Relax to Get Pregnant (Health Tip)
via youtube.com
The is great advice for anyone trying to get pregnant.
Sarah's posterous
Strange News: Can statues help you get pregnant?
I was fortunate to be able to easily conceive each time I wanted a baby. I did have a miscarriage in between pregnancies, which was, needless to say, very difficult. Going through this common but painful experience gave me a taste of what it must feel like to want a child but be unable to conceive or successfully carry a baby to term. I know people with fertility issues and see the struggles they go through, and often, the huge sums of money they spend on fertility treatments in attempts to get pregnant.
A piece of odd news I came across today made me think of such people. If I had fertility problems and wanted desperately to have a baby, I might just travel to the Ripley’s Believe it or Not museum in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Last Thursday, a collection of fertility statues went on display there. The statues are voluptuous, five-foot tall wooden female figures. They were acquired by a US company on the Ivory Coast of West Africa in 1993. The company says they were first placed in its corporate headquarters in Orlando, Florida, and that within months, 13 women who touched them became pregnant.
The display of statues has been all over the world and according to their owner, more than 2,000 women have become pregnant since touching them. The statues will be in Myrtle Beach until March 1st. Couples wanting to get pregnant can touch them for free during business hours.
If this piques your interest, you might also want to look into bringing some fertility frogs into your home, burning a fertility candle while trying to conceive, or wearing a fertility crystal necklace. I read about these superstitions while doing a search online, after being intrigued with the news of the fertility statues.
I hope to hear plenty of pregnancy reports related to the Ripley’s Believe it or Not exhibit!
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How to Get Pregnant - great article!
Making Babies: The Fertility Shot (Pregnancy Health Guru)
via youtube.com
How to Get Pregnant - Fertility medicines video.
Fast-Track Your Conception
Fast-Track Your Conception
It's not always a sure thing, but you can boost your chances of getting pregnant ASAP.
By
Denise Mann
WebMD Feature
WebMD Feature
Reviewed by
Robert S. Phillips, MD
If you are anything like me (and most of my 30-something girlfriends), once you've decided that you are ready to get pregnant and have a baby, you want it yesterday. But most of us learn that conception is easier said than done.
It doesn't have to be that way. If you are otherwise healthy, many new cool tools (as well as knowing some conception basics) can help you maximize your chances of conception right now. Such tools include wrist watches that detect whether there will be a welcome mat for sperm in the female genital tract and digital aids that predict your peak and not-so-peak fertility days.
First: Conception 101
"The first thing couples need to do is to keep track of the intervals between day one of bleeding and day one of their next cycle," explains fertility expert Mark P. Leondires, MD, medical director of Reproductive Medical Associates of Connecticut in Norwalk.
The solution involves some simple math, he says. If a woman is aware of her cycle interval and has a regular 28-day cycle, "you take that number [28] and subtract 14, and that should give you the approximate day of ovulation. That is the day to work around," he tells WebMD.
Specifically, he adds, to get pregnant: "Take that day that you presume you are ovulating and have intercourse every other day around it, such as on days 12, 14, and 16 if you ovulate on day 14 of your cycle," he says. "Sperm can last two to three days and this way, there should be sperm there waiting to greet the egg."
You'll even find web sites that do the math for you, including WebMD and BabyCenter.com. Enter your first day of your last menstrual period as well as the average length of your cycle and hit "calculate."
These days, busy couples who want to be pregnant may only be having sex on the weekend and missing their fertile window, which is as small as three to five days, Leondires says.
"We have pretty good evidence to suggest that having intercourse close to ovulation will maximize the chance of conception," agrees fertility expert Randy S. Morris, MD, medical director of IVF 1 in Chicago and Naperville, Ill.
"Plotting ovulation has never been demonstrated to increase the chances for most individuals," he says. "Most people do well enough on their own, but for busy women who travel or whose spouses travel or who are not comfortable having intercourse repeatedly over time, ovulation predictor kits may help further reduce the time frame."
That said, there are a number of methods to help you plot ovulation and increase your chances of conception quickly, Morris says. They include:
Basal body temperature: "Basal body temperature charting is helpful for women who are not sure if they are ovulating," Morris says. Charting gives the women the best chance to conceive by optimizing sperm being present when the egg is released. It does have some limitations though. For example, "It's an inexpensive way to see if you are ovulating, but it does not predict when ovulation occurs," he explains. "It can only tell you after the fact that ovulation has occurred -- not before."
via webmd.com
Good basic info on how to get pregnant from Web MD.
