Pregnancy and Birthing

Apurva Shree asked:


The first week sign of pregnancy ticks the alarm that you have started blooming a new life inside you. The pregnancy symptoms are not so visible in the first week of pregnancy. Both your physical and mental health undergoes certain changes after you become pregnant. Make a note of all these changes that start surfacing as early pregnancy symptoms within a couple days from conceiving. Onset of these symptoms at the first week of pregnancy marks implantation of fetus in the uterus and gradual development of it in your body. Drastic hormonal changes take place during this phase to support growth of the baby and the symptoms are just your body’s reaction to these changes. Hence, take care of your body and monitor each first week sign of pregnancy and add to your pregnancy journal to create a week by week pregnancy calendar till the end of nine months course of pregnancy. Pregnancy journals or calendars help women to observe if they are making healthy progress towards childbirth.

How To Determine First Week Of Pregnancy

Now many women wonder how to calculate their pregnancy. Which is the first day of their nine months course of pregnancy? Usually, the first day of the last menstrual period commences the nine months duration of pregnancy. That means the day on which the last normal menstrual period ends is the day when you have become pregnant.

Usually, the ovulation is a thirty-day period and during this time, egg from ovary travels gets into fallopian tube where it is fertilized by a sperm and then descends to uterus for getting developed. The period when the fertilized egg gets into the inner lining of the uterus is considered the first week of pregnancy. Implantation of the fertilized egg at the inner lining of the uterus can be perceivable by slight bleeding and other symptoms. Take care to notice each first week sign of pregnancy for the right calculation of the pregnancy period and to be prepared for the childbirth, gradually.

First Week Pregnancy Symptoms

Following are the most probable changes pregnant women are supposed to undergo at the first week of pregnancy –

When you are suddenly experiencing a degree of enhanced exhaustion even If you are a full-fledged healthy, active workingwoman, you should take it seriously. Women many tend to feel a heightened level of exhaustion and may even faint due to low blood pressure.

Feeling nausea in the morning or throughout the day is a prevalent first week sign of pregnancy. Often your stomach may prone to feel queasy and feel aversion to foods.

Frequent urination is another first week sign of pregnancy. If you are expecting pregnancy, you may rush to bathroom more frequently than ever. Enlarging of your uterus to accommodate growth of the fetus inside it pushes your bladder and cause frequent urination.

Implantation bleeding is a significant first week sign of pregnancy. Because this bleeding results from implanting of egg in the uterus, it is termed as implantation bleeding. This light bleeding may accompany slight abdominal cramping.

Your breasts will show significant changes such as varicose veins, getting larger, more tender, sore and sensitive.

You will undergo dramatic mood swings and depression, anxiety, sudden onset of joy etc. This drastic transition of mood is an outcome of hormonal changes.

Gas is an embarrassing first week sign of pregnancy. However, you can reduce such discomforts by enriching your meals with adequate fibers and cutting down on spices. Constipation can accompany this gas symptom of pregnancy.

To reduce discomforts of first week sign of pregnancy, consume proper diet containing vitamin, mineral and folic acid as per charted by your doctor.



Jayden

GlitterSno75 asked:


I gave birth in August and just yesterday I took a home pregnancy test and it came back positive. Is it picking up my last pregnancy?

Jeffrey

Junie asked:


I’m talking about the occasional case of a young woman who somehow ignores a pregnancy until a baby suddenly arrives. This often ends in tragedy when the girl panics and abandons the child. What influences could lead to this behavior?

1) On a small scale - what sort of family dynamics might she have, what sort of personality, etc. What might pre-dispose a young woman to ignoring a pregnancy?

2) On a larger scale, is our society somehow leading to this problem? Is there such shame involved with teen pregnancy? Is it a lack of resources for mothers? Is it an emphasis on career over motherhood? Or, could it be an emphasis on avoiding abortion? Any and all ideas are welcome.
A pregnancy is often not seen as a blessing, even for women with adequate resources. Even a surprise pregnancy in a 25 year old with a job is greeted with “oh no!” by friends and family. That’s what I mean by “an emphasis on career over motherhood”.

Taryn

Jasmine Stone asked:


Morning sickness can be one of your first signs that you are pregnant. This doesn’t always mean that you’ll get sick only in the morning. This can happen, morning, noon or night. It will normally occur in the first trimester or your pregnancy and end by the second, this isn’t the case in all pregnancies though. Some women will continue with it until the very end of term.

Nausea can happen immediately or you may get lucky and have no morning sickness at all. No one is for certain what causes morning sickness, it is a change in the body that happens during pregnancy. Many women seem to get sick after taking the prenatal pill, try taking it later in the day. Your doctor may even advise you to take some other form of vitamin instead of the pill. Always find out first with your doctor before taking anything new or taking yourself off medication, even prenatal pills.

