anything that may come up then an obstetrician is probably right for you.
Family Practitioner: I have to admit that I didn’t know your run of the mill family practitioner could offer pregnancy care…you learn something new everyday. A family practitioner is like a general practitioner, however, they specialize if being able to offer medical services to the whole family. They can render general health care, women’s reproductive care, and pediatric care. If you are looking for doctor that already knows you, and will get to know all aspects of your family then a family practitioner may be right for you. If you pregnancy becomes high risk they may need to refer you to an OB/GYN for care.
Midwife: Midwives offer a more holistic approach to treating pregnancy. They will provide more intimate care and likely spend more time talking to you about your concerns than a medical doctor. They offer the benefit of being more in control of your own pregnancy, and a variety of delivery options that may not be available with a traditional OB/GYN, for example the opportunity to deliver at home if you chose. A midwife is only for low risk pregnancies though, if your pregnancy is high risk you will want to find another type of caregiver. A midwife is ideal for those women looking for a caregiver that will give them the most control over their pregnancies and the most options when it comes to delivery.
Each caregiver provides their own unique approach to prenatal care. Once you have an idea of what type of caregiver you think will be right for you begin interviewing caregivers in order to find a personality match that is right for you. If you are not sure which type of caregiver will work best for you it might be a good idea to consult providers in each field before you make your decision. You are going to be spending a lot of time with which ever prenatal caregiver you choose so it is important to have a good rapport with them and to feel comfortable with their pregnancy care philosophy.
Here some good resources you can utilize to narrow down your search for a provider, or to get more information on the provider you have chosen.
Also, think about obtaining referrals from friends and family members who have recently had a baby. They can be great resources and can give some personal insight into the type of care they received.
Of course you may be limited on your options based on what types of caregivers are covered by your health insurance. It is always a good idea to call your health insurance carrier to get the low down on what types of providers they will cover for prenatal care, what types of locations they will cover for the delivery, and to get a list of providers that are within your network. Not all health insurance carriers will cover mid-wife administered care, and others will only cover the delivery if it takes place in a traditional hospital. It is always best to educate yourself ahead of time to avoid being surprised later when a huge bill arrives in the mail.
The prospect of adding a new little one to your family probably has you filled with excitement and anticipation just as it did the first time around. However, for your child the idea can be pretty foreign and scary, particularly if they are becoming a big brother or sister for the first time. Each child’s reaction is going to be different, but it is important to help your child understand what is happening and what they can expect, even if they appear not to be fazed by the new addition to the family.
For a child the idea of welcoming a new brother or sister for the first time can be a little upsetting. They have nothing to gauge this event against. They need their parents to help them understand what to expect, what changes will take place, and what impact this will have on their little world. Here are a few things you can do to help your child get a better understanding of what is happening:
- Discuss what changes will take place during the pregnancy. You can explain the changes they will see in your body and why they are happening. It will be important to tailor the discussion to fit your child’s age and level of understanding.
- Help them understand that there is a baby growing inside of you, and what changes the baby is going through at various stages of the pregnancy. There are several books out there that can help you with this discussion, many tailored to specific age groups. Your pediatrician may also be able to provide you with some tools as well.
- Discuss with your child what changes they can expect once the baby arrives. For example, that the baby may cry a lot and why babies cry.
- If you will be breastfeeding you should talk to your child about what breastfeeding is and what they will see. If you have any pictures of you breastfeeding them when they were a baby the pictures may help them better understand.
- Many hospitals and birthing centers now offer sibling classes. These classes are designed to help kids understand what to expect and to teach them about baby care. They will learn things like how to change a diaper, how to hold a baby, and what being a big brother or sister is all about. Your pediatrician or prenatal caregiver should be able to give you information on the classes available in your area.
A great resource for information and books on how to talk to your child about becoming a big brother or sister is your local library. You can also talk with your child’s pediatrician about how to broach the subject, when to start talking to them about the pregnancy, and what resources are available in your community.
Each child will have a different reaction to the idea of a new baby joining their little family. The more your child knows about what to expect the better equipped they will be to handle the changes they will encounter.
It is a worry of most expectant parents, “will my baby be born premature?”. We try to do everything we can to prevent it from happening, but more and more babies are being born preterm. According to a new study released by The Institute of Medicine one in every eight babies born in the United States if premature. That works out to an astounding 500,000 premature babies every year. What may be an even more astounding number are the health care costs associated with preterm babies, a whopping $26 billion a year.
Unfortunately, these numbers are not likely to improve any time soon. What causes a baby to arrive preterm remains mostly a mystery to the medical community. Little is known about what women and their caregivers can do to prevent a preterm birth and there is no way for the medical community to predict which women are likely to deliver a premature baby.
