Pregnancy - The Top Twenty Things You Should Know

Pregnancy is an exciting stage in a woman's life. It is the time when a woman undertakes a big responsibility to care for a new life that grows inside her. This whole journey lasts for 40 weeks, thus every woman should know the top twenty things about pregnancy. Whether it is your first time to get pregnant or you have been pregnant, it is a must that you know these things because these will greatly influence your ability to bring about the best for your baby.

Pregnancy Signs and Symptoms

If you are pregnant, you will experience some of these pregnancy signs and symptoms: nausea or morning sickness, headaches, dizziness and fainting spells, mood swings, fatigue, food cravings, tender or swollen breasts, and missed period.

Pregnancy - The Top Twenty Things You Should Know

Pregnancy Test

Once you have experienced those signs and symptoms, you can undergo a pregnancy test to confirm your pregnancy. You can do this yourself since various pregnancy test kits are available over-the-counter or you can go to a clinic that offers this test.

Prenatal Visit

After you confirmed that you are pregnant, you can schedule an appointment with your preferred obstetrician. During your first prenatal visit, information like the first day of your last menstrual period and your expected date of delivery will be given to you. Pregnancy vitamins will also be prescribed and you will be scheduled for a monthly prenatal visit to monitor your baby's development.

Other Tests and Procedures

Aside from the pregnancy test, you will also have to undergo other tests and procedures like urine test, complete blood count, blood type, Rh factor, and antibody screening, hepatitis B testing, ultrasound, and fetal monitoring.

Pregnancy Stages

There are actually three stages that you will have to go through during the entire course of your pregnancy: the first trimester, the second trimester, and the third trimester. In each stage, you will notice some changes in your body as your baby develops inside and you will even experience pregnancy discomforts.

Nutritional Needs

As a pregnant woman, you have to know your nutritional needs. Take note that birth complications and abnormalities can arise from pregnancy malnutrition. So, you should eat a well-balanced diet and make sure that you take the vitamins prescribed by your doctor.

Family Medical History

It is also important that you know your family medical history to enhance preparedness. This can help you prepare for the possible illnesses and birth abnormalities that your baby can be at risk of. This can also help you determine if there is a chance for you to conceive twins or triplets.

Present Medical Conditions

You should also discuss your present medical conditions to your doctor like high blood pressure and diabetes. This can help you prevent pregnancy complications.

Pregnancy Hazards

If you are exposed to environmental hazards at work or at home, this can increase the risk of miscarriage, stillbirth, and deformities in your baby. So, make sure that you are not exposed to any of these like paint vapor during your pregnancy.

Weight Gain

Weight gain is expected during pregnancy because of your baby's development. However, it is not advisable that you exceed the recommended weight gain because being overweight can increase your risk of diabetes and hypertension.

Pregnancy Discomforts

You will experience pregnancy discomforts all throughout your pregnancy. These however, vary from woman to woman, so make sure that you are aware of these and know their corresponding remedies.

Potential Problems and their Symptoms

Although most women have normal pregnancies with minor discomforts and no complications, it is important that you know the symptoms for potential problems like vaginal bleeding, pelvic or abdominal pain, swelling of the hands and feet, and no fetal movement. These symptoms could lead to miscarriage, ecclampsia, and stillbirth if ignored.

Pregnancy Do's and Don'ts

The do's and don'ts are different for each woman and each pregnancy. It is best that you discuss this with your doctor.

Exercise

Exercise during pregnancy is recommended for most women, but only at a moderate speed. Walking, in particular, is highly recommended because this can help your body withstand the rigors of labor and delivery more easily.

Birthing Class

Birthing class, which is considered a ritual of modern pregnancy, gives you and your spouse a chance to prepare together for the big day of labor.

Birthing Option and Place

Prior to your due date, you should discuss your birthing option, whether vaginal or caesarean delivery, to your obstetrician. You should also check the place where you will deliver your baby and see if it will be comfortable for you.

Labor

As your due date draws near, you would want to know exactly when labor will start. It would be best that you understand the whole process of labor and its different stages.

Baby's Name

Before the arrival of your baby, perhaps you already have a name in mind. If you still don't have, you can check books or online for babies names or ask your relatives and friends for suggestions.