How to Get Pregnant - Basic Steps for Everyone
Steps
- Make healthy lifestyle choices. Maintain a healthy weight, exercise regularly, eat healthy foods, and keep stress under control. Illness and stress can both affect the timing of ovulation, making it difficult to predict.[3] The free radicals and harmful toxins which your body builds up, also have a negative effect on getting pregnant.[4]
- Both partners should eat a well-balanced diet, including foods high in anti-oxidants (e.g. fruits and vegetables) and vitamins, and consider eating less seafood, as it is associated with increasing blood levels of mercury, which has been linked to fertility problems.[5] Consumption of pesticides may also be linked to pregnancy difficulties[6] so now may be a good time for couples to choose organic foods. For women, taking folic acid (vitamin B9) supplements before trying to conceive to reduce the risk of spina bifida and other neural tube defects.[7]
- Visit a doctor for pre-conception planning to identify any necessary lifestyle changes, as well as to check if any of the medications either partner is taking can decrease chances of pregnancy or damage a developing fetus. There may also be vaccines needed to prevent illness or defects in an unborn child.
- Stop smoking. Tobacco affects cervical mucous in ways that may obstruct fertilization.[8] Smoking also reduces sperm count and sperm health.[9] Exposure to second-hand smoke can be just as counterproductive.[10]
- Sleep better. Sleep deprivation results in lower levels of the hormone leptin, without which ovulation may be affected.[11]
- Quit caffeine (or at least cut back). A recent study has shown that consuming more than 200 mg of caffeine (approximately two cups of coffee, but it can come from other sources like tea and soda as well) on a daily basis during the first trimester of pregnancy may increase the likelihood of miscarriage.[12] Since you don't know instantly when you're pregnant, you may want to consider quitting caffeine or reducing your intake to, say, a single cup of coffee per day.
- Record the first day and the length of menstruation every month.
- If menstruation consistently starts every 28 days, you can reasonably assume that ovulation occurs 14 days after the first day of menstruation.[13]
- If menstrual cycles are more than 28 days long but are consistent, subtract 18 from the average number of days in your cycles. For example, if menstruation begins reliably every 35 days, the difference is 17. On that day in the cycle is when ovulation can be expected to take place.[14]
- If cycles are short, irregular or unpredictable, this method won't work.[15] Move on to the next steps.
- Record your basal body temperature (BBT) daily. BBT is your body's temperature when you're fully at rest and can be measured with a thermometer specifically labeled for basal temperature.
- Make a graph on graph paper or on the computer, with dates on the bottom and basal temperature on the side. You can find and print fertility charts online, as well as sign up for a fertility charting service.
- Look for a gradual or sudden rise in temperature (between 0.5 and 1.6 degrees F).[16] Fertility is highest during the two to three days before your basal temperature rises[17] so if you can observe any month-to-month patterns in when your temperature rises, you can predict the best time to conceive.
- Observe changes in cervical mucus daily. At the beginning of a menstrual cycle, it's sparse, tacky, and dense; when ovulation is near, it starts becoming more slippery and plentiful, resembling raw egg white.[18] It gets like this in order to help the sperm reach the egg.[19] To check your cervical mucous, wash your hands, rub some toilet paper or your fingers over the opening of the vagina, examine the color and consistency of the mucous, and write it down.[20]
- Checking cervical mucous can reinforce observations about ovulation gathered in other steps. 22 out of 100 women practicing only this method for one year will get pregnant. It'll be less effective for women who naturally do produce very little mucous, or who use feminine hygiene products and douches.[21] Checking right after showering, bathing, swimming, or intercourse can also make this method less accurate.[22]
- If you're comfortable with it, you can also observe the position of your cervix to determine whether you are ovulating. Wash your hands, insert two fingers, and feel the end of the cervix. If it's hard and dry, like the tip of a nose, you haven't ovulated yet. During ovulation, the cervix will shift higher and feel softer and wetter.[23]
- Test your urine with an ovulation monitoring kit. These can be purchased over the counter and work by detecting the surge in hormones that takes place right before ovulation. Follow the instructions that come with the kit carefully. This method can be expensive, and is best used after the previous steps have been followed (see Warnings below) but have the benefit of giving you advance notice.
