For many people, women and men alike, caffeine is absolutely essential to their day.  Going without their usual cups of coffee or tea or soda throughout the day is out of the question.  However, for pregnant women, or women trying to conceive, caffeine may not be safe.  You should talk to your doctor about your caffeine consumption early in your pregnancy and determine if you need to make changes.

Caffeine is a stimulant and a diuretic.  As a stimulant it elevates your heart rate and your blood pressure, both of which can have a negative effect on your pregnancy.  Also, as a diuretic caffeine causes your to urinate more frequently, affects your bodies ability to absorb calcium and iron and decreases your bodies fluid levels which can lead to dehydration.  Several studies suggest a link between caffeine consumption and an increase risk of miscarriage and preterm births.  Although there is no hard and fast rule when it comes to caffeine consumption during pregnancy most doctors recommend that you stay away from caffeine if you can, and if you must consume some caffeine you should limit your intake to less than 200mg (or about 2 regular cups of coffee) per day.

Many people forget all the things that caffeine can be found in and think mostly about coffee when thinking about caffeine.  However, caffeine is found in all sorts of products including coffee, tea, hot chocolate, lots of sodas, chocolate, ice cream and some pain relievers like Excedrin.  So when you are trying to avoid caffeine be sure to remember it is in a lot more than you think.

If you are a big coffee drinker be sure to talk to your doctor about his or her recommendations regarding caffeine consumption during pregnancy.  When we are caring for this tiny life growing inside of us we want to do everything we can to give it the best start to life.  Sometimes we have to give up the things we love during pregnancy, but it is all worth it.

Globally, 13 million babies are born premature and approximately 3.2 million stillbirths occur.  Preterm birth accounts for approximately 1 million infant deaths yearly and is the leading cause of infant death worldwide.   Though preterm births and stillbirths are more common in low and middle income countries they are growing problems in higher income countries, like the United States.  In the US approximately 1 in 8 babies is born prematurely and the health care costs associated with preterm births accounts for more than $26 billion annually making it the 7th leading healthcare expense in this country.

The Global Alliance to Prevent Prematurity and Stillbirths (GAPPS) recently funded a study conducted by maternal and child healthcare experts from around the world that looked at the causes of both premature and stillbirths and the possible interventions that could be used to help combat preterm and stillbirths globally.  The study found that not enough is known, globally, about what causes most preterm and stillbirths and calls for action, particularly in the area of research.  The more people know the greater the chances of preventing both stillbirths and preterm births will be.

However, researchers lack access to quality tissue samples in order to conduct the research necessary to determine the most common causes of preterm and stillbirths and ultimately what measures can be taken to help prevent them.  As a result, GAPPS is partnering with hospitals, research labs, universities both here in the United States and around the world to establish a tissue repository.  The hope is collect a large cross sample of specimens from pregnant women and newborns from around the world so researchers have access to the date they need.

Infant death is a tragic and heartbreaking issue that we need to talk about, think about and address.   The more we know the better off our children will be.  I hope one day we know enough to prevent these tragedies from occurring so every pregnant woman will know the joy of holding her healthy infant in her arms and every baby gets the best start at life.

Taking good care of your teeth during pregnancy is very important.  The hormonal changes caused by pregnancy increase your risk of developing gum disease.  As your hormones change during your pregnancy your can lead to additional swelling and bleeding of your gums.  Gum disease has been linked to an increased risk of premature labor and birth.

It is, of course, always important to practice good oral hygiene, but, given the risk that gum disease poses to your pregnancy it is even more important during pregnancy.  Making sure you brush and floss regularly, visit your dentist for regularly scheduled cleanings and check ups and avoiding sugary snacks and carbonated sodas that can lead to tooth decay are all ways that you can maintain good oral health.

Many women are concerned about visiting the dentist during pregnancy.  Regular dental care, such as regular check ups and cleanings, cavity fillings, etc are all safe during pregnancy.  It is safest to get dental work done during your second trimester due to comfort levels for you, as well as decreasing any potential risk on the growing fetus.

During the first trimester many women experience the ugly pregnancy symptom know commonly as morning sickness.  This feeling of nausea and sometimes vomiting make you want to avoid brushing your teeth, especially since the taste of toothpaste can often trigger the nausea and vomiting.  However, it is important to still continue brushing your teeth regularly, especially after vomiting as the acid in vomit can lead to tooth decay.  There are bland tasting toothpastes on the market that may making the deed of brushing your teeth during the early months of pregnancy that much easier.

