1.) Foods

During pregnancy do not eat unpasteurized foods (cheeses and dairy products).  Do not eat raw fish or meats.  Reheat deli or processed meat before you eat them.

2.) Flu Shots

The CDC recommends pregnant women should get a flu shot. During pregnancy, a woman’s immune system is weakened and she becomes more susceptible to viruses and infections.

3.) Exercise

Exercise is alright for most healthy pregnant  women. Check with your health care provider before starting any exercise during your pregnancy.  For most healthy, pregnant women walking 30 minutes daily should be fine.  If your doctor has cleared you for exercise:
*keep your heartbeat under 140 beats per minute and no high impact exercising
*Swimming, walking, even jogging can be fine.  Yoga and pilates are also fine. You may have to modify some of your poses as the pregnancy progresses.

4.) Alcohol
No amount of alcohol has been proven to be safe in pregnancy (this includes wine).

5.) Seat Belts
Always wear seat belts during pregnancy.

6.) Folic Acid
The MOST important time to take folic acid (usually in prenatal vitamins) is in the first 3 weeks of pregnancy. If you are planning a pregnancy; start taking a prenatal vitamin with folic acid before you are pregnant to get the most benefit.

7.) Pets
Tell your doctor if you have you have a cat(s) and assign someone else to clean the litter box. If you do have cats your health care provider may want to test you for toxoplasma, which is carried in cat feces and can harm a pregnancy.

8.) Blood Type
If you have a negative blood type you will more than likely need a shot of Rhogam during your pregnancy, including if your miscarry or terminate a pregnancy.

9.) Strep
Know your Group B Strep status. Around the 35th to the 37th week of pregnancy your health care provider will probably test you for Group B Strep.  This test detects if you are a carrier for Group B Strep.  If you are you will more than likely get antibiotics in labor.

10.) Sex
Sex is fine during most pregnancies as long as you are comfortable unless your healthcare provider tells you otherwise.

There are many more things that are important to know during pregnancy.  Please contact your health care provider for any questions or concerns that you may have.

Would love to hear your 10 Things You Think every Pregnant Woman Should Know!

“Pacifiers have traditionally been thought to interfere with optimal breast-feeding,” wrote the researchers, at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. In the 1980s, health officials discouraged their use.

But in recent years, researchers have found evidence that babies who use pacifiers when they sleep may be less susceptible to sudden infant death syndrome. The American Academy of Pediatrics now recommends that pacifiers be used for that reason.

Almost 20 – 25% women in the United States go through a caesarean section to give birth. Women, especially mothers should be aware and educated about breastfeeding their baby after a c-section, so they can deal with it if needed. Mothers who go through a C-Section worry about when their milk will come in. However, the milk coming process is same for natural birth, or vaginal birth, as it is for an operative birth. The first milk released by the breasts is colostrum, a thick yellowish liquid which is full of antibodies and nutrition for the baby. Whether you give natural birth, or an operated birth, colostrum will come as soon as the baby is out of the mothers womb. Colostrum production is actually triggered by the placenta being released from the uterine wall, which ensures that colostrum is available to the baby after the delivery, whether it is a vaginal delivery or a c-section. Some mothers may need to go through breast pumping to be able to start producing this pre-milk.

Just like after normal birth, colostrum is released for the first 4 – 5 days after giving birth, after which the mothers breasts start producing natural milk. This can vary to as less as 3 days in some women to as much as 6 days, after which milk is produced by the breasts. As long as you keep feeding your baby, the suckling from breast feeding the baby will be enough to get your milk production going. In other cases, you may need to use a breast pump such as Medela style or Ameda pump to get your milk flowing. However, the routine of breast milk is slightly different for mothers who go through a c-section that those who go through a vaginal birth. This article discusses some of the important points which mothers need to consider after giving birth.

Medications after c-section

Normally when a woman goes through a cesarean, she is prescribed medicines to help her recover quickly after giving birth. Mothers are usually concerned about the medication they are required to take after going through a c-section. Antibiotics and pain killers are routinely given to mothers after an operative birth, which are passed to the baby in small amounts through colostrum. However, the milk production in the first few days after birth is very less, as the baby needs only a small amount of milk initially. Therefore, only very small amounts of the medication are actually passed to the child.

Dealing with stress

One of the major factors leading to reduced breast milk production after a c-section is stress. Any kind of stress can inhibit the production of milk in breastfeeding moms. After going through major surgery, mothers are greatly affected, even if they have given child birth before. A caesarean also affects the body hormone levels greatly, and the mental and physical stresses all combine together to the delay in milk production.

