Pregnancy is such a critical time. A woman’s body is drastically changing and the baby inside is creating new demands on the mother’s body. You want to do everything you can right to make sure that your baby is healthy and has a good start in life.
Some birth defects have been linked to the lack of vitamins and minerals. How do you pick the correct prenatal vitamins to ensure a healthy pregnancy? Should you just rely on your physician or should you know more? Should you take prenatals even after your pregnancy? We looked deeper into what a mother really needs to know before and after pregnancy.
Pregnancy
Pregnancy is such a critical time, and you want to do everything you can to provide the “just right” array of vitamins, minerals, and essential fatty acids to ensure a healthy pregnancy. Pregnancy and breastfeeding place tremendous demands on your body and can deplete omega-3 fatty acids. Target each stage of pregnancy with the perfect balance of nutrients.
Studies have shown that moms who receive the recommended amount of DHA during pregnancy have babies with increased attention spans throughout the first two years of life. The benefits of taking omega-3 DHA before, during, and after pregnancy are truly amazing.
Remember, your baby will take what it needs first to develop and grow, and therefore, your body may suffer if you are not getting enough of the necessary vitamins and minerals needed throughout pregnancy.
Healthy Baby
Every vitamin, every mineral, every nutrient has an important job to do now, for you and your growing baby. Your growing baby’s development depends on it. The right vitamins help build your baby’s bones and teeth and ensure your baby has a healthy start in life.
Eating a variety of healthy foods is important, but with hectic schedules, morning sickness, and the changing nutritional demands of your developing baby, it can be difficult to achieve the right nutritional balance. Nutrition is also critically important during recovery and while you are breastfeeding your newborn baby.
Prenatal Vitamins
Prenatal vitamins are packed full of nutrients that will help support and nourish your growing child and your body during pregnancy. How do you determine which prenatal vitamins are right for you? What do you look for in prenatal vitamins?
Prenatal vitamin supplements are vitamin supplements that a woman can take on a daily basis to ensure that she is obtaining appropriate quantities of essential nutrients during pregnancy. Prenatal nutrition is important but nausea and vomiting can cause women to miss meals and important nutrients from both a balanced diet and prenatal vitamin supplementation.
Just picking up some ordinary vitamins at the drugstore is not enough for a healthy pregnancy. Prenatal vitamins contain important nutrients in stronger dosages than regular multivitamin supplements (even those formulated for women). A good vitamin does not take the place of eating nutritiously but it can balance the scales in your favor, and your baby’s too. Researchers at the University of Maryland have noticed that many commonly prescribed prenatal vitamins do not dissolve well resulting in insufficient absorption of the nutrients.
The March of Dimes reports that birth defects of the spine, skull, and brain, such as spina bifida and anencephaly, are more likely to occur if the mother does not get sufficient folic acid during the first few weeks of her pregnancy – even before she knows she is pregnant.
Prenatal vitamins can reduce risk of childhood cancers and omega fish oil intake has been linked to higher IQ in offspring. New research from the Boston University School of Medicine is recommending higher intakes of vitamin D as so many are deficient. The women’s levels of vitamin D were related to the frequency of milk consumption and prenatal vitamin use.
Increased zinc and vitamin B6 levels can boost immunities needed after pregnancy and sufficient B6 has been shown to provide infant growth advantages. This B vitamin can prevent neural tube defects when taken early in pregnancy, especially during the first trimester. Zinc supports normal growth and development during pregnancy.
Calcium and magnesium supplementation are so important during pregnancy. A good prenatal vitamin should include folic acid and calcium, among other nutrients that are important to a healthy pregnancy and baby. In the last trimester of pregnancy, skeletal growth is highest and the fetus draws calcium directly from the mother’s stores. In addition, clinical trials have shown that adequate calcium during pregnancy lowers blood pressure and may reduce the incidence of premature births. Magnesium promotes the health of bones and may help maintain normal blood pressure and muscle comfort during pregnancy.
