Should You Exercise While Pregnant?

It is one of the most common questions medical experts are asked.  It comes up in the office and even in social settings.  The question is, "Should you exercise while you are pregnant?"  The answer is yes.  Exercise and proper conditioning can help with the labor and certainly improve your overall blood supply to the baby.  In addition, stretching, flexibility, and exercise are quite helpful and can help at the time of delivery.  But, there is a longer answer we need to stress.  Women who are pregnant need to realize they should not expect to do more than when they were not pregnant.  That's a very important point.  

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Importance of Vitamins for Women

Vitamins, especially prenatal vitamins, can be very important for women. During the prenatal period, it’s important because it helps nurture the baby and give the baby strength. But it’s also important during a woman’s day to day life that she gets enough iron. A woman has a menstrual cycle. As a result, she loses blood, and when she loses blood, iron levels can go down. As they go down, there have to be supplements. There have to be ways that you can actually increase the ability to develop iron and go in that stage.

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Eating a Healthy Diet During Pregnancy

The best diet during pregnancy is one that is actually high in fruits and vegetables. What doctors often suggest you do is you talk to your obstetrician/gynecologist to discuss the best foods during pregnancy, but one of the things that physicians look at, essentially, is trying to get people to have a balanced diet. You don’t want to eat too much or too little, and you want to make sure that you have the proper components of fruits and vegetables. You want to avoid things that are high in fat, in excess. Again, it’s moderation that is the key.

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Adjusting Children to a New Baby

We always get excited about having a new addition to the family. Everybody wants to welcome the child, but sometimes a sibling may not welcome that child with open arms. In fact, a sibling can get downright hostile. What we have realized about newborns is the fact that the siblings often are upset about the lack of attention that they’re going to get. That’s why when you’re pregnant you should talk to your child about the fact that a new child is coming. Make them part of the process. Make them feel as if they can contribute as well. It will make a very big difference.

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Vision Can Change During Pregnancy

If you’re thinking about getting pregnant, think about getting your glasses before you become pregnant. Now you might be thinking, ‘What a crazy comment!’ But it’s not. Women’s vision changes when they are pregnant. So, when the vision changes, those changes actually can affect the prescriptions. Now, many optometrists and ophthalmologists will recommend that you don’t get glasses or contact lenses during this period of time. Obviously, you wouldn’t want to have Lasik surgery or one of those types of procedures. Change in vision is dramatic, and it happens throughout pregnancy.

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Research on Oxytocin and Delivering Babies

There's an interesting report in the New England Journal of Medicine.  Actually, the research was done at Tulane and the University of North Carolina.  They worked together.  What they found is teaching hospital staff in Uruguay and Argentina might have better ways to deliver babies by reducing the chances of the new mom experiencing significant blood loss and undergoing an episiotomy.  Here's what happened.  The researchers worked with hospital staff providing workshops and one on one training in order to promote oxytocin use during labor and discourage episiotomies.  An episiotomy is an incision in the mother to aid the baby's exit.  After the intervention finished, even a year later, oxytocin use during labor was up 2% to 84% and episiotomies were down 41% to 30%; gains that were not seen at hospitals that did not have those interventions.  Chances of blood loss decreased by 45% to 70%.

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Preparing for Pregnancy

Preconception care is so important and it’s important for many reasons. First of all, a woman needs to know, if she’s going to become pregnant, what she’s facing. What are the pros, the cons, the concerns? But in addition to that, how do you prepare to have a healthy baby? What are the things you can do? For instance, are there certain foods you should eat? Folic acid is a very important vitamin that should be taken before a woman becomes pregnant, and throughout the pregnancy. A lot of women aren’t aware of that, the importance of folic acid. All of these things need to be evaluated and stressed.

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Depression During Pregnancy

Both postpartum depression and the baby blues can occur in the mother after she delivers, and many in the medical and non-medical communities are aware of this. But fewer are aware of depression during pregnancy, a problem that can go untreated. The reason it’s not recognized is that some of the obvious symptoms of depression, like tiredness, trouble sleeping, emotional changes and weight gain may occur with pregnancy. One in twenty women experience depression while pregnant.

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Eating Cereal and the Sex of a Baby

Researchers in statistics and obstetrics gynecology are challenging a report from last year claiming that babies born to mothers who eat breakfast cereal are more likely to be male.  The new study says that due to the large number of food items in the original study included for analysis, women reported on their consumption of 132 items, the findings were likely to include a number of false positives just by chance alone.  Basically, the new research says the cereal finding was a fluke and nothing more.

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A Baby’s Birth-Weight Can Have Lifelong Health Effects

Some of the most important things your mother ever did for you happened before you were born.  Proper diet, exercise, and avoidance of alcohol and cigarettes during pregnancy can have life-long effects on an unborn baby.  As we learn more about the role of prenatal care, we're also realizing that the birth-weight can have lifelong effects as well.  Very high and very low birth-weight are associated with an increased risk of complications during birth.  Additionally, low birth-weight has been associated with some chronic adult diseases such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and high blood pressure.  There is no doubt that a mother's health and attention to a healthy pregnancy can have a major impact. 

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Just How Important Is Pre-Natal Care?