There are a few ways to minimize the sickness, but they don’t work for everyone. Try keeping crackers on hand, I prefer saltines for some reason. Try drinking some ginger ale, it calms the stomach down. Dry cereal is another good thing to eat, your stomach may just be a little bit hungry and trying to tell you. Remember to take small portions, this way you know if it is all going to come up or not. Sleeping is another good way to avoid it, however it will wake you up. Keep yourself hydrated, not only can this make your sickness come but you can become dehydrated and need to go to the emergency room if you aren’t careful.

Smells is another thing that seems to cause morning sickness. Imagine walking into a restaurant and the first thing you smell is grease. Yes, this can easily set it off. Bad smells and even certain tastes, get the feel for your body during the pregnancy and figure out just what sets it off. Knowing how to avoid it, can make a world of difference.

A few reasons you should go to your doctor would be if you begin losing weight because you are constantly sick. If you become dehydrated, faint, look pale, confused or throw up more than four times in a day. Your doctor may be able to prescribe something that will stop it.

Try slowing down a bit, sometimes your body is just exhausted from all the errands you are running and it tries to give you a break. Listen to your body, take a nap, relax and watch a television show…take some time off. If you are looking for remedies for your morning sickness, you may try buying some pregnancy pops. Or if you’d prefer to stay away from the sweets you can wear a bracelet designed to stop morning sickness, they are just like the motion sickness bracelets. They don’t work for everyone but they could work for you.



Dean

Jasmine Stone asked:


Are you a woman who has just recently had a baby? If you are, congratulations! The birth of a new child is a fun, adventurous, and memorable experience. Although work may be the farthest thing from your mind right now, it is something that you may want to take the time to think about. After having a baby, a large number of women wonder whether or not they should return to work.

When it comes to determining if you should return to work after having a baby, there are a number of important factors that you will want to take into consideration. For many women, money is an issue. How is your current financial situation? Before your baby was born, were you relying on one or two incomes? This simple question may play an important role in your decision. Many women are able to stay at home with their children if they have another source of income, like a regular paycheck from their spouse or live in partner.

Although money may be an issue for you, when determining if you should return to work after the birth of your child, it is also important to examine the money that you may save. As a parent, you likely wouldn’t send your child to just any daycare center. Unfortunately, daycare providers that come highly rated and recommend often have high fees. It is not uncommon for parents to pay one hundred dollars or more a week in childcare expenses, just for one child. It is also important to examine the reduction in work purchased snacks and drinks, as well as gasoline to and from work. After this comparison, you may find that staying home with your child, after their birth, is actually a cost effective solution.

When determining if you should return to work after the birth of your child, you are also urged to examine the benefits of staying home. From birth to the toddler age, children are at an important stage in their life. Many experts have stated that close contact between parents and their children can help improve their relationship, as well as improve their developmental skills, as someone is working with them at all times. These are just important factors to take into consideration.

Of course, it is also important to remember that you don’t just have to be a stay-at-home mom. There are a large number of mothers in the United States who are considered work-at-home moms. With a computer and internet access, there are a number of work-at-home jobs or home-based business opportunities that can allow you to stay at home with your new baby, as well as bring in a source of income. If you have yet to return to work, working from home is something that you may at least want to take into consideration.

The above mentioned points are mostly centered on the benefits of staying at home with your child, after their birth. While there are a number of benefits to doing so, you should also know that there are a number of benefits to sending your child to daycare, as long as that daycare comes highly rated and recommended. Perhaps, the greatest benefit is the social interaction that your child will likely receive by being around other children. It is also important to mention your own needs. Working from home or staying at home with kids is a large task, one that can occasionally be stressful. That is why many mothers make the decision to return to the workforce after having a child, for their own sanity.

As you likely already know, the decision as to whether or not you want to return to work after the birth of your baby is your decision to make, but the above mentioned points are ones that you may want to keep in mind. Regardless of whether you decide to return to work or stay at home with your child, your and your child will likely have a long and healthy relationship with each other for years and years to come.



Shaun

Jonathon Hardcastle asked:


Being a teenager is a troubling time. While adjusting to all the changes going on both in your biology and your responsibilities, making the right decisions can be hard when it comes to topics such as relationships. In this article, we’ll offer some statistics regarding teenage relationships so that you can better understand exactly what’s in store for the average teenager who is dating.