Good oral hygiene and regular dental check ups during pregnancy are vital, however, there are a few things you should avoid during pregnancy.  They include: routine oral x-rays (unless necessary to deal with a dental emergency), dental procedures like fillings should be avoided during the first trimester and later half of the third trimester, although oral anesthesia is safe you should avoid high doses of the anesthesia so be sure to talk to your doctor and your dentist before having any dental treatments done that require anesthesia.

So, the bottom line is, brush, floss, check in with your dentist on your regular schedule and take care of those teeth.

If you are concerned about whether something is safe or not be sure to discuss it with your doctor and your dentist before proceeding.

In any given menstrual cycle a woman has a 20% (1 in 5) chance of sperm meeting egg, egg becoming fertilized and implanting and of getting pregnant.  Not really great odds when you think about it, right?  Right.  But, you can make those odds work in your favor if you pay attention to your timing, pay attention to your body.

For the “average” woman a regular menstrual cycle is about 28 days.  Some women will have shorter or longer cycles which is why it is important to pay attention and to know our body.  During a regular 28 day cycle you can expect to ovulate on or about the 14th day of your cycle, however ovulation can occur as early as day 11 or as late as day 21.  This is where timing and paying attention to your body can make a huge difference in how long it takes you to get pregnant once you start trying.

In order to get pregnant the sperm must meet the egg, right?  And in order for that to happen you have to know when you are ovulating.  So, here is where it is all about the timing.  Your chances of becoming pregnant are greatest if you and your parent have sex in the few days leading up to ovulation and for a window of about 24 hours after you ovulate.  Many obstetricians and fertility specialists will recommend that a couple of sexual intercourse every other day while they are trying to get pregnant, this increases the odds that there will be healthy, vibrant sperm present when you ovulate.

So, how do you know when you are going to ovulate.  There are several things you can do to determine when in you are ovulating.  They including:

• Tracking your basal body temperature. When ovulation has occurred your basal body temperature will rise.  You will need to do this for a few months in order to determine when you typically ovulate during your cycle.  Remember, once you have ovulate you have a window of about 24 hours before you lose your chance of becoming pregnant that month.
• Checking your cervical mucus.  This involves testing the consistency of the mucus around your cervix.  As you approach ovulation the consistency of your cervical mucus will change making it a more welcoming environment for sperm.   When you are most fertile (just about to ovulate) your cervical mucus will be of an egg white consistency.
• Using an ovulation prediction kit.  These can be purchased at any pharmacy in the same aisle as home pregnancy kits.  These kits test the LH or luteinizing hormone in our urine.  The LH levels will go up the day before you ovulate.  These tests can be a bit expensive so you may want to try the other options first before trying out the ovulation prediction kits.

85% of healthy, fertile couples will successfully become pregnant within 1 year of trying to conceive.  It is all about your timing and knowing your body.  If you know when you are going to ovulate you can plan to have sex around that time to help increase your odds.  Timing is everything.

If you have not become pregnant after 1 year (after 6 months if you are over 35) of trying talk to your doctor so they can work with you and determine if there may be some underlying fertility issue.

The world of mommy bloggers is full of heartwarming, heart wrenching and heart breaking stories.  Reading through the blogs of my fellow members of this amazing community to which I belong I often find myself laughing and crying for people I don’t even really know.  I find myself smiling at the faces of adorable children whom I’ll probably never meet.  I find myself learning new things every day from these amazing fellow bloggers.  Occasionally I stumble upon a story that just simply breaks my heart.  That is what happened a few weeks ago when I first heard about Cora from a friend on Twitter.  I read Cora’s story and cried for this tiny little person who was taken from this world and the arms of her parents far too soon.  I cried for her parents as they suffered through this unimaginable loss.  All I wanted to do was wrap my arms around Cora’s mom and cry with her.

Cora died at 5 days old from Congential Heart Disease (CHD) in the arms of her mom while she was breastfeeding.  Her parents brought her home from the hospital thinking she was in perfect health.  The doctors and nurses told them she was in perfect health and there was no indication that anything was wrong with her.  Congential Heart Disease is a type of heart defect that affects approximate 1 in 100 babies.  Cora’s parents didn’t know she had CHD.  It wasn’t detected during the routine ultrasounds during her pregnancy and since she appeared to be in perfect health there was no reason for additional testing after her birth.  There is one test that could have been done that may have saved Cora’s life and that is a pulse oximetry test.  A pulse oximetry test is a non-invasive screening test that measures the oxygen saturation in the blood stream.  Pulse oximetry tests on newborns are not standard procedure at most hospitals and so one was not done on Cora.  One simple test.