• Get in position. While it hasn't been scientifically proven, it's generally thought that positions which place the sperm close to the cervix are more conducive to pregnancy, specifically the "missionary position" with a pillow under the woman's hips. Remaining in bed for at least a half hour after intercourse may also increase the chances of sperm reaching the egg.[27]
• Enjoy your time together. Trying too hard to get pregnant, especially by strictly following a schedule, can cause stress and reduce physical and emotional intimacy between you and your partner. Many couples recommend being creative with intercourse and keeping it lighthearted and fun.[28]
- Use assisted reproductive technology (ART), if not successful any other way. Sometimes, nature needs a helping hand. Fortunately, there are many alternatives how to increase pregnancy-chances with ART. Many ART procedures involve surgically removing eggs from a woman’s ovaries, combining them with sperm in the laboratory, and returning them to the woman’s body or donating them to another woman.
via wikihow.com
These are the basics that anyone can incorporate on the way to learning more. Definitely start with these steps.
How to Get Pregnant with Type 1 Diabetes (All the Lifestyle Tips)
How to Get Pregnant with Type 1 Diabetes (All the Lifestyle Tips)
Who recognizes the name Lyrehca from the blog Managing the Sweetness Within, chronicling one woman’s efforts to get and stay pregnant while dealing with her lifelong type 1 diabetes? Yes, you guessed it: Lyrehca is coming out of the closet as herself, Cheryl Alkon, now-author of the forthcoming book Balancing Pregnancy With Pre-Existing Diabetes: Healthy Mom, Healthy Baby. Today, Lyrehca (er, Cheryl) shares a brief version of her story, and some don’t-miss tips on diabetes and pregnancy.
A Guest Post by Cheryl Alkon, D-blogger and author
When I first thought about trying to get pregnant, almost five years ago, I did everything I was supposed to do:
- I stepped up visits to my endocrinologist for pre-pregnancy consults
- I worked to get my blood sugar numbers into the tight ranges recommended for pregnancy
- I saw my eye doctor to check my eyes for any longterm damage from diabetes and learned how pregnancy mightaffect them
- I ate better and took prenatal vitamins
I also looked everywhere for books and websites about the subject and I soon met with the maternal-fetal medicine specialist who worked with my endocrinologist at my hospital’s diabetes and pregnancy program.
Despite excellent blood sugars, an overall good bill of health, and extensive knowledge about the topic, I left the specialist’s office in tears.
Why?
The doc, also known as a high-risk obstetrician, spent our appointment telling me all the terrible things that could happen in a pregnancy complicated by diabetes. Yes, tight blood sugars were necessary. Without them, the chances of having a pregnancy colored by complications, both for me and for the unborn baby, were high. The visit was a long list of all the potential things that could go wrong, from the pregnancy itself, to actually giving birth, to the health of my future child: birth defects. Potential miscarriage. Pre-ecclampsia. Vision issues. Kidney complications.
Oy.
And yet, I had a handful of friends, longtime type 1 women like me, who were in our 30’s and had had their own healthy beautiful children. They were not hobbled by illness or problems throughout. They may have had an issue here or there, but they managed things and got through them. And they were able to do it with the tight blood sugar control recommended for women with pre-existing diabetes. The truth is, with average hemoglobin A1C numbers in the 4-7 percent range, women with diabetes are no more likely to have pregnancy complications than are women without diabetes. This was recently proven by research in the journal Diabetes Care that found women diabetes who had A1C numbers 6.9 percent or lower had no more risk of “serious adverse outcome” than the non-diabetics did.
I knew I could try to do it, too.
Soon, I started blogging about my efforts to get and stay pregnant, while managing my type 1 diabetes. I liked the support I received from commenters. Plus, I wanted to connect with others who were pregnant, had given birth, or who were trying to conceive, all with type 1 diabetes.
