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| Pregnancy Information |
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The First Warning Signs of Pregnancy
Pregnancy can be exciting or daunting, depending on the circumstances. Do you suspect you are pregnant? Below are some of the tell-tale first signs of pregnancy. Most women mark the first missed period as the first sign of pregnancy, but a missed period can be caused by a number of factors. A large change in diet, exercise or stress level can also contribute to a missed period. Some women experience spotting about two weeks after the first day of the previous period as the first sign of pregnancy. This spotting is caused when the fertilized egg implants in the uterus and is usually very light. Mood Swings caused by hormonal surges early in pregnancy can be more severe than those experienced during PMS. Often this is the first symptom of pregnancy noticed by family members! Breast tenderness and enlargement, caused by the breast preparing for breastfeeding is especially common during very early pregnancy, but often disappears after a few weeks. Darkening areolas, or the area around your nipples, occurs soon after conception and may persist throughout the pregnancy. Fatigue is an early sign of pregnancy, but also a sign of many other conditions. Nausea and vomiting, sometimes referred to as morning sickness, ranging from queasiness to severe vomiting that can manifest just in the morning (when hormone concentrations are highest) or all day. Changes in appetite and food cravings often plague the newly pregnant woman and can occur early in the pregnancy right through delivery. If you are experiencing any combination of these symptoms, and you suspect that you may be pregnant, try a home pregnancy test. These tests detect the level of pregnancy hormone (HCG) in your urine. If you test positive, you should make an appointment with your doctor to begin prenatal care! Maria writes for Pregnancy Due Date, a site that tries to information for expectant mothers. For more great pregnancy articles, visit our Pregnancy articles archive.
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Alternative Medicine How Can I Make Sure Im Exercising Safely During My Pregnancy? Unless your practitioner gives you specific restrictions or instructions, you should keep active during pregnancy. This may be as simple as walking every day to get your heart rate moving, or it may be a complete fitness program designed to be safe during pregnancy. But you also need to do so safely. Train While You Gain - Why a Personal Trainer Can Make a Difference During Your Pregnancy The average woman will gain between 25 and 30 pounds during her pregnancy, but how many women do you know that have gained upward of 50 pounds or even more? Keeping your weight gain in check can be difficult when you are "eating for two,", but with the help of a personal trainer, you can ward off the inevitable excess baby weight. Pregnancy Week By Week There are three stages of pregnancy. These are the first, second and third trimesters. The first trimester runs from week one to week fourteen, the second covers weeks 15 26, then the third is weeks 27 40. Pregnancy, Diabetes, and Your Feet There are so many changes the body undergoes during pregnancy that it becomes easy to ignore the changes in the feet. During pregnancy the body releases hormones that allow the ligaments to relax in the birth canal. The ligaments in the feet also relax, causing the foot to lengthen and widen. Many will complain of a shoe size increase by one or two sizes. In most circumstances, this flattening and widening of the foot is benign and no problems result. Pregnancy Sex - Its A Wonderful Thing! Mums to be can often get worried about having sex while pregnant; well there is no medical evidence that having sexual intercourse whilst pregnant does any damage at all. Things You Should Avoid During Pregnancy Pregnancy is a time where you have to be careful with yourself. Many factors affect the development of a fetus into a healthy child. Whether you like it or not there some activities you should avoid for the sake of your healthy baby. There are pregnancy risks that you have to aware of. Dietary Precautions During Pregnancy When you are pregnant, you should be sure to wash all raw vegetables prior to consumption. Raw vegetables have the potential to carry toxoplasmosis, which is a parasite that is typically carried in the feces of cats. It can sometimes get into the soil and contaminate fruits or vegetables. Folic Acid - An Overview of Its Importanace Before and During Pregnancy FOLIC ACID AN OVERVIEW Exercising After Pregnancy Generally most women can begin a formal exercise program within 6 weeks of giving birth, though this time frame might be slightly longer for some women, including those recovering from a C-section. Most women recovering from a C-section will be able to exercise after there incision has healed and their doctor has cleared them for exercise. Weight Loss After Pregnancy - The Importance Of Setting Goals One of the best things you can do is set some goals for yourself. Goal setting is an important aspect of any successful weight loss strategy. The type of goals you set will depend on the amount of weight you have to lose and your personal fitness goals and desires. How do Pregnancy Tests Work? Pregnancy tests identify a special hormone in the blood or urine produced during pregnancy. This hormone is called human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG), often referred to as the pregnancy hormone. There are two basic types of pregnancy tests, blood and urine. You Might Be Pregnant If Your breasts are now twice their normal size. The Developing Child We know the fetus is experiencing whatever is going on with the mother. This is the good news or the bad news as the case may be. How to Deal With Headaches During Pregnancy Headaches are one of the more unpleasant "side effects" that come with pregnancy. All women will have some, but most will experience them in the first and last trimesters. In the first three months, this is thought to be primarily due to such factors as increased blood volume, the initial stresses, and hormonal changes. In the final three months, the causes are more likely to be poor posture, which can result in pressure on parts of your body that communicate their discomfort to the brain, and also from the discomforts of carrying extra weight. Will I Get Stretch Marks? If I Do, What Can I Do? It doesn't seem possible at the outset of pregnancy, but your skin really will stretch enough to accommodate your baby. Collagen and elastin in the skin guarantee it. It seems that collagen has the tensile strength of steel and by the end of the pregnancy, you'll understand why this is important. When Your Nipples Need Band-Aids - A Breastfeeding Problem In the olden days, mothers were told to toughen their nipples to avoid pain when the baby started breastfeeding. Rubbing with a wash cloth, pumping and even alcohol was once used to toughen the nipples. Common Sense Approach To Pregnancy Weight Loss Ok so everyone gains weight while they are pregnant. This is perfectly normal. It is also perfectly normal for a woman to want to lose that weight after pregnancy. We have established this much at this point in time. There is absolutely nothing wrong with aspiring to get yourself back into shape right after your pregnancy, in fact I certainly encourage it! Fetal Development Month by Month Month 1: Your first month of pregnancy your baby will accomplish many things, first and foremost, conception, fertilization, and implantation. After a woman ovulates, the egg is normally fertilized within 24-48 hours. The single fertilized cell begins to rapidly divide and at this point in time is called a zygote. Many amazing things happen at fertilization. Your baby's entire physical attributes are determined including gender, hair color, and eye color. Between days 7-10 from fertilization implantation usually occurs. Implantation should occur within the uterus if it does not this is considered an ectopic pregnancy. The amniotic sac, umbilical cord and yolk sac are already beginning to form. By the end of this month your baby is approximately 2mm long and beginning early stages of development. Smoking During Pregnancy If you have been drinking up until the point when you become pregnant or smoking it is also vital that you stop doing so immediately. Many women worry that they consumed a few alcoholic drinks prior to learning they were pregnant. If you are concerned you should talk with your healthcare provider. Chances are that everything will be just fine as long as you stop immediately. At this time there are no recommended safe limits of alcohol to consume during pregnancy, thus it is best that you avoid alcohol all together. Labor and Delivery This is it - the finish line. You and your partner have been training for this event for the last 40 weeks and there is no turning back. Hopefully, you have registered in a prenatal class (aka childbirth education class) to help prepare you for labor and delivery. And if you haven't already registered, then you should as soon as possible since spaces always fill up early. Very few couples, who are of sane mind, decide to face the delivery room without any preparatory training.
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