While domestic violence is a terrible aspect of adult relationships, few adults realize that this problem also occurs in their sons and daughters. A study conducted by “Children Now” in 1995 saw that a full 89 percent of teens have been in dating relationships and a whopping 40 percent of all teenagers know someone their age that was beaten or abused by a boyfriend in a relationship. This is a serious problem that every parent needs to watch out for to ensure the health and safety of their children. Another study, conducted by Silverman, Raj, Mucci and Hathaway in 2001 showed that young women who were in relationships that involved violence were more likely to abuse substances, develop eating disorders, conduct risky sexual behaviors, get pregnant, and even commit suicide. As you can see, domestic violence in teenagers is very worrisome for a host of reasons.

In the good news department, the number of teen pregnancies occurring in the United States has been declining since the early nineties. These decreases are found across the board, with age, marital status, and ethnicity not being a significant factor in the decrease, representing a uniform drop. Studies show that this drop in teen pregnancy can be due to the greater use of contraceptives by teens. Lowered rates of sexual activity amongst adolescents also are a factor in the declining rate. However, the teen pregnancy rate in the United States is still one of the highest rates in any industrialized nation. The use of contraceptives needs to be encouraged by all parties, regardless of religion or creed. If a teenager has sex unprotected, they run a risk of getting pregnant that is approximately 90%.

One aspect of teenage pregnancy that is frightening is the number of adult males that are having sexual relationships with teenage females. In cases where a girl aged 15 to 17 gets pregnant, over 50% of the time, an adult male is the father. A study conducted in California showed that seven out of ten teenage births were caused by men aged twenty or above.



Sergio

Jasmine Stone asked:


The first step of your pregnancy, after seeing the little positive stick should to have it confirmed. Call immediately to have a pregnancy test done with your local doctor, you may be in luck and get in that same day or have to wait about a week or two. Patience will become your best friend during this time or your worst enemy, waiting can become a very hard thing when you want to know for sure whether you are or aren’t pregnant. More than likely you’ll get a phone call a few days later to confirm it.

Set up an appointment to see your OB/GYN or midwife as soon as possible, chances are you’ll be meeting his/her staff before you ever meet them. This is the first appointment where your doctor/midwife will want to know all your medical history. If you’ve been pregnant, what types of sicknesses run in your family, etc. If you can, try making sure you know all of this ahead of time, maybe even have it all down on paper so when he/she asks you are prepared. During the days or weeks leading up to this meeting you may have concerns, write them down and ask them. Believe it or not doctors are there to help you, and they’ve been asked every question you can possibly think of. Before leaving your doctor may even give you a bag full of goodies all about being pregnant. Read these, they may prove beneficial and not to mention they’ve got coupons. Your doctor will either give you another appointment or have you set one up before leaving. There are some great books out there if you are really worried about what will happen next or how birth is going to be, check them out at your local library.

Make sure that you get your prenatal vitamins, they are very important during pregnancy. If for some reason you can’t take them, talk with your doctor he/she may be able to prescribe a lower dosage or something else. You’ll get your first ultrasound, also known as US around week 20, this is normally when you find out what sex the baby is. However some doctors like to call it safe and give you an ultrasound around 10-12 weeks just to make sure the baby is in the proper location and all is going well. You will also be asked to take an orange drink that you must drink in five minutes. You’ll wait around for an hour to three hours, at which point your blood gets drawn and you can go home. The test determines if you have or have a chance of getting gestational diabetes.

At first your appointments will be about 4 weeks apart until you hit the 36 week and at that point it’ll be two weeks later and a week later after that until the baby is born. By now you should be preparing to have the baby. Yes, I’m sure you’ll have some anxiety towards the end of your pregnancy. You’ve went this far, it’s time you see your reward.



Trenton

jakerydersgirl4ever_2005 asked:


one of my freinds told me that her sister had a baby and she had to get the baby examined and the doctor had to stick his arm all the way to his elbow to see where the head is…has this ever happened to you moms?
shes 6′3″…but do they really stick up their whole hand to feel where the baby is? why cant they do an ultrasound?

Debra

Grace asked:


I know they count the weeks of pregnancy by the date of the last period. So if the last period was on Dec. 1st for example, Jan 1st would be sometime around week 4.

But what about those with longer cycles? With cycles that are 50 days long for example. So if two women have their period on Dec. 1st, one with a regular cycle and the other with a longer cycle, I believe that they didn’t conceive on the same day.

Am I right? Please explain.

Garret

A little Southern Comfort asked:


Could someone please kindly help me?
Im 25 years old and Caucasion. My husband is 27 and Latino. Are there more risks with having a baby if it is interracial?
Also how can I prepare for pregnancy? I am so scared that I am not oging ot have a healthy child. I used to work in the health cre field and you see so much wrong. I just want to do everything possible to help have a healthy child and a healthy pregnancy. Any tips or advice? We plan to start trying maybe this December. Thanks! I am so grateful for all your answers!

Liliana