Pregnancy

Fetal Development – Second Trimester of Pregnancy

This is the second installment in the Fetal Development – Pregnancy Week by Week – videos. (The first post in the series was First Trimester of Pregnancy: Fetal Development).

In the second trimester of pregnancy, all of your pregnancy symptoms tend to get better. The elevated levels of pregnancy hormones in your body levels off, so you get relief from everything. No more morning sickness, goodbye for fatigue (until the third trimester), and say hello to renewed sex drive! You will love your second trimester of pregnancy – which is often called the “honeymoon” phase of pregnancy.

Inside your womb, here’s how your baby is developing…

Fetal Development – 15 Weeks Pregnant to 20 Weeks Pregnant

Fetal Development: Pregnancy Week 21 to 27 Weeks Pregnant

First Trimester of Pregnancy: Fetal Development

by DP Nguyen 8 Comments

If you’re in your first trimester of pregnancy, you will enjoy the following video. Brought to you by BabyCenter, one of the most trusted resources for pregnant women and new moms, this video explains what changes are happening inside your womb – from the moment of conception (sperm fertilized egg) until your second trimester.

You will be amazed at how fast and how quickly your baby develops. Fetal development is quite miraculous, and the first trimester of pregnancy is an especially sensitive time. In the first trimester, all of your baby’s major organs – heart, lungs, spinal cord – are undergoing dramatic changes. That’s why healthy living habits (such as no smoking or drinking) is crucial in the first 13 weeks of pregnancy.

(Videos are embedded after the Jump).

Pregnancy Week 1-9 – Fetal Development in the 1st Trimester

Pregnancy Week 10-14: Fetal Development in the 1st Trimester

Stay tuned tomorrow and the next day for more videos. I will embed all 40 weeks of pregnancy into my posts. Hope you enjoy them!

Overview of Triplet Pregnancy

by DP Nguyen 4 Comments

Pregnancy takes a lot out of your body – physically and emotionally. With a single baby, it’s tough enough, but when you’re pregnant with triples or multiples, this takes pregnancy to another ballpark. All your pregnancy symptoms are worse when you’re carrying multiples. From severe bouts of morning sickness to extreme fatigue to horrible backaches, a multiple pregnancy is tough.

High Risk Pregnancy

In addition to having the worst pregnancy symptoms, a triplet pregnancy puts you at higher risk for pregnancy complications – including increasing your risk of gestational diabetes (diabetes that suddenly develops when you’re pregnant, and then disappears after your baby is born), pregnancy-related hypertension (high blood pressure), uterine bleeding, c-section delivery, and pre-term birth. In fact, 75 to 100 percent of all triplets are born premature.

Did you know that the average length of a triplet pregnancy is about 32 weeks? That’s why you are considered a “high risk” pregnancy when you have three lives growing in your womb.

Tylenol and Other Painkillers May Be Risky During Pregnancy

by DP Nguyen 4 Comments

If you’re pregnant with a baby boy, you’ll want to pay close attention to the latest research findings out of the UK. New research suggests that prolonged use of the painkiller paracetamol (acetaminophen in the U.S.), aspirin, and ibuprofen may be linked to increasing the risk of un-descended testicles in male babies – a condition called “cryptorchidism” that affects between 3 and 4 percent of all full-term babies.

Cryptorchidism puts the affected babies at risk for infertility later in life and a higher chance of cancer in both testicles. In fact, little boys who are born with an un-descended testicle have a 20 to 40 times increased risk of developing testicular cancer later in life. That’s why doctors recommend surgery and hormone therapy to help the affected testicle descend into the scrotum.

This new research study looked at 2,000 pregnant women and their babies. The European researchers found that women who used more than one painkiller at the same time – for example, ibuprofen (Advil) and acetaminophen (Tylenol) – were at seven times the risk of giving birth to baby boys with some form of un-descended testicles, compared to women who took no painkillers at all.

Second Trimester – a Significant Time

The second trimester appeared to be the most sensitive time for babies. Taking any painkiller in the second trimester doubled the risk of cryptorchidism. Of the various painkillers, ibuprofen and aspirin put the babies at four times the risk, and acetaminophen (called “paracetamol” Europe) doubled the baby’s risk. Taking more than one painkiller simultaneously in the second trimester increased the baby’s risk by 16 times!

