Author: Fernandez Hospital

Important Nutrients During Pregnancy

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Now that you’re pregnant, you need a lot of essential nutrients for you and your growing baby. It can be confusing for you to keep a track of which ones are the most important and how to incorporate them in your daily diet.

There’s no magic formula for a nutritious pregnancy diet. In fact, during pregnancy, the basic principles of eating healthy remain the same – a balanced diet with whole grains, fruits and vegetables, good amount of proteins and healthy fats and make sure you even drink plenty of water.

However, there are a few nutrients that deserve special attention in your pregnancy diet. Here are a few that top the list:

Folic acid (Vitamin B9)

Folic acid is a pregnancy superhero! Right from the start, during the early development of your little one, and throughout your pregnancy folic acid is beneficial.

Folic acid is crucial in helping to prevent neural tube defects, serious abnormalities of the brain and spinal cord. You may be recommended to take approximately 500 micrograms of folic acid per day.

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Steps to prevent infections during pregnancy

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Infections during pregnancy can be harmful to both you and your baby. Timely preventive measures help improve chances of having a healthy baby.

Here are a few things you can do to prevent certain infections:

  1. Maintain good hygiene –

Wash your hands thoroughly and regularly to protect yourself and your baby. Regularly washing your hands, especially before and after any activity, is one of the best ways to eliminate germs, avoid getting sick and prevent infections. In case soap or running water is not available, use an alcohol-based hand gel.

  1. Avoid unpasteurized (raw) milk and products made from it –

Avoid consuming soft cheeses unless they have labels that say they are pasteurized. Unpasteurized products contain harmful bacteria that can cause infections during pregnancy. Make sure you read the food labels before you buy any product.

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Common Infections During Pregnancy

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Pregnancy is the most wonderful phase in a woman’s life and every woman wants to be in the best health during this time. However, pregnancy can come with its share of uneasiness and being ill can take away from the experience. This makes it essential to take preventive measures, especially because it could be harmful to your baby.

What Can Make You Prone to Certain Infections?

Our body has a natural defence mechanism to protect us from bacteria and viruses. Antibodies help fight infections, but sometimes our body fails to make enough antibodies.

Infections occur during pregnancy mainly because the immunity is lowered. The immune system adapts to protect you as well as your baby. Some part of the defence mechanism is enhanced while some gets suppressed.

Infections contracted during pregnancy can be complicated as they affect not only you but, in some cases, also your baby. Therefore, learning about these infections and getting timely treatment is crucial. Here is a list of some common infections:

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How to lower the chances of a miscarriage?

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Like every other mother, you also will not want to lose your baby. You will probably take all the necessary precautions to give birth to a healthy baby. While there’s no sure-fire way to prevent a miscarriage, there are many ways you can ensure to have a healthy pregnancy and reduce your risk of miscarriage.

You can give your baby a good start in his/her life by just taking a few precautionary steps. Here are a few things you can follow:

Stay informed –

 Learn the common causes of a miscarriage and the misconceptions surrounding them. Doing so will help you to avoid pregnancy pitfalls that might lead to unfortunate results.

Age factor –

The more advanced your age, the higher the complications you might face in your pregnancy. If you are 35 and above, you should ask your obstetrician about the extra precautions to be taken.

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Recurrent miscarriage: What you need to know

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Losing a pregnancy can be a difficult and painful experience. Having one pregnancy loss can shatter you, but having one loss after another can be very traumatic for a woman.

Recurrent miscarriage is defined as two or more pregnancy losses and around 1% of women experience it. There are many possible causes of a recurrent miscarriage, but a good supportive antenatal care in these circumstances can make a big difference.

Why does it happen?

Recurrent miscarriage could be due to any of the following reasons:

1. Anatomical changes:

Uterine problems –

If your uterus is abnormally shaped it may increase your risk of a miscarriage and in some cases could be a cause of recurrent miscarriage. Only a few types of uterine malformations can increase the risk of miscarriage and require treatment.

Cervical insufficiency –

Cervical insufficiency is also known as cervical incompetence, this means your cervix is weak, begins dilating and opening too soon. Your obstetrician may offer you a scan or advise for a cervical stitch early in your pregnancy to avoid further complications.

