Overview
This new edition offers soon-to-be moms and dads detailed, friendly information on preparing and planning for pregnancy. You'll find guidance on the basics, as well as special considerations like age, multiple births, complications, illness, labor and delivery, postpartum care, and everything in between.
Now in a portable, handy trim size that makes it easy to keep with you on the go, Pregnancy For Dummies, 4th Edition is your go-to guide on everything you'll encounter during the first, second, and third trimesters—and beyond. Packed with new information and the latest developments in medical technology, it puts your mind at ease by offering straightforward answers to all the questions you may have about pregnancy, including health risks during pregnancy, fertility problems and solutions, "on demand" cesarean sections, weight gain during pregnancy, the correlation between mercury and autism, ways to stay emotionally and physically healthy during pregnancy, and much more.
- Includes a complete guide to pregnancy, through all three trimesters and beyond, including a week-by-week account of what to expect during pregnancy
- Covers the latest information related to healthcare and pregnancy, including the latest on vaccinations, fertility problems, and prenatal diagnoses
- Offers advice on picking a doctor, planning prenatal visits, and designing a birthing plan
- Explains the stages of labor and how to care for yourself and your newborn after childbirth
If you're an expectant parent, Pregnancy For Dummies, 4th Edition covers everything mom and baby experience before, during, and after childbirth.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781118825594 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Wiley |
| Publication date: | 07/08/2014 |
| Series: | For Dummies Books |
| Sold by: | JOHN WILEY & SONS |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 480 |
| Sales rank: | 586,037 |
| File size: | 3 MB |
About the Author
Joanne Stone, MD, and Keith Eddleman, MD, are Board Certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology, and are Associate Professors at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
Read an Excerpt
Pregnancy For Dummies
By Joanne Stone Keith Eddleman Mary Duenwald
John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0-7645-4483-7Chapter One
From Here to MaternityIn This Chapter
* Checking out your health and family history
* Preparing your body for pregnancy
* Making it happen: Conception made easy
Congratulations! If you're already pregnant, you're about to embark upon one of the most exciting adventures of your life. The next year or so is going to be filled with tremendous changes and (we hope) unbelievable happiness. If you're thinking about getting pregnant, you're probably excited at the prospect and also a little nervous at the same time.
And if your pregnancy is still in the planning stages, check out this chapter to find out what you can do to get ready for pregnancy - first by visiting your practitioner and going over your family and personal health history. Then you can discover whether you're in optimal shape to get pregnant, or if you need to take some time to gain or lose weight, improve your diet, quit smoking, or discontinue medications that could be harmful to your pregnancy. We also give you some basic advice about the easiest way to conceive, and we touch on the topic of infertility.
Getting Ready to Get Pregnant: The Preconceptional Visit
By the time you miss your period and discover you're pregnant, the embryo, now two weeks old or more, is already undergoing dramatic changes. Believe it or not, when the embryo is only twoto three weeks old, it has already developed the beginnings of its heart and brain. Because your general health and nutrition can influence the growth of those organs, having your body ready for pregnancy before you get pregnant really pays off. Schedule what's called a preconceptional visit with your practitioner to be sure your body is tuned up and ready to go.
Sometimes you can schedule this visit during a routine gynecological appointment: When you go in for your annual PAP test, mention that you're thinking about having a baby, and your practitioner will take you through the preliminaries. If you aren't due for your annual exam for several more months and you're ready to begin trying to get pregnant now, go ahead and schedule a preconceptional visit with your practitioner, and bring along the father-to-be, if at all possible, so both of you can provide health histories - and know what to expect from this adventure.
If you're already pregnant and didn't have a preconceptional visit, don't worry, because your practitioner will go over these topics at your first prenatal visit, which we discuss in Chapter 5.
Taking a look at your history
The preconceptional visit is a chance for your practitioner to identify areas of concern so he or she can keep you and your baby healthy - even before you get pregnant. A multitude of factors come into play, and the practitioner is likely to ask you about the following:
For those of you considering the use of donor eggs or sperm, keep in mind that the donor's genetic history is just as important as any other biological parent's. Find out as much as you can.
Evaluating your current health
Most women contemplating pregnancy are perfectly healthy and don't have problems that can have an impact on pregnancy. Still, a preconceptional visit is very useful because it's a time to make a game plan and to find out more about how to optimize your chances of having a healthy and uncomplicated pregnancy. You can discover how to reach your ideal body weight and how to start on a good exercise program, and you can begin to take prenatal vitamins with folic acid.
Some women, however, do have medical disorders that can affect the pregnancy. Expect your practitioner to ask whether you have any one of a list of conditions. For example, if you have diabetes, stabilizing your blood sugar levels before you get pregnant and watching those levels during your pregnancy are important. If you're prone to high blood pressure (hypertension), your doctor will want to control it before you get pregnant, because controlling hypertension can be time-consuming and can involve changing medications more than once. If you have other problems - epilepsy, for example - checking your medications and controlling your condition are important. For a condition like systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), your practitioner may encourage you to try to become pregnant at a time when you're having very few symptoms.
