When it comes to childbirth, there are a lot of unknowns. To prep for labor and delivery—both physically and mentally—it’s helpful to brush up on some of the procedures that your doctor might recommend during the birth. So if your doctor tosses out the term “episiotomy” after you’ve spent a good while pushing, you know exactly what it means, what’s involved and how to come to an informed decision together with your medical team....
The National Institutes of Health recommend pregnant women get at least 300 milligrams of DHA, an omega-3 fatty acid, in their daily diet. DHA plays a role in baby’s brain development. Your best bet for this nutrient is fish, including salmon, anchovies, herring, and tuna. While at the fish counter, keep in mind that wild-caught fish are higher in DHA than farm-raised. That’s because fish get their DHA from their food, and food fed to farm-raised fish may not contain DHA....
What is hyperthyroidism during pregnancy? Hyperthyroidism means your thyroid gland is overactive, putting too much of the thyroid hormone into your body. This can speed up your metabolism, affecting all your bodily processes. What are the signs of hyperthyroidism? Since everything’s going faster in your bod, you may be sweating more, have more frequent bowel movements, be losing weight (or gaining it too slowly) or having trouble sleeping. You may also feel like your heart is racing or be irritable, nervous, anxious or weak....
It’s tough not to obsess, especially when Aunt Flo arrives month after month. First, realize that what you’re going through is normal. Yes, a widely cited stat says that it takes the average couple between four and six months to conceive, but that means it took many couples a lot longer. And while it may seem like “everyone” you know gets knocked up without a problem, there’s a good chance they struggled too....
Mastitis can occur whenever a breast stays full for too long. If you get it, it’s usually a sign you’re trying to wean too quickly. You will probably find that by slowing down the pace, you can avoid mastitis. Start by dropping one daily breastfeeding session, and give your body three to four days to adjust your milk production downward before dropping another. If at any time your breasts start to feel full, express just enough milk to make yourself comfortable — but no more....
That depends. Is your water supply fluoridated? If your water supply contains between 0.7 and 1.2 parts per million of fluoride, you’re good to go. Your doctor or dentist should know if your municipal water supply is adequately fluoridated. If not, check with your city’s water department. You can also try looking up your community on the CDC’s web page My Water’s Fluoride. If your water supply is not fluoridated, your child may need fluoride supplementation....
It’s every new parent’s biggest fear: One moment, baby is sound asleep and the next, she’s not breathing. By definition, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) has no known cause. It’s extremely rare, but a small percentage of babies do die in their sleep within the first year of life, without warning or explanation. The best way to decrease baby’s SIDS risk is to always keep her in a safe environment, especially while sleeping....
And the Winner Is: Lake Pajamas Pima Maternity Set Comfortable PJs are a Mom to be must-have. When getting a full night’s rest can be a challenge, you deserve the softest sleepwear ever. Made from 100% Peruvian pima cotton, it doesn’t get much more luxurious than Lake Pajamas. The line was started by two new Moms on a quest to find their ideal pjs. Their maternity short-long set comes with a short-sleeve crew neck t-shirt with built in room for a bump and high-waisted elastic long pants....
And the Winner Is: Teat and Cosset Are “nursing clothes” really necessary? We think so. Sure, you could just lift up your top to feed baby, but there’s something pretty fantastic about putting on a new outfit post-pregnancy that fits and flatters and makes you feel a little more confident to nurse in public. Teat and Cosset is on a mission to make mamas feel like their best selves, and we are here for it....
When your baby was teeny, you were advised to keep pillows, blankets and even crib bumpers out of his bed. But now that he’s a toddler — and capable of coordinated, independent movement — pillows and blankets are perfectly okay. It’s best, though, to stick to child-size bedding. It’s too easy for a toddler, especially a young toddler, to get entangled in adult-size bedding. Blankets that are too bulky, or adult-size pillows, can be overwhelming for your child, or potentially dangerous....