The researchers believe that taking painkillers during pregnancy interferes with the natural balance of male hormones (such as testosterone) at work in unborn male babies, and this may slow down normal fetal development. It’s possible that the second trimester is more crucial, since it’s in the middle part of pregnancy that male testicles start to descend into the scrotum.

Lead scientist of the study, Dr. Henrik Leffers, said this: “If exposure to endocrine disruptors is the mechanism behind the increasing reproductive problems among young men in the Western World, this research suggests that particular attention should be paid to the use of mild analgesics during pregnancy, as this could be a major reason for the problems.”

More Research Needed

This study had some limitations. For example, not all of the women accurately remembered how often they took painkillers. More research needs to be done before doctors can recommend that you take no painkillers what so ever.

The research is published in November 8, 2010 issue of Human Reproduction, Europe’s leading reproductive medical journal.

Current Recommendations on Pain Medication during Pregnancy

For years, doctors have routinely recommended that pregnant women use acetaminophen (Tylenol) to relieve any aches and pains during pregnancy. Aspirin, ibuprofen, and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are typically not recommended in pregnancy due to their link to miscarriage, slow fetal growth, and other problems. Aspirin is sometimes prescribed to pregnant women with preeclampsia (high blood pressure and protein in the urine), but in these special cases, the good must outweigh the bad effects.

This new study does make you think twice about taking any medications during pregnancy – even ones that are considered “safe” in small doses.

What do you think about this new study? Are you willing to take medication during pregnancy?

Tips to Get Pregnant Faster

by DP Nguyen 10 Comments

Fertility and conception are tricky matters. For some women, getting pregnant is as easy as pie. All they have to do is jump in the sack with a willing partner, toss out their contraception, and enjoy the ride. Unfortunately, not all women have it that easy. For the unlucky ones, conception becomes more of a science. It may become a nightly chore, a mating ritual that revolves around using ovulation kits, using period tracker apps on their iPhones, a succession of fertility tests to pinpoint possible complications, visiting fertility specialists and so forth.

If you are one of the unfortunate couples having a hard time conceiving, consider the following tips to help you get pregnant faster.

Make Love Every Other Day

This is just common sense. If you want to get pregnant, you have to have sex. A lot of sex. It’s as easy as that. Doctors recommend that couples trying to get pregnant should have sex every other day, not every day. Waiting that extra day helps build up the sperm supply – and increases your chance of pregnancy.

Some women delay having sex until around the time they ovulate. While having sex around the time of ovulation helps your chances of pregnancy, you don’t want to wait until you ovulate to make love. Some women don’t always ovulate when they think they will, so making lots of passionate love is not only fun (for both of you), but it’s covering your bases so you don’t miss any opportunity to get pregnant.

The key here – have lots and lots of sex.

Best Sexual Position for Pregnancy

To boost your chance of getting pregnant, you may want to try the missionary sexual position (man on top). This helps deposit the sperm close to the cervix, and it may just give you that extra push to get pregnant. You will want to avoid any position where the woman is on top – this makes it easier for sperm to leak out.

This might sound funny, but after you’ve finished having sex, lay on your back with your legs up in the air. This will prevent sperm from falling out of you, and it may help sperm stay inside your vagina longer.

Use an Ovulation Kit

If you are serious about wanting to get pregnant, you should invest in an ovulation kit. They are available over the counter at any pharmacy, and they will help you predict when you’re ovulating (i.e. most fertile) and most likely to get pregnant.

Ovulation prediction kits work by measuring the level of luteinizing hormone (LH) in your body – LH is one of the hormones that signals your ovaries to release an egg during ovulation. LH levels rise about 36 hours before ovulation, but most ovulation kits won’t detect it until 24 hours beforehand. To get the most use out of an ovulation kit, you should start testing your urine nine days (a week and two days) after the start of your last period. This way, you won’t accidently miss your ovulation period.

If you’re looking for a useful ovulation prediction kit, consider the ClearBlue Easy – which measures both LH and estrogen levels, and it can predict ovulation up to five days before it happens. Check it out.

Free Methods of Calculating Ovulation

Ovulation prediction kits can be expensive, though. So if you want an easier way to figure out when you’re ovulation, consider using an iPhone or an iPod touch app that tracks your period. I use the Period Tracker on my iPod touch – which tracks the length of my cycles and calculates when I’m ovulating.

As a rule of thumb, women with 28-day menstrual cycles typically ovulate 14 days after the first day of their period – usually at the end of the second week of your cycle.