During CHD awareness week Cora’s mom is encouraging everyone to become educated on congenital heart disease, spread the word about pulse oximetry tests so that more infants are tested before leaving the hospital and to spread the word about her precious little Cora.  So let’s help Cora’s mom in her crusade to save the lives of babies.  Visit The Children’s Heart Foundation and find out more about this silent killer and what you can do to help ensure that no baby goes home before being tested for CHD.

Kristine, you are a true inspiration and I’m happy to do what I can to spread the word on Cora’s story and help you in your fight to save the lives of babies born with CHD.

Although I see the point the parents are making about the privacy concerns, I think the benefits of this program far outweigh the risks, especially since the there is no identifying information attached to the samples once it is banked.  Newborn screening tests are vital for identifying potentially life threatening illnesses and conditions.  Through these screening tests doctors are able to identify illnesses and treat them right away in order to save a life, when before these screening tests were routinely done the child would likely have died.  My fear, and the fear of many, is that this current uproar will result in parents opting out of getting the screenings done all together and will result in too many babies leaving the hospital with potentially life threatening illnesses and conditions.  Also, the additional research done on the left over samples is essential to developing new screening tests, learn more about the illnesses and conditions we currently screen for and identify new conditions and illnesses that need to be added to the screening.  Our babies lives depend on this research.

I think what states, doctors and researchers need to do is to educate the public on the importance of these screening tests and the importance of the additional research being done on the left over samples.  Probably every state will need to develop a consent form and give parents the option to opt-out of the program as some parents just won’t be comfortable knowing their child’s left over blood sample is being used. However, I think most parents, if comfortable in the knowledge that their child’s information is stripped from the sample before it leaves the hospital, will opt-in to the banking program and researchers will be able to continue the research that allows for groundbreaking, life saving discoveries.

What are your thoughts on this topic?  Do you think it okay to use the left over samples for research?  Do you think there should be a consent form developed?   Would you opt in or out if given the choice?

The goal of the campaign is to reach as many expectant mothers as possible and to use these periodic “healthy pregnancy” text messages to keep women informed about the things they should and shouldn’t be doing during pregnancy in order to help keep themselves and their babies healthy.  The hope is that through these text messages women will be encouraged to eat healthier, exercises more and seek proper prenatal care, as well as provide encouragement and support to quit bad habits like smoking and drinking during pregnancy.  A woman who has a healthy pregnancy and partakes in a healthy lifestyle during her pregnancy is much less likely to give birth prematurely and is more likely to have a healthy baby.

In the United States over half a million babies are born prematurely every year and every year almost 30, 000 babies die before their first birthday.  Sadly, the United States ranks 30th worldwide in infant mortality, falling behind many other developed nations.  The hope is that programs like Text4Baby will help women, especially low income women and those without health insurance, get the information they need to keep themselves and their babies healthy during pregnancy which will hopefully translate into fewer premature births and a fewer infant deaths.

The program is completely free to sign up for, and as stated above most cell phone carriers are waiving the fees associated with receiving these text messages.  Visit Text4Baby.org to learn more about the program and sign up.

So, is it proper etiquette to have a baby shower for a second or subsequent baby?  Do second babies deserve a baby shower or is this a right reserved only for the first born?

There seems to be two schools of thought on this subject.  There are those who are old school and think that a baby shower’s sole purpose is to provide the expectant mother with the necessities of baby raising and argue that it is poor etiquette to have a shower for a second or subsequent baby.  And, then there are those who believe a baby shower is less about gifts and more about celebrating the pregnancy and the baby about to be born.   Depending on which camp you find yourself in will depend on how you feel when you receive an invite in the mail for a “second baby” baby shower.

I am a proud member of the second group.  A baby shower, to me, is a chance to get together with friends and family to celebrate the impending arrival of a new baby. I actually think that shopping for gifts to bring to baby showers for second and subsequent babies are even more fun to buy because you can pretty much buy anything, you don’t have to focus on those “necessity” items.  And, it seems a lot of people agree with me.  A recent poll on babycenter.com asked mothers if they thought it was appropriate to have a shower for a second or subsequent baby, and three quarters of moms agreed that it was fine.  Etiquette experts agree as well.  Having a shower for a second or subsequent baby is perfectly acceptable.

