Search Results for: blog the importance of amniotic fluid

Water Baby

Water can be a calming force of nature. Water is the source of origin for continued life. Without water we cannot survive. Aside from the first parents, all human beings begins life’s journey through water. My daughter was no different, she spent the first nine months of her in utero life in warm life sustaining and protecting water. She knows the security of water as much as she knows security in my arms. With this understanding of the importance of water to my daughter’s life and my own pain-relieving comfort from water, I chose to birth my daughter in a … Continue reading →

Don’t Fall Down

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Recently, singer Alicia Keys slipped in her heels during a performance and fell on her behind in front of the crowd. The media has been quick to point out that she shouldn’t have been wearing heels in the first place, but the fall could have happened anyway. It’s easy to fall when you are pregnant. I can empathize because it happened to me. All I can say is I’m glad it didn’t happen in front of the whole world. One afternoon I was carrying a laundry basket full of dirty clothes downstairs to wash. About halfway down, my heel slipped … Continue reading →

How Your Diet May Affect Your Child’s Food Preferences

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Small children are notorious for being picky eaters, but some say that you may have an impact on just how picky your child is. Eating a healthy, varied diet during pregnancy, and continuing to eat various healthy foods during the first year of life, if you are nursing, exposes your child to many different flavors and encourages acceptance of new flavors and foods later on. During pregnancy, your baby is fed nutrients through the umbilical cord. At the same time, the amniotic fluid, which surrounds the baby, takes on the flavor of the foods you eat. Even though your baby … Continue reading →

What is Intrauterine Growth Restriction?

Big babies get all of the attention in the news, but what about tiny full term babies? When a full term baby is much smaller than usual, it is called intrauterine growth restriction, or IUGR. Not all small babies are diagnosed with IUGR; those that do often have low amniotic fluid levels and do not grow at normal rates. If a baby stops growing, the doctor may choose to deliver the baby early to save his or her life. Before making any kind of decision to deliver early, the doctor will perform a variety of tests to determine the health … Continue reading →

Are Fetal Hiccups a Good Thing?

Every time my son gets the hiccups (which is at least once a day), I am reminded of when I was pregnant and his hiccups would make my whole belly move. I used to fill a tumbler half full with water and set it on my belly to watch the surface of the water move with each hiccup. It was a fun way for my husband to see what I was feeling all the time. When I noticed that the hiccups were coming once or twice a day, sometimes more, I wondered whether they were a sign of something good … Continue reading →

How Can I Tell if My Water Breaks?

How will you know when your water breaks? This is a common question among first time mothers. It’s not uncommon for mommies in their second, third or even fourth pregnancies to wonder about the water breaking. Sometimes the water doesn’t break right away. With three of my four babies, the nurse or midwife broke it at the hospital. I had never experienced my water breaking in any of those labors. It turns out; my experience isn’t all that uncommon. The water usually doesn’t break until after labor has started. It only happens before labor starts in about 10% of pregnancies. … Continue reading →

Let’s Talk About Handling Unwanted Belly Comments

I am very lucky to be with a man that finds the pregnant body sexy and beautiful. And he’s not the only one: Men in most cultures find fertility very attractive, leading the women to flaunt it in its many forms, especially pregnancy. Coming home to this kind of acceptance had a profound impact on my self-image during what was a very large pregnancy for me. This was especially true with all the unwanted, sometimes rude comments I received due to my large belly. I found respite in talking to my fiancé about how upset they made me. I’m not … Continue reading →