Folic acid is the most commonly prescribed prenatal supplement for the months prior to becoming pregnant as well and it is essential for the health and growth of the baby, especially for brain functions.
The female body’s requirement for vitamin C increases during pregnancy as this vitamin promotes the normal growth of the baby and supports building strong bones and teeth. It also supports the absorption of another key nutrient during pregnancy: iron.
Iron is recommended to prevent the mother suffering from anemia due to the demands that the baby puts on her iron consumption. Iron is an important mineral and is responsible for helping the mother and the baby’s blood to carry oxygen. Iron deficiencies can lead to severe birth defects for the baby.
Women have an increased requirement for biotin during pregnancy, and a biotin deficiency may occur in as many as 50 percent of pregnant women. This deficiency may increase the risk of birth defects.
Adequate amounts of vitamin A help to promote the health of the baby by promoting normal growth and development of the embryo and fetus, and supporting genes that determine the sequential development of organs in embryonic development. Beta-carotene is a nutrient from plants that the body converts into vitamin A.
Prenatal vitamins can be taken after pregnancy to provide a well-balanced supplementation program. With a mother’s hectic schedule and lack of time, prenatal vitamins are a perfect choice for an after pregnancy supplement regimen.
The correct prenatals are essential for a healthy pregnancy and baby. Doing your research on prenatal vitamins can be very rewarding and time well spent to ensure an easy and successful pregnancy.
Archive for November, 2007
Pregnancy, Prenatals, Healthy Baby – What You Need to Know
Friday, November 23rd, 2007Weekly Pregnancy Calendar – Almanac For Every Mother To Be
Friday, November 23rd, 2007
A weekly pregnancy calendar is a manual that records the journey of the fetus from conception to birth. It expounds in detail, the pregnancy week by week development that the fetus should achieve in the mother womb. The pregnancy calendar also gives the details about the changes that occur in the mother body and tells how to cope with these changes. This information can help the would-be-mother to ascertain that the fetus is growing in a healthy manner and her pregnancy is safe. Hence, every mother-to-be must possess a pregnancy week by week calendar to keep track of the milestones that the growing fetus achieves every week. Nowadays, there are numerous websites from where you can download these pregnancy calendars for free.
A Look At The Pregnancy Calendar
A weekly pregnancy calendar generally follows a forty week schedule. The calculation of the calendar is very simple. The LMP i.e. the last menstrual period date is the first day of the pregnancy calendar. Forty weeks from the date is the due date. Here, it has to be noted that only in very few cases, the baby is delivered on the due date. Generally any day after the 37th week is safe, because the baby would have attained full development by the 37th week.
A pregnancy calendar generally makes the following information available.
1. The growth and development that the fetus must achieve in each week of pregnancy,
2. The physical and the emotional changes that the mother-to-be undergoes and coping with these changes,
3. Nutritional requirements and exercises for a health pregnancy,
4. The do and do not during the nine months.
In a nutshell, a weekly pregnancy calendar is an excellent reference guide for every anxious would-be mother. It helps her to understand every change and emotion that she would be undergoing through the forty weeks of the pregnancy wheel. It helps her to keep track of what is going on in her womb every minute. The calendar helps in alleviating her anxiety and comforts her.
Maintaining Your Own Weekly Pregnancy Calendar
You can also make your own pregnancy calendar. It is very simple. Once you know your LMP and due date, you can yourself start maintaining the physical and emotional changes that you undergo on a weekly basis. You can compare this with any standard pregnancy calendar to assure yourself that everything is well.
Advantages Of Maintaining Your Own Pregnancy Calendar
In addition to the above mentioned benefits, maintaining your own weekly pregnancy calendar has some apparent advantages.
1. You can use the calendar as a jotting notepad to record your queries, doubts and apprehensions. This will be useful in future appointments with your doctor.