So, what are you thoughts?  Which side do you fall on in this debate?

You wake in the middle of the night with incredible cramping pain in your legs.  Ugh, leg cramps.

Pregnant women are very susceptible to leg cramps, particularly during their second and third trimesters.  Leg cramps are a sudden tighten of the muscles that can cause intense pain.  When you are awoken in the middle of the night by this intense pain it can quickly make leg cramps one of the most aggravating complaints during pregnancy.  There are several things that cause leg cramps including:

• A lack of fluids
• Staying in the same position for too long
• Blood not circulating properly in the area
• An injury to the muscle, such as a muscle strain

Doctors are unsure what the exact cause of increased leg cramps during pregnancy, however, it is thought to be caused by a combination of the following:

• Changes in blood circulation during pregnancy
• Additional stress on the leg muscles from carrying the extra weight caused by the pregnancy
• The pressure of the growing baby and uterus on the nerves and blood vessels leading to the legs

Whatever the exact cause of leg cramps in pregnancy there are several things you can do in order to help prevent leg cramps and alleviate those that do occur.

To help prevent leg cramps pregnant women are encouraged to:

• Stretch.  Including stretching before, during and after exercising, stretching before bed or if you have been sitting in one position for long periods of time.  When stretching your legs you should avoid pointing your toes and stretch heal first.
• Exercise. Keeping your muscles moving and in shape helps with the blood circulation.  Always be sure to consult your doctor and get the okay before exercising during pregnancy.
• Change position frequently.  Don’t sit or stand still for too long.  Staying in the same position, be it sitting or standing, increases the likelihood of leg cramps.  Every so often get up and move around, stretch, take a little walk.
• Stay hydrated.    When your body is lacking fluids your muscles are more likely to cramp.  Be sure to drink plenty of fluids throughout the day.

If leg cramps do occur there are a few things you can do to help alleviate the cramp, including; massaging the affected muscle, stretching the muscle by pushing your heal down (do not point your toes as this causes further cramping), and applying heat to the affected muscle.

Leg cramps are no fun, but when added to all the other common complaints of pregnancy they become that much more annoying.  I was lucky enough to avoid leg cramps during my pregnancy (I count my lucky stars).  During my pregnancy I tried to exercise everyday and stretched my muscles often and I also drank plenty of fluids.  Taking care of yourself during your pregnancy is a great way to avoid many of the common complaints of pregnancy, including leg cramps.

If you suffer from leg cramps and they are being too bothersome or affecting your sleep too much be sure to talk to your doctor to see if there is anything you can do to alleviate your leg cramps.

Did you suffer from leg cramps during your pregnancy?  What helped you alleviate your leg cramps?

The conversation with your doctor will likely take place fairly early in your pregnancy. Your doctor will likely just simply provide you with your options and then advising on their recommendations on whether the test would be beneficial to you or not.  The actual decision on whether the testing is done is completely up to you.  Many things need to go into your decision including what you would do with the information.  For example, if you know that under no circumstances would you terminate the pregnancy than you may opt out of the screenings, or if you are one who feels better being prepared for what may be to come you may want to having the screening done so if you happen to get a positive on the screenings you can prepare for a special needs child.  Take the information your doctor provides you, ask lots of questions and discuss your choices with your partner.  There is no right or wrong decision, you have to do what is right for you.

There are a few different types of screening tests, some during your early pregnancy and some later in pregnancy.

During your first trimester your doctor may recommend an early ultrasound and some blood work.  Both these are used to determine if your baby is at and increased risk of having Down Syndrome or Trisomy 18 (another chromosomal defect).

Later in your pregnancy, during your second trimester, your doctor may recommend a triple or quad screening.  These are blood tests that look for three or four substances in your blood.  The measurements of these substances in your blood are then used to determine your baby’s risk of having Down syndrome, trisomy 18 and neural tube defects such as spina bifida.    Second trimester ultrasounds are also used as screening tools to determine the health of the baby and any risk of health issues or birth defects.

The results from the above screenings are not 100% and are often used to determine if further testing, such as an amniocentesis, should be done.  Your doctor will discuss the results of your screenings in detail with you and what your options are.  Be sure to talk to your doctor if you are unsure about what screenings you should have done or if you are unsure of what the screenings are for.