If you’d rather go the old-fashioned route, you can always monitor your cervical mucus to track your ovulation. While it’s not as reliable as an ovulation kit, it’s absolutely free. You just have to keep track of your vaginal discharge. When you’re ovulating, your cervical mucus is thick and stretchy – if you touch it with your fingers, you can stretch it about an inch before it breaks. (Gross, but a good way to tell whether or not you’re heading toward ovulation zone.)

You can also chart your basal body temperature to tell whether or not you’re ovulating. Your temperature typically lowers about half a degree 24 hours before you ovulate, and then increases during ovulation.

Have Sex before Ovulation

The best way to get pregnant is to have lots of glorious sex the week that you will ovulate. Because sperm can live up three to five days after ejaculation, you’ll want to maximize your chance of pregnancy with lots of sex that week. Unfortunately, your egg will only survive about 24 hours after you ovulate. So it’s best to have sex before ovulation, not afterwards.

Good luck!

New Study: Severe Morning Sickness is Genetic on Both Sides of Families

by DP Nguyen 1 Comment

Ask anyone who has ever been pregnant, and they will regale you with stories of nausea and vomiting during pregnancy – commonly known as “morning sickness.” Researchers estimate that between 50 to 90 percent of all pregnant women will experience some level of morning sickness in their first trimester. Some pregnant women are just slightly nauseous, while others have horrible bouts of vomiting and queasiness.

Morning sickness is one of the early signs of pregnancy, and it can hit women as early as 6 weeks pregnant. It typically starts to peak around 8 or 9 weeks pregnant, and for most women, it disappears completely by the second trimester. (That’s why the second trimester is called the “honeymoon” phase of pregnancy – all your horrible first trimester pregnancy symptoms go away!)

Unfortunately, for a small number of pregnant women, they continue to have severe morning sickness throughout all 40 weeks of pregnancy. This condition is called “hyperemesis gravidarum,” and it’s defined by extreme, persistent nausea and vomiting during pregnancy. In other words, you are constantly throwing up and feeling nauseous throughout your entire pregnancy. This condition can lead to dehydration, malnutrition, and significant weight loss. Approximately 60,000 pregnant women are hospitalized annual from this extreme form of morning sickness.

For years, the cause of hyperemesis gravidarum was largely unknown, though researchers had several theories. Many scientists believed that severe morning sickness was caused by the rapidly rising levels of the pregnancy hormone hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin), which is secreted by the placenta. That’s why women who carried twins are more likely to develop hyperemesis gravidarum.

According to a new study, published online today in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, pregnant women whose sisters suffered from hyperemesis gravidarum are 17 times more likely to suffer from this debilitating morning sickness.

Researchers from the University of California – Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of Southern California (USC) traced the family histories of women with hyperemesis gravidarum and discovered that this severe morning sickness had a strong genetic component.

Women who had sisters, mothers, and grandmothers on both sides of the family (paternal and maternal) were at a heightened risk of developing hyperemesis gravidarum during pregnancy. This was especially true if the pregnant women had sisters who suffered from the pregnancy complication.

The authors of this study looked at 650 participants. The pregnant women in the study had been diagnosed with hyperemesis gravidarum; the controls were women with at least two pregnancies that lasted longer than 27 weeks and who had not suffered from severe morning sickness. The researchers compared the family history of morning sickness in the pregnant women and the controls.

They discovered that the women with hyperemesis gravidarum with a sister who suffered from the same form of severe morning sickness were 17.3 times more likely to have the condition. In addition, 33 percent of the pregnant women reported having a mother who suffered from the condition, compared to only 8 percent of the controls.

When the researchers traced back to grandmothers’ pregnancies, they found that 18 percent of the pregnant women with severe morning sickness had a maternal grandmother with the same condition, and 23 percent of the pregnant women had a paternal grandmother – suggesting this condition is inherited through the father’s side of the family.

“Because the incidence of hyperemesis gravidarum is most commonly reported to be 0.5 percent in the population, and the sisters of cases have as much as an 18-fold increased familial risk for HG compared to controls, this study provides strong evidence for a genetic component to extreme nausea and vomiting in pregnancy,” the researchers concluded in the study.

You May Also Enjoy Reading…

10 Tips for Dealing and Surviving Morning Sickness.
My Agonizing Decision to Take Prescription Medicines for Severe Morning Sickness