A full term birth occurs when the baby is delivered between the 38th and 42nd weeks of pregnancy. A baby is considered premature if it is delivered before the end of the 37th week of pregnancy, with those born before the 32nd week being at the greatest risk. Although little is known about what is causing the increase in preterm births there are a few known risk factors that expectant parents should be aware of, they include:
- Women who have had a previous premature birth are at risk of having a second.
- Women expecting multiples are at an increased risk.
- Your ethnicity can impact your risk of a preterm birth. 17.8% babies born to African-American women are premature compared with 11.5% for white women and 11.9% for Hispanic women.
- Certain types of fertility treatments can also increase your risk including babies conceived through in-vitro fertilization.
- Your age is also a factor with women under the age of 16 or over the age of 35 being at an increased risk of delivering preterm.
- Your economic status can also having a bearing with poor women being at an increased risk, thought to be because of a lack of prenatal care.
- Other risk factors include, diet, exercise, stress during pregnancy, consumption of alcohol, and smoking
The study released by the Institute of Medicine makes a call for more research into the causes of premature births and what can be done to prevent more preterm births. They also make a couple of recommendation that should impact the occurrence of preterm births.
- Doctors should conduct more first-trimester ultrasounds to more accurately age the fetus. It is thought this would help prevent a woman from being induced or given a caesarean section before the pregnancy is full term.
- Strengthening of the guidelines that reduce the number of multiple births as a result of infertility treatment, since multiples significantly increase a women’s risk of delivering preterm.
Premature birth can have a big impact on the child and the family. Prevention is the best solution, anything that can be done to decrease the instances of preterm births and give women more information regarding what they can do to prevent their own pregnancy from ending preterm will be a wonderful thing.
For more information regarding premature birth visit the March of Dimes.
Morning sickness is probably one of the most commonly known symptoms of early pregnancy. The minute a woman of child bearing age complains of feeling “sick to the stomach” someone has to immediately ask “are you pregnant?”. Upset stomachs and pregnancy seem to go hand in hand.
Those feelings of nausea that tend to happen most often in the morning, hence the name of the ailment, combined with food aversions is enough to send any newly pregnant woman over the edge. Morning sickness is a common ailment during the first trimester of pregnancy. It is often that “ill” feeling a woman has that leads her to think she might be expecting. The cause of morning sickness is, you guessed it, hormones. Like everything else with pregnancy, the change in hormones in your body causing the food aversions and nausea of morning sickness. For many women the nausea will be focused to the early morning when you have nothing in your stomach yet, for others who aren’t quite so lucky it will stick around all day long. Morning sickness is typically a first trimester symptom but some women do experience it throughout their entire pregnancy, or have a brief period without it during the second trimester only to have it come back in the third trimester.
Every woman’s experience with morning sickness will be different. Some women are lucky enough not to experience it at all. For the rest of us the symptoms will range from nausea without vomiting, to nausea with vomiting, to food aversions. What triggers morning sickness for you will be different from what triggers it for someone else. You may find that the smell of coffee brewing makes you bolt for the bathroom, but you can eat anything you want. Someone else may find that they can’t seem to keep any thing down.
Here are some pointers for keeping morning sickness at least a little manageable
- If you find the nausea is worst in the very early morning when you get out of bed you may want to try to get something in your stomach before you get up. Try keeping some crackers next to your bed and have a couple before you get up and start moving.
- If you find that certain smells tend to trigger your feelings of nausea try to avoid them, if you can. For example, if you can’t stand the smell of brewing coffee, ask your husband to wait until he gets to work to have his first cup of coffee, and steer clear of the coffee makers in your office.
- If you identify certain foods that seem to be a trigger for you, again try to avoid them. For example, if that turkey sandwich you have for lunch everyday seems to have you heading for the nearest toilet you may want to make a different choice for lunch.
- If you find that you can’t stand any smells, or keep anything down, do your best to steer clear of those things that are the worst culprits, and remember you need to eat something, so do what you can to eat nutrition rich foods whenever you can.
I can’t say enough that every woman is going to be different. You will find what works for you and what doesn’t. You will learn to adapt your day, your food intake, and avoid whatever it is that makes things worse for you. Just keep in mind as you struggle through this difficult, early symptom that it will eventually go away.
As with anything related to your pregnancy, consult with your caregiver for advice on things you can do to help in your particular situation. If you are concerned about your symptoms, or worried that you are not keeping down enough nutrition to sustain the health of your growing baby be sure to consult with your prenatal caregiver so they can evaluate you.
(source mother of all pregnancy books)
(source What to Expect When You’re Expecting)