2. The pregnancy calendar is particularly useful in the third trimester of pregnancy (week 26 to week 40). In this final trimester, there are many changes happening in the mother body. The would-be mother will then find the pregnancy calendar handy. With the help of a good calendar, she can identify if her contraction are true or false and if there is a need to consult the doctor.
3. A religiously written pregnancy calendar will be very useful for the doctor in case any emergency arises in the course of delivery.
4. You can use your weekly pregnancy calendar to understand your future pregnancies better.
Early Pregnancy Symptom – How to Detect Pregnancy by yourself
Thursday, November 8th, 2007
Pregnancy calls for one of the most beautiful phase in a woman’s life being accompanied by each early pregnancy symptom. These pregnancy symptoms have always been a source of joy as well as often anxieties. Many women are unaware of early pregnancy symptoms and what development each symptom indicates. Moreover, to start planning for a family with your new baby, you must be knowledgeable about pregnancy symptoms and to what extent they are normal. If you observe the signs of pregnancy to increase and decrease abnormally, you must consult with your physician.
Therefore, pregnant women need to be familiar with all the probable early pregnancy symptoms. She also needs to know the difference between pregnancy and non-pregnancy symptoms. The period, intensity and the sequence of arrival of pregnancy symptoms largely vary from one woman to another. So, before you start fretting over absence of a particular symptom that your friend or sister might have undergone at your stage, get facts on each early pregnancy symptom from this article.
How Your Body Tells That You Are Pregnant
During pregnancy, women undergo many changes. Drastic hormonal changes in body are because of the physical and psychological changes a woman undergoes during pregnancy. This hormonal change takes place to support the development of the fetus inside. All women tend to experience some common symptoms in the early trimester of the pregnancy period. Each early pregnancy symptom appears in the same manner, but slight differences can be expected. Now let us discuss about pregnancy symptoms and how to identify them –
Implantation Bleeding
Implantation bleeding is also known as vaginal spotting. This is a very common early pregnancy symptom and takes place when the fertilized egg gets attached to uterus walls. In following ways you will get to differentiate implantation bleeding from common vaginal bleeding -
It appears approximately five days after fertilization
Color of this vaginal discharge appears to be light unlike dark bleeding of menstruation.
An increase in discharge will also signal you about pregnancy.
Many women also experience slight cramping pain during implantation bleeding.
If you happen to experience similar symptoms within a week of conceiving, consider a home pregnancy test to confirm your pregnancy.
Frequent Urination
Increased frequency in urination is a significant early pregnancy symptom. Stretch in ligaments and hormonal changes may lead pregnant women rush to loo. As your uterus enlarges to accommodate development of the fetus, it starts occupying spaces of bladder and pushes it, which is why you may feel a surge of urine now and then.
Tender, Sore Breasts
Another very important early pregnancy symptom is tenderness and painful breasts. After conceiving, you will notice your breasts to enlarge accompanied by a feeling of tenderness due to the hormonal changes in body.
High Temperature
If you notice that your basal body temperature is increasing after conception, then you know you are pregnant. When your body temperature remains high for a number of days even if you are not having menstruation, it is an early pregnancy symptom.
Missed Periods
A missed period id considered one of the surest pregnancy symptoms to be felt at the earliest stage. However, it may arrive before or after any other early pregnancy symptom and extensively vary in women.
Fatigue and Weakness
Pregnancy brings enormous feeling of exhaustion. When you tend to feel fatigue and dizziness with any other symptom, you need to contact an expert. As per medical experts, fainting is a common early pregnancy symptom. Along with exhaustion, you might feel sickness in different time of the day with discomforts of nausea. Though pregnant women may feel at any time or throughout the day, this early pregnancy symptom is known as ‘morning sickness’.
Before you consult your gynecologist, you need to prepare a proper and detailed pregnancy journal mentioning each early pregnancy symptom to help him or her detect pregnancy accurately.