At the same time, I found that there were no insider’s guides to pregnancy with pre-existing diabetes that were told from an actual woman with diabetes’ perspective. The books sanctioned by official diabetes organizations were written by health care professionals, and not by people with diabetes (as far as I could tell). I found Kathryn Gregorio Palmer’s excellent book, When You’re A Parent With Diabetes, which touches on pregnancy, hadn’t been published yet. And while I found an out-of-print Australian book that interviewed women with type 1, but it was actually pretty dry and clinical.
I began slowly finding other bloggers writing about pregnancy and diabetes. I found the great website DiabeticMommy.com, which is a sprawling bulletin board devoted to all things pre-pregnancy, pregnancy, and parenthood, with type 1, type 2 and gestational diabetes. There are some excellent Yahoo Groups devoted to these issues as well, particularly PositiveDiabeticPregnancies and PregnantPumpers.
Super-tight control for pre-pregnancy, as defined by my docs in my hospital’s diabetes and pregnancy program at the Joslin Diabetes Center, is having blood sugars of about 70-100 mg/dl before meals, about 120-140 mg/dl one hour after meals, and 100-140 mg/dl before bed. Once pregnant, those numbers dip even more, to 60-90 mg/dl before meals, with 120 mg/dl an hour after meals and 100-140 mg/dl before bed.
Huh?
It took a lot of trial and error, along with constant blood sugar testing (sometimes once an hour, up to 15 times a day), but I was able to figure out which foods I could eat that wouldn’t spike me too high after a meal (hello, oatmeal and whole grains, particularly mixed with some low-fat protein; goodbye, white bread). Exercise—even a stroll after a meal or a walk to my local train station—always helped smooth things out. And this was in the days before I had a continuous glucose monitor. I recently started using one and it’s sometimes really surprising to see how some meals show a nice slow and unpronounced rise in numbers after a meal, and how some meals really sent things flying high (oy, French fries, what did I ever do to you?)
Of course, everyone is different, and what works well for me, food-wise, might send another person’s numbers soaring. SO much about diabetes is trial and error, and figuring out what works for you, pre-pregnancy, can make actual pregnancy and its inevitable changes and challenges (hello, hormones and insulin resistance) easier to handle.
I’m pleased that after many long months, I finally got pregnant and knock on wood, had a pretty healthy and normal pregnancy (the details are all on my blog.) Our healthy son, known online as Toddler L, was born two years ago without any problems and thrives today as his chatty and mischievous self.
I’m also facing another kind of birth. After an equally long process, the guide I wished I had back in the day will be published in early 2010. My book, “Balancing Pregnancy with Pre-Existing Diabetes: Healthy Mom, Healthy Baby,” (see above link) will be published by Demos Medical Publishing in early 2010. It gives the insider details of pregnancy and type 1 or type 2 diabetes, using both my own experience and insights from dozens of other women who have been there. I hope it will give future readers the kind of information I was so hungry for and that it will give them the sense that a pregnancy with diabetes doesn’t have to be the horror show some doctors (or the technically accurate but extremely dated film Steel Magnolias) would lead you to believe.
Instead, pregnancy with pre-existing diabetes is a challenge and a boatload of work, no doubt, but it can be a pregnancy where the end result is a fantastically healthy and happy new mother and baby.
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Tuesday, August 4th, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (9) Books & Resources, Personal Stories. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or from your own site. PUT YOUR COMMENT POLICY HERE. THIS IS A SAMPLE Your comments will be moderated but will appear as soon as humanly possible. -->
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I’m one person who is very glad that you’re writing this book now, Cheryl. Pregnancy isn’t on our agenda for at least another year or so, but I’ve pre-ordered the book on Amazon and will be glad to have the chance to get the information you so desperately wanted before we even start trying. Congratulations on getting the book deal - I can’t wait to read!
Posted by: Caro | August 4th, 2009 at 11:08 am -
Congrats on your successful pregnancy and good on you for publishing a book. Our stories are similar and our children are the same age. Some how, I never found your blog. Would have loved a “sister” to share the saga. I don’t have the strength to do it again. Will cherish my daughter.
Posted by: Chris | August 4th, 2009 at 12:01 pm -
I don’t understand why people feel that they are only capable of loving children with whom they share DNA. I am a type 1 diabetic and so is my little brother. I don’t think there’s anything so great about my genes — in fact, they are rather rotten, fraught with the auto-immune diseases that run in my family.