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What happens when you develop gestational diabetes?

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Gestational Diabetes

Gestational diabetes is high blood sugar levels that may develop while you are pregnant and usually disappears after your childbirth. Approximately, 3 to 5 out of 100 pregnant women develop gestational diabetes (3-5%).

How is gestational diabetes diagnosed?

Your obstetrician will use blood tests to diagnose gestational diabetes. You may be advised glucose screening test, oral glucose tolerance test or both.

Glucose screening test:

You may not need to fast for this test. Your obstetrician will draw your blood one hour after you drink a liquid containing glucose. If your blood glucose levels are too high – 140 mg/dL or more you will be advised to go for a glucose tolerance test.

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Birthing Options and Management of a Twin Pregnancy

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Knowing about your twin pregnancy could come as a surprise and may make you feel both excited and nervous at the same time. With these mixed feelings of joy, excitement and shock you might be worried about a lot of things. Does twin pregnancy need some special care or treatment? Will my babies be born healthy? Is a Caesarean required or normal childbirth is possible? Your list of questions will go on.

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Bleeding During Pregnancy

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“Is my baby alright?” is the first thought you’ll get if you experience spotting or bleeding during pregnancy. Bleeding and spotting are often confused as the same, but this is not the case. Spotting is really light bleeding and is usually just a few drops of blood on your panty. Bleeding, on the other hand, is a heavier flow of blood that requires you to wear a pad or panty liner.

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All That You Need to Know About Breech Births

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Breech Births

Have you been told that your baby is in a breech presentation anytime during the latter part of your pregnancy? Do you know what it means?

In the last few weeks of pregnancy, most babies will move into a final position in preparation for birth, ideally with the head moving closer to the birth canal (Cephalic presentation). But sometimes, the baby’s buttocks and/or feet will be positioned closer to the birth canal. This is referred to as Breech presentation.

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Myths Or Facts? Common Perceptions Of Breastfeeding And The Truth

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Myths Or Facts - Breastfeeding

When it comes to breastfeeding, your well-meaning friends and family members always have an advice to give. The ‘wisdom’ they impart is not necessarily always the truth. Some of these are just myths that have been around for a long time.

To make life simpler for you, we’ve compiled a list of 9 common myths and the truths surrounding breastfeeding.

#1 You must drink milk to make milk

This one’s a common myth but holds no truth. Whether you drink milk or not has nothing to do with your breast milk supply. Drinking milk is important for you to have a nutritious balanced diet. Your body takes the essential nutrients from your body and adds it to your breast milk. This helps your baby receive all the necessary nutrition from your milk.

It is also important that you realize that if you’re undernourished, your body will still take all the nutrients important for your baby and include them in your breast milk. This will make you further undernourished.  Read More

Colostrum: Everything You Need To Know!!!

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Colostrum: Beestings or first milk - Fernandez Hospital

Colostrum (also known as beestings or first milk) is a form of milk produced by the mammary glands in late pregnancy and few days after giving birth.

It is a thick, sticky substance, which can range in color from clear to dark yellow.

Most of the mothers might start to produce this colostrum in the last trimester.

It often referred to as ‘liquid gold’. Why you may ask? Read along and you’ll be stunned by the benefits it has for your bundle of joy.  Read More

Breast Changes During Pregnancy

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Breast changes during pregnancy

Welcome aboard the wonderful journey of motherhood. As you conceive, your body starts preparing itself for several changes facilitating the baby’s arrival. So, it’s not just your womb that’s busy, but your breasts too undergo some radical changes. Hence, it’s extremely important that you know what to expect through your journey to be prepared physically and mentally to embrace the changes.

Hormonal surges result in the changes in the breast size and structure. Sometimes, it’s the first sign that you are pregnant.

Every woman is different and unique. So, the changes in the size and structure can vary from person to person. But if you’re wondering how much the breasts grow during pregnancy, note that by the time your milk comes in, they’re likely to be almost one-and-half times bigger than before you!  Read More