Just how important is pre-natal care? Well, if you talk with most obstetricians, they will tell you that the steps taken prior to getting pregnant and those during pregnancy are crucial. The most important steps are screening for infection, getting dietary counseling and learning about the things that can be risky for your unborn baby. There are common sense points; things like avoiding alcohol and cigarettes, but there are also lab studies that can determine if you and the baby are healthy. The bottom line is, you have the best chance to have a healthy baby if you and your doctor are prepared for the complications that could arise during delivery. So, here’s the point…what you need to do is take the time to make an appointment with your physician when you’re thinking about getting pregnant, or at the very least, when you find out that you are. Many of those things that you can’t anticipate on your own your doctor can work with you. Just think about it…your doctor’s been through thousands of deliveries and has the ability to talk with you about the strengths and weaknesses.

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Pregnancy and High Blood Pressure

It’s important to watch for signs of high blood pressure all throughout a woman’s life, but during pregnancy it’s crucial. Blood pressure is the force inside your blood vessels when your heart beats. If your blood pressure is high most of the time, you have high blood pressure or hypertension. That can lead to stroke or heart problems. High blood pressure is a silent killer since it’s possible to have symptoms or no symptoms at all. During pregnancy, high blood pressure can affect the unborn baby. It’s also associated with serious issues at the time of pregnancy called preeclampsia.

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Having the Baby Blues

They are called the “baby blues.” The “baby blues” are a period of time after a baby is born where you essentially can have a feeling of depression. “Baby blues” actually is a period of time for a week or two after you have your baby where you may be a bit down. Mostly counseling and a little bit of extra attention can help you through this. But if it continues, please make sure you get the treatment you deserve; you do not want to ignore it.

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Controlling Diabetes During Pregnancy

Diabetes is a very important medical issue, especially when it's associated with pregnancy.  Women who suffer with diabetes during pregnancy actually have a greater risk of developing diabetes when they get older.  It's very important that diabetes be controlled during pregnancy, because in that period of if it's not, it can affect the unborn child.  Children who are born to mothers with uncontrolled diabetes tend to be bigger babies and babies with other serious health issues.  Again, it should be evaluated and it should be taken care of. 

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Preterm Delivery May Be Linked to Depression

A study of approximately 800 pregnant women found that their risk of preterm delivery was higher if they were depressed and it increased with the severity of their depressive symptoms.  Women with severe depression had more than twice the risk of delivering their babies preterm compared to their non-depressed peers.  Ninety-eight percent of women were not taking antidepressants.  Preterm delivery was defined as less than 36 weeks gestation.  It's the leading cause of infant mortality and morbidity.  The women's mental status was determined in points ten weeks into their pregnancy.

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Vitamin B-12 May Help Prevent Neural Tube Defects

Call it another reason to get prenatal care, the latest study in the journal Pediatrics recommends that vitamin B-12 be added to folate as a supplement to help reduce the risk of a birth defect called a neural tube defect.  Neural tube defects can lead to lifelong disability or death. The most common is spina bifida.  That's a place where the spinal chord and back bones do not form properly.  The research was performed at the National Institutes of Health.  Vitamin B-12 is essential to maintain healthy nerve and red blood cells.  We can get it in our diet.  It's also found in meat and dairy products, eggs, and fish.  It can also be found in certain breakfast cereals as well.  The reason that early prenatal care is important is because your doctor can advise you about what supplements to take.  In fact, if you're thinking about becoming pregnant, it's wise to consider these options before pregnancy. 

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An Apple A Day

You've heard the phrase, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away."  While there is no doubt that eating apples and other fruits is good for your health, researchers find that eating an apple when pregnant could have an extra special effect.  According to studies, when moms-to-be ate apples during pregnancy, their children had lower rates of asthma.  This is important because more than 20 million Americans have asthma, including 6.2 million children.  Dutch researchers followed over 1,200 children from before birth to age five.  Their mothers completed food questionnaires during their pregnancies.  Later, their children's health was surveyed as well.  Women who consumed the most apples during pregnancy, more than four a week, had children who were 37% less likely to have ever wheezed than children of mothers who had eaten the lowest number of apples during pregnancy.  It's a really interesting study with great news if you like fruits. 

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Heartburn During Pregnancy

Heartburn is a problem that affects people of all ages. It affects men and women alike. In women, we often see problems with heartburn during pregnancy. During pregnancy, what you essentially have is the baby growing and growing inside the body, and as it does, it can actually push up and cause pressure. So that when the stomach is actually doing its job secreting acid, breaking down food, that acid can be pushed up into the esophagus. That’s what causes the pain of heartburn. 

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Give in to Food Cravings

We all deal with them at some point or another.  Food cravings are common and the cravings women experience during pregnancy have reached legendary status.  According to a poll of physicians, most pregnant women seem to crave things like ice cream or cake, but not pickles which seem to be the most often mentioned in most movie or television scenes.  But it isn't just during pregnancy we have these cravings.  According to the Cleveland Clinic, you should not fight your cravings.  Satisfying a food craving can help improve your mood, relax you, and give you more energy.  

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Should You Exercise While Pregnant?

Should you exercise when you’re pregnant? The answer is yes, but there are some things you have to take into account before you start. Exercise and proper conditioning can help with the labor and, certainly, improve overall blood supply to the baby, but woman who are pregnant need to realize that they should not expect to do more than when they were not pregnant. In other words, if you were spending 20 minutes on the treadmill, or working with a trainer at a health club, you can probably continue, but you shouldn’t start radically new programs. Now, here’s what I suggest. First, take advantage of the fact you have an obstetrician and specifically ask about your situation. The other point is if you’re thinking about getting pregnant, start an exercise program now. This will allow you to have a starting point prior to pregnancy. All of these things are important as you begin the road to exercise.

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