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again (and this time, there’s research to back it up!) but girls really do mature much earlier (and much more quickly) than boys. New research published in the journal Cerebral Cortex found that girls’ brains march through the reorganization and pruning typical of normal brain development earlier than boys’ brains do. The translataion? Girls’ brains are doing the same things as boys’ brains — only faster....
For nine months, you carefully avoided deli meat, hot dogs and unpasteurized cheese (and all the other non-pregnancy-friendly foods) to keep baby safe and healthy. Of course, now that baby is finally here, those protective instincts are probably only heightened—so it’s normal to wonder if there are foods to avoid while nursing. After all, molecules from the food you eat can make their way through your breast milk and into baby’s system....
About half of all twins weigh at least 5½ pounds at birth. (Below 5½ pounds, or 2,500 grams, is considered a low birth weight, with a higher potential for complications.) In comparison, the average singleton weighs 7 pounds, but it’s not that she’s comparatively bigger, it’s because on average she’s hanging out in utero for another five weeks. That said, it’s not unusual for some women to deliver twins that each weigh around 7 pounds if the pregnancy lasts until week 37 (just think how much better you’d feel when you were done carrying that load around)....
Yesterday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said in a public statement that nearly half-a-dozen medications used to treat migraine headaches can decrease children’s intelligence if taken when mothers are pregnant. The public warning was mostly aimed at doctors and women of child-bearing age. The FDA warned that some of these drugs, including Depakote and Depacon, should not be taken by pregnant women in order to prevent migraine headaches. The pills, which all contain valproate sodium, already carry a boxed warning about the risk of birth defects, but the FDA said yesterday that they will be adding new warnings to all of the migraine drugs after a study showed that they decreased IQ scores in children whose mothers took the medicine while pregnant....
Let me share a funny story. A few weeks ago, my husband, baby boy, and I were traveling to see family across the state. My son was still nursing every two hours or so (still is!) and we were looking at a three-hour car drive ahead of us. Without getting into too many details, my right breast became very full and the only solution was to hand express some of my milk in to a semi-empty diet soda cup....
Typically, if all goes well, by a few weeks after childbirth, you can’t tell whether a baby was delivered vaginally or via c-section. And by the time your son or daughter is in preschool, you typically won’t be able to tell whether or not that child was exclusively breastfed. Despite all the controversy over parenting choices, most moms and dads do what’s right for their family at that time, and it all turns out just fine....
Giving birth is probably one of the more physically taxing experiences you’ll face in your lifetime. So it’s not particularly surprising that, according to a survey out of Stanford University, about 71 percent of pregnant women in the US opt to have an epidural to help manage the pain. Of course, that also means that there’s a good portion of (very strong and strong-willed!) women out there who opt for a medication-free birth....
Strange food cravings are a kind of pregnancy hallmark—think: an ice cream sunday with a pickle chaser. But when your cravings leave you with a hankering for nonfood items, there could be something else going on. What Is Pica? Pica is a condition in which pregnant women compulsively eat nonfood items (over the course of at least a month) that don’t have any nutritional value, like dirt and clay. The medical term comes from the Latin name for magpie (Pica pica), a bird that’s said to eat almost anything....
And the Winner Is: SoundBub by WavHello Every parent wants to create the ideal sleep environment for their baby, of course, but it’s a common myth that infants need silence to drift off to dreamland. The womb is actually a pretty noisy place, what with the constant sounds of your heartbeat, blood flow and digestive system—so it’s in fact soothing for newborns to hear ambient white noise. We’re big fans of SoundBub by WavHello, a portable white noise machine that offers every feature you could want....
When Can Baby Sit in a High Chair? Make sure the high chair has no chance of tipping. That means placing it far enough from the table or counter so baby can’t use their feet to push themselves back. Don’t let other children play or climb on the high chair either. Always supervise your child when they’re in their high chair and never let them stand. Take advantage of the high chair’s safety straps—they should always be buckled....
