Blog Posts by FitPregnancy

Some moms just aren't able to breastfeed. Fortunately, these women can still give their babies the breast milk they need.

After Audra Murray's twins were born at 30 weeks, her breast milk took its time coming in. A hormonal condition, coupled with the fact that the babies were too weak to nurse, wreaked havoc on her supply. "My milk took about two weeks to show up," says Murray, 37, who lives in Newton, Mass. "I was pumping every two hours every day, but my milk didn't come in until I took Reglan [a drug that increases the milk-making hormone prolactin]."

She wanted to give her preemies every benefit possible, so instead of formula, Murray chose to give the twins donated milk for their first two weeks of life. She continued to supplement her own milk with donated milk for three months, until her babies were strong and coordinated enough to latch on properly.

There are other reasons a woman may not be able to breastfeed. Mastectomy, breast-reduction surgery,

From Fit Pregnancy's Mom Appetit blog:

Merry mid-October! It is a little-known fact that during the third year of a child's life, a holiday is designated, just as the days shorten and the mornings seem especially night-like. It is a subtle holiday, falling on a random Tuesday when everyone has been really busy. The customs by which this holiday is observed differ from family to family. In our home, it is celebrated as follows:

The mother picks up the child from preschool and they discuss Halloween costumes. He wants to be "a round cookie."

The mother and child walk to a scenic park on a hill, where warm fall sunshine dapples the ground and the low sun glows gold over New Jersey.

The boy beats the crap out of a tree with a very hefty club-like stick. Then he runs around the park holding the stick to his mouth and shouting "c--- -A-DOODLE-DOO!!! THIS IS MY TRUMPET!!!" while his mother cringes, and suggests that he put on his fleece.

The boy dissolves in

The new health care legislation has perks for pregnant women, new moms and babies, starting now.

"A women was denied coverage because she had a baby with a medically mandated Cesarean section," said U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., after federal health reform legislation passed in late March. "When she tried to get insurance coverage with another company, she was told she had to be sterilized in order to get [it]. That will never, ever happen again." Here are other ways in which the new law benefits pregnant women, new moms and babies, in order of implementation:

1. Coverage for birth centers
Medicaid, a state- and federally funded program for low-income families, will pay for deliveries at freestanding birth centers. "This is a big deal because private insurers often follow the precedent set by Medicaid," says Kate Bauer, executive director of the American Association of Birth Centers.
Effective date: now

2. Pumping breaks at work
Companies with more

From Fit Pregnancy's Ask the Labor Nurse column

Ellen (not her real name) came to the Emergency Room (ER) at seven months pregnant with severe back pain, a fever and vomiting. She couldn't pee and couldn't stop crying. Ellen hadn't seen a doctor yet for prenatal care and was deeply embarrassed about that. She worked two part-time jobs, but didn't have medical insurance. She couldn't afford prenatal care, but planned to see a doctor soon and deliver at a hospital. She recognizes now that wasn't a great plan. Ineligible for public health care (Medicaid), there was no safety net to catch her before she fell through the cracks into the crisis she shares with more than 40 million uninsured Americans.

Ellen's crisis began as a urinary tract infection that could have been treated quickly and cheaply at home. Since Ellen didn't have a doctor, she tried clearing it up on her own by drinking cranberry juice. Within a few days however, it progressed to a severe kidney infection and she

When the editor of Fit Pregnancy asked me if I'd write about my experience breastfeeding so far, I said yes immediately. But then as I thought about it I got a little self-conscious about talking about my breasts on the internet. Well, I'm just going to keep reminding myself that it's just that kind of self-consciousness that gives some women trouble with breastfeeding in general, and I'll soldier on.

For context, I'm breastfeeding exclusively and have since day one.

I think almost every woman faces some sort of challenge when they first start breastfeeding. I was lucky enough to have good supply, only a few encounters with engorgement, and, magically, no leaking or spraying of milk! But we had a lot of trouble with latch for the first few weeks. I won't lie, I was in a lot of pain, and I was really frustrated. For some reason I couldn't figure out how to position him to help get him on the nipple correctly, and he had a very slight tongue-tie that didn't help matters. (In

From Fit Pregnancy's Mom Appetit blogger. Check out all her recipes here.

Warning: I'm going to be talking about poop. As fellow-blogger Kate points out, parenthood does this to a person.

It has always seemed to me to be an unfortunate coincidence that toddlers, as they become physically ready for toilet training, also become extremely oppositional. You know: Terrible, as they say. But you know what? It's not a coincidence at all.

Controlling your life is very important, frustrating, confusing and, for the most part, unattainable at age two. This complex helps produce the motivation to control where you can-say by throwing yourself on the ground and refusing to put a coat on, or by controlling your poop and pee, and opposing anyone who tells you what to do with it.

We've tried to steer clear of making toilet training a power struggle by introducing the potty with very low pressure and assuming that Leo will step up when he's ready. But the pressure is there anyway.

From Fit Pregnancy's Adventures in Babyland:

Wow, another growth spurt already? On Tuesday Tucker suddenly fed for a total of five and a half hours, up from his usual three and a half or so. His sleep went wonky again and he was back into his "Little Monster" onesie for the duration. It doesn't help that our weather has been gross; hot and incredibly muggy and rainy. He wakes up drenched in sweat and feels clammy all the time (I've checked, he doesn't have a fever), and there's really nothing I can do about it. Poor little guy.

As anyone with a baby knows, life in these first couple months has three endlessly repeated phases: Sleep, Feed, Diaper. The feeding I've got taken care of, product-free (ha!). But daytime sleep is still something we're struggling with, and of course I'm still trying to figure out my cloth-diaper alternative.

First, the diapers. A few weeks ago I wrote of my love for Nature Babycare's unscented wipes. The only downside is that they aren't very

Popular Chinese lunar calendars are fun but not necessarily fool-proof in guessing baby's sex.

Using a Chinese lunar calendar to predict your baby's gender is becoming increasingly popular. However, researchers found that your chances of an accurate answer are 50/50. But as many moms-to-be will attest, those calendars are 100 percent fun!

Scientists at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and colleagues in Sweden and Boston worked together to verify the accuracy of these popular Chinese lunar gender calendars that are popping up on pregnancy websites. The calendar is based on a formula using the mother's Chinese lunar age when she gets pregnant and the Chinese lunar month in which she actually conceives. (Don't worry, most sites do all these calculations for you after you type in a few dates.)

The study's findings: It's fun to use, but the calendar doesn't really improve your chances over a random guess. It's almost like flipping a coin.

So, it