Posts Tagged ‘when pregnant’

What Is A Pregnancy Pillow? Do You Need It?

The Pregnancy pillow, also sometimes called the back and belly or body pillow is something that many pregnant women may be considering.

A pregnancy pillow is a rather like an extra, extra long bolster pillow that can fit your body contours, so that it fits the way that you like in order that you may get maximum support for your changing shape.

Pregnancy Pillow

Why during Pregnancy?

When pregnant, a woman’s body changes very much and very rapidly. The growing belly means that much weight is suddenly concentrated in the front of the body where earlier there was none.

Balance becomes a problem. Backache becomes a problem because of having to carry the unaccustomed weight and due to the fact that the woman’s center of gravity shifts.

Many pregnant women have trouble getting sleep during the night as well. Various other aches and pains manifest themselves during a pregnancy, either from hormonal changes or otherwise: legs can ache from carrying around the extra weight, swollen ankles could be a problem due to water retention.

How can it help?

A pregnancy pillow can help tide over or at least ease some of these discomforts. It is something that can give support to your growing belly; and also gives support to ease low back pain. If a woman suffers from swollen ankles during pregnancy, she is usually advised to rest with her feet slightly elevated.

A pregnancy pillow can help with doing this as well; it can help you sleep comfortably even with your feet elevated. Many women find that a pregnancy pillow that gives support to the back and the belly at the same time makes for restful sleep.

It can also be used in other parts of the house for instance if you want to curl up with a good movie or book on the living room couch, it can help you recline comfortably there as well.

After the baby arrives some find use for the pillow as a nursing pillow as well; as a support for the baby while breast feeding. In the alternative the pillow can be given away to a friend or a relative who can then use it for Fibromyalgia, arthritis, osteoporosis pain or back, neck and shoulder pain.

So the pregnancy pillow can have its uses even after you are done with your pregnancy. Amazon stocks pregnancy pillows for under $50 if you want to know where you may get one.

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Different Kinds Of Miscarriage And Risk Factors

pregnancy lossAny to-be-mother who is desirous of having a child and who has conceived a baby is very mindful of the fact that a miscarriage or a spontaneous abortion is one of the most common complications of early pregnancy and that a miscarriage is an extremely traumatic and difficult occurrence to deal with.

Studies have shown that as many as 25% of pregnancies are miscarried by the sixth week of gestation. As many as 8% of pregnancies end in a miscarriage after the 6th week.

Miscarriages can be of several different kinds:

  • a complete miscarriage is when the entire contents of the uterus are expelled
  • An incomplete miscarriage is when only a part of the contents of the uterus are expelled. This would typically require a D&C surgery where the uterus is dilated and scraped to expel any of the remaining pregnancy.
  • A missed miscarriage is when the fetus, for some reason stops growing within the uterus and this is a condition that can usually be detected by the doctor’s investigations rather than the usual bleeding and pain that signals a miscarriage.

Factors that raises miscarriage risk

There are several factors that significantly raise chances of a woman having a miscarriage and they are:

  • Advanced age of parents. This refers not only to the age of the mother but also the father. The higher the age of the parents the higher the risk of a pregnancy ending in a miscarriage
  • Multiple fetus pregnancies have a higher risk of miscarriage
  • A woman having uncontrolled diabetes is at a higher risk of pregnancy. This also refers to gestational diabetes (which the woman may develop for the first time when pregnant) which has to be kept in check.
  • Another condition that may develop during pregnancy is pre-eclampsia or high blood pressure that also increases the risk of miscarriage.
  • Women with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome are at higher risk of miscarriage. Between 30 and 50% of pregnancies occurring in women with PCOS end in a miscarriage.
  • Certain disorders and illnesses increase chances of having a miscarriage: for instance severe hypothyroidism increases risk of a miscarriage as do illnesses such as rubella, Chlamydia etc,
  • Smoking and substance abuse such as cocaine also greatly increases the chances of miscarriage.
  • Physical injury and environmental factors also can pose risk to a pregnancy.

Understanding the risk factors for a pregnancy ending in miscarriage is important in minimizing the chances of occurrence.

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