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The Truth About Your Diet During Pregnancy

One of the assumptions I made about pregnancy prior to becoming pregnant is I’d have a diet-related Get out of Jail Free card.  I knew that there are certain foods it’s best to avoid, but I thought at least I’d have a free pass to eat, well, not quite as much as I wanted, but to feel a bit more guilt-free about evening ice cream binges. That turned out not to be the case at all.  First off, the whole “eating for two” thing isn’t true.  At most, you should eat for one and a quarter.  In addition to that, … Continue reading →

Preparing Your Health History

One of the major components of your first prenatal check up is the health history interview. It should feel somewhat familiar, since many doctors do this on your first visit, but the prenatal version is a little more detailed. To prepare, it may help to look over some of these questions beforehand in case you need to make a few phone calls to your mom or relatives. What is your history with pregnancy? Have you been pregnant before? Have you ever had a miscarriage? Have you ever had an abortion? If you have had a baby before, how did you … Continue reading →

Prenatal Care FAQ

Q: I’m pregnant! How long does it take to find a OB/GYN or midwife if I do not already have one? A: It depends on how much research you want to do. I would start with referrals from friends, and then I would call and talk to the nurses to ask their opinions. I found my OB/GYN through the recommendation from a nurse at his clinic (where there were multiples doctor’s practicing) who said he had great bedside manner. She was right! I researched and called around for a few hours over the course of two days before I found … Continue reading →

Organize Your Pregnancy

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When I found out I was pregnant nearly two years ago, one of the first things I did was create a pregnancy organizer. It was so helpful throughout my pregnancy that I though I would share it with you. After picking out a cute binder and tabs, I divided my new organizer into four sections: Insurance, Obstetrician, Appointment Log, and Ovulation Charts. These sections are really flexible and largely depend on what information you need to keep track of for your specific pregnancy. For example, I kept quite a bit of data in my Ovulation Charts section due to the … Continue reading →

What To Expect At Your Prenatal Appointments

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A positive pregnancy test is the beginning of an exciting journey towards parenthood. Once you find out your are pregnant, you should immediately call your health care provider to schedule your first obstetric appointment, especially if your OB/GYN has a waiting list. If this is your first pregnancy, you may be wondering what will happen at your appointments. The following guidelines are based on a healthy pregnancy. Your doctor will adjust your care to meet your individual needs. How often will I visit my practitioner? How In the beginning, you’ll visit your practitioner about once per month. Your first appointment … Continue reading →

What to Expect at Your First Prenatal Visit

If you are newly pregnant for the first time, you may be wondering about your first prenatal visit. Whether you are seeing an obstetrician or a midwife, your first visit will be longer and more involved than subsequent prenatal appointments. Regular prenatal care is important during pregnancy to assess your health and prevent or treat possible complications. You will be given a pregnancy test to confirm the pregnancy. This is usually a urine test. Your urine will also be tested for protein, sugar and bacteria. This will be done at every prenatal visit. You will be asked the date of … Continue reading →

Late Trimester Test: The Cervical Exam

  As your due date approaches, you’ll start getting more and more checks by your doctor.  Your appointment schedule will increase to every two weeks from around week 30, and then every week from around week 37.  In addition to the fetal heartbeat check, you’ll probably have your belly measured as well, and your provider will feel around your stomach to determine the baby’s position.  Some doctors might even do a vaginal exam for this, if they’re having trouble determining where the baby is. You’ll get your group B strep test, and this might also be around the time you’ll … Continue reading →

Blood Work

This may seem silly, but I absolutely abhor needles. The mere thought of blood being drawn from my veins leaves me cold. There are certainly much worse procedures to have done and I know that there are people that endure needles and much worse almost daily. God bless those people and thank God I am not one of those people. I remember going with my mother to her prenatal appointments as a child. There was the amazing part of hearing the baby’s heartbeat. Then there was the horrifying part of my mother having her blood work done … I couldn’t … Continue reading →

Finding a Midwife

We had decided to go with a midwife shortly before we starting trying to conceive. After reading “A Thinking Woman’s Guide to a Better Birth” by Henci Goer and several other similar books, I started looking for midwives in our area and there weren’t any! The closest midwives were at least two hours away. So I called them up and we took a day to visit them (they were 20 minutes from each other). Talking to the different midwives was a great experience. They answered all my questions and I really felt prepared to go with either of the two … Continue reading →

Genetic Counseling

If you have recently had a child, chances are that you learned a fair amount about genetic testing during your prenatal care appointments. You may even have gone in for one or more of the genetic screening tests that are now widely available. In addition to genetic testing, genetic counseling is also available. It seems to me that the midwives that I saw for prenatal visits did some of the same things that a genetic counselor would do. If there had been things in my medical history or test results that required further investigation I would probably have been referred … Continue reading →