I will adopt a child, or children, when the time comes rather than risk my own health, the health of the baby, and take the chance of having a type 1 diabetic kid. I couldn’t live with myself if I were to pass this on. I don’t get the genetic narcissism that drives people to procreate even when there’s evidence that their genes are time bombs. There are plenty of beautiful children (who already exist) in need of loving parents.
Posted by: Lauren K | August 4th, 2009 at 2:28 pm -
I truly agree with Lauren K. My wife, a lifelong type 1 diabetic was determined to get pregnant 25 years ago and did. We had a normal, healthy beautiful boy. However, the damage the pregnancy did to her body was immeasurable. She had her first myocardial infarction (MI) about a year after our son was born. Her kidney disease reared its ugly head a few years later.
Despite being on a pump, doing everything right and being a truly motivated and pretty well controlled (h1c aroung the 6 range) diabetic, she died from kidney and heart disease at age 49.
I think the pregnancy cost her at least 20 years of life and the last 5 were no picnic with dialysis and heart surgeries. She always said that it was worth it. I love my son. However, I miss my wife every single day. I won’t get to grow old with her. It was her choice and we both thought things would go differently, but people need to know the risks.
Posted by: Dave H. | August 4th, 2009 at 3:59 pm -
Your information is inspiring to me and these things did helped to others.
Posted by: Joann | August 5th, 2009 at 2:56 am
Thanks for sharing it. -
Dear People with Diabetes who have decided not to give birth,
Please take a moment to consider the fact that your diabetes may not be the same as everyone else’s diabetes. Consider that your experience with diabetes might be different than mine. Consider that your family’s incidence of and experience with chronic disease is not the same. Consider that perhaps there are those who would not be suicidal if their child developed diabetes.
Then, avoid the name calling and superior tone.
Having and raising children is a personal decision. You make yours, let me make mine (yes, knowing the risks) and have a little confidence that I might be making the right decision about my future and my family.
As an aside, there is a great story in my book about a woman who chose adoption over pregnancy. She considered all the risks to her and decided that she wanted to be a mom, not necessarily give birth. Her decision based on careful thought, and a beautiful one at that.
Kassie
Posted by: kassie | August 5th, 2009 at 11:41 am
Type 1
Parent of a Type 1 child -
Dear Mr. H & Lauren K,
Posted by: Sunni H | August 15th, 2009 at 11:54 pm
I appreciate you taking the time to share your opinions w/ those wishing to start families & give my sympathies for losing your wife Mr. H- I too have lost family members to type 1 & know what the last 5 yrs are like.
As a women with type 1, pregnancy is a very tough decision. I know that I could love any child as much as my own. So why risk it?
Being diagnosed at age 10, I can attest that there are many psychological impacts most people don’t know about which result from diabetes. I’m sure you both have some level of understanding. But for those that don’t, her is a small insight:
Diagnosed rather young, I was convinced that I was no longer “me”, I was “a diabetic” because in order to have good control, diabetes had to control just about everything!
Of course, what I could and could not eat: At 10, watching my brothers eat pop tarts as I ate toast everyday - made me really hate diabetes.
It controlled thoughts:
Thinking about everything you put in your mouth not just the carbs and sugars and fats it contains - but calculating how it will affect the rest of your day’s decisions, about whether you can take a nap or exercise and how that affects your basal rate, where you will be and where your supplies will be. Creating a plan for PE, how to work diabetes into my soccer games and summer camps w/o Mom around.
It has to control your choices:
Suddenly being in a swimming situation and not having the cap you need to cover your pump, not going somewhere spur of the moment because even your back up supplies won’t do because they’ve expired, or the thousands of times you eat when you don’t want to because your bloodsugar is too low.
Being told your entire life:
“your body is not life everyone else’s” or “you should hurry and get married so you can have kids” or worrying your whole life that the person you fall in love with may not want to be with someone or may not be able to handle marrying someone who poses such a health risk to herself or their child/ren.
Finally, just dealing with the small irritation of having to tell every teacher about it, or every person you know and the 10 million questions that follow and them thinking you have it because you eat too much. Or better yet, being asked, “can you eat that”, “are you allowed to have that?”, “I thought diabetics can’t have that?”, only because people CARE about you.