Baby Things

During your pregnancy, you can keep yourself busy by preparing all the baby things that you need. Shopping for these items with your husband would be better because this would be a great bonding time for both of you.

Basic Childcare

While taking care of the unborn child is important during pregnancy, this time also gives you the best opportunity to learn about basic childcare. You should know beforehand the best possible care and nutrition that you can give to your baby.

Pregnancy is indeed a challenging stage characterized by both anxiety and excitement. However, by learning these top twenty things that you should know about pregnancy, you can have the best of this journey and be on your way to a fruitful motherhood.

Pregnancy - The Top Twenty Things You Should Know
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Why Men Should Have No Say On The Abortion Issue

I had a discussion with a close male friend this week who says he is pro-choice - to
an extent. He went on for sometime sharing his views on abortion with me. While he
was talking I realized something very important - unless he is the father of the
fetus, what he says really doesn't matter because he's a man.

It really gets me steamed when a man sits in judgment of a woman who has had an
abortion. I just don't see how a man can speak to this issue at all. Why should men
need to establish any type of position at all on a subject that is clearly feminine by
nature? I know many are already cowering away from this article in fear of hell's fire.
Think about it though, there are several reason why men should not have a say in
what women do with their bodies.

Congratulations Sir, You're Pregnant

Why Men Should Have No Say On The Abortion Issue

For example, men have never had to face the decision of whether they should allow
a child to grow inside them. They have never been in the position of reconciling the
gift of life with the invasion of life. In fact, a man can just impregnate a woman and
walk away, which is exactly what many have done. If a man can have the right to
choose whether he wants the responsibility of fatherhood, shouldn't the woman have the same choice concerning motherhood?

Men have never been in the position of having a foreign object growing in their
bodies and being told it would be immoral to want that object removed. Men cannot
relate to the feeling personal invasion brought about by an unwanted pregnancy or
the fears of being a single mother. The woman's body is used as a vessel for life,
but it should be each woman's decision as to whether she wants to be a vessel at
that point in her life.

Daddy Isn't Here, Sweetheart

Another reason men shouldn't have a say on the abortion issue is because since the
dawn of time women have carried the majority of the burden of child rearing while
the man pursues his own interests in life. Meanwhile, the wife is tied to the home to
raise the children that both of them created. Men cannot relate to the stifling feeling
that comes from being subjected to living a life as the primary care giver. In fact,
there should be no primary care giver at all, it should be a shared responsibility.
However, when the father is not around, the woman has no other choice.

The woman knows what having a child will mean to her personal life (and yes, her
life does matter too). Sometimes the changes are welcomed, other times the future
is very scary. A man can go on with his life, his career and his own interests with
little worry about his future other than being forced to set up the baby's crib before
the mother goes into labor - if that much. However, the mother's sacrifices and
responsibilities are endless and she knows how important it is to raise children who
are productive members of society. She can't fail - even if he does shrug his
responsibilities.

Men have basically handed over parental responsibilities to the women and walked
away. Even the most well-intentioned father engages in but a small amount of the
parenting responsibilities. The women, with no other choice but to raise the children
since the father is out pursuing his career, or whatever it is that men do when they
are not at home with their families, are forced into a situation that may not even be
what that woman needs to thrive in life. She has no choice.

Does the man care that his selfishness could have a detrimental impact on the
woman? Nope. She's doing what society expects of her and he is doing whatever he
wants. It is especially difficult for women in these days when so many men just
abandon their responsibilities as fathers altogether and leave the woman completely
alone to raise the child as a single parent. Even when a father is physically around,
oft times he is not around emotionally. But again, the woman has no choice.

It Takes Two

The reason it takes both a man and a woman to make a child is because nature
knew it would take both a man and a woman to raise that child. When the man
shrugs his paternal obligation, the woman is left with a burden that wasn't meant to
be shouldered by one person.

So many conservatives believe women get recklessly pregnant and then use abortion
as birth control. This is just a tactic used to justify the imposition of their morals on
other people. Anyone who has ever been inside an abortion clinic knows abortion is
always a last resort for women. It's a desperate move to solve a desperate problem -
not a routine action.