You can expect questions about whether you smoke, indulge in more than a drink or two a day, or use any recreational/illicit drugs. Your practitioner isn't interrogating you and is unlikely to chastise you, so be comfortable answering honestly. These habits can be harmful to a pregnancy, and dropping them before you get pregnant is best. Your practitioner can advise you on ways to do so or refer you to help or support groups.
You also need to discuss any prescription or over-the-counter drugs you take regularly and your diet and exercise routines. Do you take vitamins? Do you diet frequently? Are you a vegetarian? Do you work out regularly? Discuss all these issues with your practitioner.
If you haven't had a recent physical exam or PAP smear, your practitioner will probably recommend that you have it done during this preconceptional visit.
Answering Commonly Asked Questions
Your preconceptional visit is also a time for you to ask your practitioner questions. In this section, we answer the most common questions - about body weight, medications, vaccinations, and quitting birth control.
Getting to your ideal body weight
The last thing most women need is another reason to be concerned about weight control. But this point is important: Pregnancy goes most smoothly for women who aren't too heavy or too thin. Overweight women stand a higher-than-normal risk of developing diabetes or high blood pressure during pregnancy, and they're more likely to end up delivering their babies via cesarean section. Underweight women risk having too-small (low birth-weight) babies.
Try to reach a healthy, normal weight before you get pregnant. Trying to lose weight after you conceive isn't advisable, even if you're overweight. And if you're underweight to begin with, catching up on pounds when the baby is growing may be difficult. (Read more about your ideal weight and weight gain in Chapter 4.)
Reviewing your medications
Many medicines - both over-the-counter and prescription - are safe to take during pregnancy. But a few medications can cause problems for the baby's development. So let your doctor know about all the medications you take. If one of them is problematic, you can probably switch to something safer. Keep in mind that adjusting dosages and checking for side effects may take time.
Exposure to the following drugs and chemicals is considered to be safe during pregnancy:
The following are some of the common medications that women ask about before they get pregnant:
Some women take supplements of vitamin A, because they're vegetarians and don't get enough from their diet or because they suffer from vitamin A deficiency. The maximum safe dose during pregnancy is 5,000 international units (IU) daily. (You need to take twice that amount to reach the danger zone.) Multiple vitamins, including prenatal vitamins, typically contain 5,000 IU of vitamin A or less. Check the label on your vitamin bottle to be sure.
If you're worried that your prenatal vitamin plus your diet will put you into that "danger zone" of 10,000 IU per day, rest assured that it would be extremely difficult to get that much vitamin A in your diet.
Considering nutraceuticals
Many women choose to treat common ailments with over-the-counter plant extracts or other natural medications. Some are considered completely safe during pregnancy, but keep in mind that, because they are considered nutritional supplements, these agents are not regulated by the FDA. Despite the fact that many pregnant women use these supplements, very few studies have evaluated their safety during pregnancy. St John's wort, for instance, is an herb commonly used to treat depression, sleep disorders, and viral infections. Not only can this herb interact with other medications, but also its safety during pregnancy has not been studied, so use it with caution.
Some herbal medications should not be used during pregnancy because they can cause uterine contractions or even miscarriage. A short list of agents that are not recommended during pregnancy includes mugwort, blue cohosh, tansy, black cohosh, Scotch broom, goldenseal, juniper berry, pennyroyal oil, rue, mistletoe, and chaste berry.
Continues...
Excerpted from Pregnancy For Dummies by Joanne Stone Keith Eddleman Mary Duenwald Excerpted by permission.
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Table of Contents
Introduction 1Part I: Getting Started with Pregnancy 7
Chapter 1: Seeing Double Lines: I Think I’m Pregnant! 9
Chapter 2: Your Pregnancy at a Glance: Over view of Pregnancy Week-by-Week 27
Chapter 3: Preparing for Life during Pregnancy 39
Chapter 4: Diet and Exercise for the Expectant Mother 63
Part II: Pregnancy: Countdown 87
Chapter 5: The First Trimester 89
Chapter 6: The Second Trimester 123
Chapter 7: The Third Trimester 151
Part III: The Big Event: Labor, Delivery, and Recovery 189
Chapter 8: Honey, I Think I’m in Labor! 191
Chapter 9: Special Deliver y: Bringing Your Baby into the World 223
Chapter 10: Hello, World! Meet Your Newborn 245
Chapter 11: Taking Care of Yourself after Delivery 263
Chapter 12: Feeding Your Baby 291
Part IV: Dealing with Special Concerns 317
Chapter 13: Pregnancies with Special Considerations 319
Chapter 14: When Things Get Complicated 347
Chapter 15: Pregnancy in Sickness and in Health 371
Chapter 16: Coping with the Unexpected 397
Part V: The Part of Tens 403
Chapter 17: Ten Things Nobody Tells You 405
Chapter 18: Ten Healthy Snacks for Pregnant Women 411
Chapter 19: Ten Key Things You Can See on Ultrasound 423
Index 431