So for those of us IN CONTROL, the real decision about diabetic pregnancy comes down to, “Will diabetes stop me from living the life I want to have?” Lauren - perhaps your rotten DNA does not contain this maternal drive, but many women have always dreamed of pregnancy, of that maternal connection, of being able to breastfeed and feel the first kick.
I am so happy for your wife Mr. H, that diabetes didn’t stop her from living the life she deserved to have . Don’t forget your wife decided OVER 20 years ago to make that decision also - and with all due respect, in terms of medical technology that is EXTREMELY OUTDATED data. Regardless, she told you herself she wouldn’t have changed anything - so don’t ever regret the decision you made together. Congratulations to you both on healthy children and happy lives, and may you respect the blessings of modern day miracles and medical advancements.
Sunni H
Type 1 -
Great post! For so many of us with diabetes (whatever kind) all we hear is the bad stuff. Let’s keep in mind that many of the horror stories we hear are from the past - before good home glucose meters, rapid acting insulins, pumps etc etc etc. I find what most people know about D pregnancy is all from “Steel Magnolias” which, while being a true story, is also not much relevant to how diabetic pregnancies go these days. A lot has changed. Yes, we may be more prone to complications, but really, look at those numbers, with good control they are still extremely small. Read the medical journals on the studies done and you will see that the risk of higher complications is minuscule with good control and a well monitored pregnancy.
I am so glad I chose to have my children. I have one perfectly healthy daughter and a son on the way in 13 days. I have had Type 1 for over 15 years. Not once did my excellent team of doctors ever tell me not to do it, or that I would be harming myself or my baby. We just made a plan and I have followed it, and everything has turned out excellent.
To Lauren - where in the world did you get “people feel that they are only capable of loving children with whom they share DNA” - that was not mentioned anywhere in the post. Also, your statement that you “don’t get the genetic narcissism that drives people to procreate even when there’s evidence that their genes are time bombs” is ridiculous on many levels. Genetic narcissism to want to have your own children? Hardly. And I am really sorry for you that you feel your genes are ticking time bombs. I’m sure that even if my daughter or son comes down with Type 1, they will still be happy to be alive, just as I am. Diabetes sucks, sure, but it doesn’t make me wish I were never born.
Posted by: Ruby | August 21st, 2009 at 7:16 pm
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Good article about how to get pregnant if you have diabetes.
How to Get Pregnant: Our 5 Best Tips
For some women, conceiving can be as easy as tossing out their contraception, whether they're working on their first baby or their fourth. For others, reaching the goal of fertilization becomes a nightly chore, a mad mating dance that revolves around ovulation kits, specific sexual positions, and, more and more commonly, a succession of fertility tests to help pinpoint possible problems.Whether you've just started trying to become pregnant or have been at it for a while, heeding some common sense advice that's based on good science can help boost your odds of conceiving. Here, noted fertility experts from around the country have outlined the do's, don'ts, and don't-bother-withs of getting pregnant.
Have sex frequently. It may seem like a no-brainer, but given many couples' hectic schedules, it's easy to overlook this one. If you're not timing your cycles or you have irregular periods, you can cover your bases by having sex every other day, say fertility specialists.
Figure out when you ovulate. Women with very regular 28-day cycles can just count 14 days from the first day of their period to determine their ovulation date. If your cycles aren't regular (or even if they are), an ovulation kit can help you pinpoint your most fertile time.
Most ovulation kits measure the level of luteinizing hormone (LH) -- one of the hormones that signals the ovaries to release an egg -- present in your urine. LH begins to surge around 36 hours before you ovulate, but most kits don't detect it until 24 hours prior. A woman with a 28-day cycle should start testing her urine on day nine or ten after the start of her period so she doesn't miss her surge.
A new palm-size, electronic device called ClearPlan Easy measures LH and estrogen levels, and can signal ovulation up to five days in advance.
Monitoring cervical mucus is another way to track ovulation. "It's not as reliable as a kit," says Sandra Carson, M.D., professor of ob-gyn at Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston, "but it doesn't cost anything." This method involves checking your secretions for a few months until you notice a pattern. Estrogen causes mucus to thin after your period, while rising levels of progesterone right after ovulation make it thicken. Once you pinpoint when you ovulate, you can plan to have sex several times leading up to that day.
The drawbacks: Many women find this method inconvenient, or inaccurate since such factors as nursing and antihistamines, even fertility drugs, can dry up mucus.
