Questions every mother-to-be may not be asking, but should!
-Susan Crandell, BettyConfidential.com
Every woman has questions about her pregnancy, but here are six you might not have considered that are worth talking about with your doctor:
How Much Weight Should I Gain? When my mother had me, doctors wanted women to gain as little weight as possible during pregnancy. I myself gave birth during the Goodyear Blimp era of maternity - when there were no rules on weight gain. I ate a cinnamon donut every morning and a frozen Snickers every afternoon - and gained a whopping 40 pounds.
Now, the pendulum is swinging back to the theory that less is more - at least if you're overweight. In the first revision of weight gain guidelines in nearly 20 years, the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council recommend that women who have a body mass index of 30 or higher should gain no more than 20 pounds. For thinner women, the rules haven't changed (nor has the fact that I broke them). If your BMI is 25 to 29.9, gain 15-25 pounds; if it's 18.5 to 24.9 (normal), gain 25-35 pounds; if it's under 18.5, gain 28 to 40 pounds.
Is My Placenta Big Enough? Since it's the sole source of nutrients - both oxygen and food - to a developing fetus, the placenta's health and size are critical to a successful pregnancy. Yet because of its unusual shape, the placenta is hard to measure.
Now, researchers at Yale have devised a formula to calculate its volume using measurements taken during a routine ultrasound halfway through a pregnancy. It's a calculation some doctors urge all pregnant women to have.
Am I Getting Enough Folic Acid? Folic acid has long been a staple of prenatal vitamins, with benefits that are well proven, such as reducing the incidence of defects like spina bifida. Now, a new study at the University of Texas suggests that you should start taking it even before you conceive.
Women who began taking folic acid a year before becoming pregnant halved their incidence of premature births. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force currently recommends 400-800 micrograms of folic acid a day. It can't hurt to start the regimen when you start thinking about a baby.
Can My Fetus Form Memories? Could your
offspring be amassing memories while still in the womb? Sounds
doubtful, but researchers in the Netherlands believe that fetuses
as young as 30 weeks may have some short-term memory capability.
When exposed to a vibration, they startle, but then become
accustomed to it (which means they remember it), and the startle
reflex stops. At 34 weeks, fetuses were able to store the memory
for four weeks. Interesting waypoints on the development to a fully
functioning brain.
Could My Newborn Have Strep? Step B is a common
bacteria that can be transmitted from mother to baby during
childbirth, potentially causing blood infections, hearing and
vision loss, retardation or even death. Since 2002, the CDC has
recommended that every pregnant woman be screened.
Now, new research by the CDC reveals that there are more false negatives than had been thought. And if a mother thinks she isn't infected, she won't get treated before labor. Scientists aren't sure why so many tests are coming up negative when step B is present, but they say screening is still the way to go, and that possibly it should be done closer to birth (the original guidelines are between 35 and 37 weeks).
Should I Have Fetal Monitoring? More than eight out of 10 babies born in the U.S. today are monitored electronically during labor. Fetal monitoring provides a constant heart rate, but doctors differ on whether this is always a good thing. Originally, it was thought that this kind of surveillance would reduce the occurrence of cerebral palsy and fetal death. Neither has happened.
New guidelines have been approved by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. (For a full reading of the guidelines, go to www.acog.org). The intent is to help doctors determine which patients truly need Cesareans by prescribing guidelines for doctors to assess ambiguous fetal readings.
Also from BettyConfidential.com: Woman Fired for Pumping Breast Milk