What's even more ironic is that many times these conservatives would be the first to
rush their daughter to the abortion clinic just to save face if she ended up with an
unwanted pregnancy. Then they have the audacity to condemn the women who
choose to not have a baby because they couldn't afford to feed it or didn't want to
raise the child alone. In fact, the guy I mentioned at the start of this article
encouraged his girlfriend to have an abortion because he was afraid of what his
religious parents would think about an illegitimate child. He thinks what he did was
moral, but some abortions are not. Even worse, he is blind to his own hypocrisy.

Men, It's Time To Be A Daddy

It all too ironic that while women have been home raising the children, men have
been in politics making laws concerning women and their bodies. Men have used
their power in politics and religion to control and dominate women by telling us
what they think we can morally do with our own bodies. Imagine the arrogance!
That any man believes he has any place at all tell me what is legal for me to do with
my own body! This is why there needs to be more women legislators and religious
leaders.

I don't see men rushing to change societal expectations for maternal responsibility
concerning child rearing. I don't see them demanding the right to be more
responsible fathers or to play a more integral part in their children's lives. In fact, if
they did then they would be entitled to more say in the abortion issue. But why
should they want things to change? They've got it made in the shade. If things
changed, they'd have to pull their own weight, give up some of their own career
pursuits, and go home at a decent hour to the child waiting for dinner and a caring
hug.

In short, when men start choosing to be fathers, that's when they will have the right
to pipe in on whether women can choose to be mothers. Until then men, your
opinion just doesn't matter.

Why Men Should Have No Say On The Abortion Issue
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Stella Ramsaroop is a western world traveler, a life- long student, a wanna-be stargazer, and an Aquarius in all its forms (if you know what that means). Her articles emphasize the importance of the continued development and protection of gender equality in all aspects of a woman's life.

Stella is also the proud mother of four almost-grown children with her significant other Paul, whom she married almost 20 years ago.

Visit Stella’s Website at [http://www.newsparade.com/index.htm]

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If You Are HIV Positive, Should You Have a Baby?

For many couples, the desire to have a baby is often overwhelming. But when one parent is HIV positive, the need to protect the child becomes an overwhelming concern as well.

So, you can just imagine the struggles or sufferings of these couples to reconcile the desire for motherhood in relation to being HIV positive.

Motherhood

Five years ago, I had a colleague who was HIV positive but she still insisted on getting pregnant. During one of our coffee breaks, she related to me the torment she had to endure when received the news that she was HIV positive, especially in relation to her lifelong dreams of having a baby one day.

If You Are HIV Positive, Should You Have a Baby?

Everything was thrown out of the window, so to speak and getting pregnant was put in the back burner because she was told that the longest she could live was for another 12 years. But eventually, the thoughts about having a baby crept back and she begun asking questions like - are there people with HIV and yet have normal HIV-negative babies?

The thought that she may passed on the HIV to her kid was there, of course but after combing information over cyberspace, she knew that there was a two per cent chance that her baby may turn up to be healthy and HIV-negative. So, she was all for taking that risk.

But her neighbours, relatives and friends were literally against it. They basically all have the same message for her. 'What if you really die in 12 years time, what is going to happen to your kid?'; 'What if you kid is also HIV-positive, how is he and your family going to deal with this new burden?' 'How are you going to explain to your child that you knew very well from the start that the chances of him/her (kid) having HIV was very great?'

Those psychological assaults were very hurting, of course, and she reflected upon it for a long time. She finally made the decision to have a baby by using the argument that normal healthy folks also have risks in that they may give birth to children with birth defects and nobody can guarantee a perfect baby no matter the health status of the parents.

Hence, she reckoned what she was doing was not a selfish one and took the plunge by working very closely with her doctors.

So how did the story end for her. Well, the baby turned out okay, free of HIV, but my ex-colleague is now in a financially and physically bad shape, having to go for treatment and all.

But till this day, she still held on to the belief that what she did was not an irresponsible action but rather an informed choice.

If You Are HIV Positive, Should You Have a Baby?

Hannah writes on a wide variety of issues relating to personal relationships and family. Her latest work covers maternity health insurance and health insurance for pregnant women.

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