Charting your basal body temperature is useful for figuring out when you ovulate. "Your temperature usually dips by half a degree 24 hours before you ovulate; then it goes up as you ovulate," says Pette Zarmakoupis, M.D., an ob-gyn and director of the Kentucky Center for Reproductive Medicine, in Lexington. But since basal body temperature can be thrown off by a number of things, such as illness, don't rely on it alone.
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How to Get Pregnant - basic tips to make sure you're doing the right things to improve your chances.
Tips on getting pregnant: A woman has a fertile time lasting about...
Headaches During Pregnancy
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Headaches During Pregnancy
Mother Nature's Message
Terry has a headache. Poor girl had a migraine last week, too. She’s six-weeks pregnant and feels lousy. She asks, “Is this normal?” Yep, Terry, unfortunately it is. Headaches are one of the most common yet underpublicized symptoms of pregnancy. Nausea gets all the glory and fatigue comes in second place but headaches are right up there on the top of the symptom-list for many women.
Like morning sickness, women tend to get more headaches in the first trimester than later in pregnancy. Why? In part, its Mother Nature’s way of warning us how much more exciting and hectic life is about to become, but there are a lot of physiologic reasons for headaches too. Raging hormones, increased blood volume and circulation get most of the blame but The American Pregnancy Association lists these causes for headaches too:
· Lack of sleep· Low blood sugar· Dehydration· Caffeine withdrawal· Stress (too many changes)
Don’t underestimate how big a change giving up that diet Pepsi or double cappuccino is. Ask anyone what it felt like to quit their caffeine habit and they’ll name “headaches” as their #1 complaint. Add to that the hours of sleep you’re not getting because you have to pee all the time, all the late-night talks with your partner about what to name the baby, your aversion to all healthy foods (along with your new diet of crackers, ice water and almost nothing else) and it only makes sense to get a headache.
While some women get fewer migraines during pregnancy (due to dilated blood vessels increasing circulation to the brain), others have more migraines. The real kicker is you can’t take most of the medicines that relieve them. What’s the message MN is giving us with this symptom? “Get in bed, turn off the lights and ride it out.” Talk to your doctor/midwife about other things you can do to relieve your migraines.
If you start getting headaches in your last few months of pregnancy, there’s a chance you’re developing a complication called pre-eclampsia or pregnancy induced hypertension. Watch out for these accompanying symptoms: blurry vision, sudden weight gain, abdominal pain, and swelling in the hands, feet and face. Call your doctor/midwife and tell them how you’re feeling. They’ll probably want you to come in to get your blood pressure and urine checked. They may also run some blood tests. Don’t be surprised if they recommend you get more rest.
You’ll have better luck with headache-induced bed rest if this is your first baby than if you have a toddler (and a first-grader and maybe an adolescent or two) banging on your door. Call your mom, sister, best friend or baby sitter and ask them to take your older kids out for a few hours while you take a nap (and maybe some Tylenol).
Mother Nature’s a noisy girl and not the least-bit subtle. She can be ruthless and blunt. Listen to her when she tells you something loud and clear with an annoying physical symptom like a headache. Her biggest message? “Build your village, honey…you’re going to need it.” Once you have children, your girlfriends and sisters are going to be more important than an iced mocha or martini ever was in your pre-kid life. Seriously, don’t hesitate to call them when you need, NEED a break from your little ones because you’ve got a lousy, rotten, no good headache. Turnabout’s fair play, though. Be there when they call you.
Terry, I hope your headache is short-lived and the rest of your pregnancy is a breeze. Get some rest and know that all will be well soon enough. I’ll be thinking about you.Jeanne Faulkner, R.N., lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and five children. Got a question for Jeanne? E-mail it to labornurse@fitpregnancy.com and it may be answered in a future blog post.
This Fit Pregnancy blog is intended for educational purposes only. It is not intended to replace medical advice from your physician. Before initiating any exercise program, diet or treatment provided by Fit Pregnancy, you should seek medical advice from your primary caregiver.
via fitpregnancy.com
Really terrific advice on dealing with headaches at any time and also good for when you're trying to get pregnant.
Human ovulation captured on film
via youtube.com
How to Get Pregnant - Amazing video!