Achieving comfort

Both the mother and the child can be really exhausted, especially if they had to go through a long labor before the c-section. In such cases, it can be difficult to get the baby to start sucking, as the medications and drugs used for epidural and spinal can affect the baby’s alertness after birth. The baby may take longer to start sucking at the breast. Similarly, the mother may be too tired and exhausted as well as in pain to move to the right position to feed her baby. When breastfeeding after a c-section, mothers should be careful to keep the baby at a distance, in case the baby moves or kick at the incision. The best thing is to use a rolled up towel next to the incision to avoid any problems. The baby and mother should directly face each other for breastfeeding, so that the baby does not have to turn its head to feed. A towel or pillow should be placed at the babys back to help the baby face the breast and feed properly without slipping away. The mother can use a pillow between her legs or knees to avoid hurting her stomach muscles and she should also use a pillow to support her back. Although this can be painful and extremely difficult for new mothers, it will help you in bonding with your baby and in meeting the early challenges after giving birth.

Whether you go through natural birth or a caesarean, there is no reason why a mother cannot nurse her baby. Recovering after birth can also take time, but the mother should take this opportunity to spend as much time with her baby, and help them bond together for a lovely life ahead.

“Any amount of breastfeeding is better than none, and the more the better in terms of [preventing] risk factors as well as heart disease itself,” lead author Eleanor Bimla Schwarz, M.D., said yesterday in an interview.

“We always hear it’s good for babies and their health and hear less about the benefits for women,” added Dr. Schwarz, assistant professor of medicine, epidemiology, and obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at Pitt. “This joins other studies in showing breastfeeding has an important role in helping women recover from pregnancy.

“Women who have been pregnant and don’t breastfeed don’t allow their bodies to recover in the way nature or God intended.”

One afternoon at the playground last summer, shortly after the birth of my third child, I made the mistake of idly musing about breast-feeding to a group of new mothers I’d just met. This time around, I said, I was considering cutting it off after a month or so. At this remark, the air of insta-friendship we had established cooled into an icy politeness, and the mothers shortly wandered away to chase little Emma or Liam onto the slide. Just to be perverse, over the next few weeks I tried this experiment again several more times. The reaction was always the same: circles were redrawn such that I ended up in the class of mom who, in a pinch, might feed her baby mashed-up Chicken McNuggets.

In my playground set, the urban moms in their tight jeans and oversize sunglasses size each other up using a whole range of signifiers: organic content of snacks, sleekness of stroller, ratio of tasteful wooden toys to plastic. But breast-feeding is the real ticket into the club. My mother friends love to exchange stories about subversive ways they used to sneak frozen breast milk through airline security (it’s now legal), or about the random brutes on the street who don’t approve of breast-feeding in public. When Angelina Jolie wanted to secure her status as America’s ur-mother, she posed on the cover of W magazine nursing one of her twins. Alt-rocker Pete Wentz recently admitted that he tasted his wife, Ashlee Simpson’s, breast milk (“soury” and “weird”), after bragging that they have a lot of sex — both of which must have seemed to him markers of a cool domestic existence.

Got milk? Salma Hayek does – and she’s happy to share.

The sultry “Frida” actress breastfed another woman’s baby during a trip to Sierra Leone in front of “Nightline” cameras. Hayek, 42, discovered the child, who’s mother was unable to produce milk, during a tour of a hospital in the war-torn country.

“The baby was perfectly healthy, but the mother did not have any milk,” she later recalled to USA Today. “He was very hungry – I was weaning my daughter Valentina, but I still had a lot of milk, so I breastfed the baby.” (New York Daily News)

Of course, breastfeeding isn’t possible for everyone. Often it is an incredibly personal choice a new mother has to make and it is one that needs full support of family and friends. If you choose to go with formula for your multiples’ early needs, there are a lot of wonderful benefits to doing so. But if breastfeeding your multiples is something that you would like to do, it can be done. In fact, I was successfully able to pump for/breastfeed my triplets for 14 ½ months.

After a lot of trial and error in the beginning, I realized some very important things…

1) Invest in a good quality pump, preferably a hospital grade pump. If you cannot afford to purchase a hospital grade pump, they are available to rent through your hospital or other locations such as medical device stores. They are often covered by insurance, so check with your carrier prior to renting or buying one.

2) Pump or nurse regularly (and avoid supplementing as best you can) in the beginning. If you nurse, do so on demand and put the babies to the breast each and every time they are hungry. It will likely be rough with constant feedings, but that is their way of increasing your milk production. If you stick with it, it will be over in a few days! If you pump, do so every 2-3 hours around the clock for the first few weeks, then every 2-3 hours during the day, with 4-5 hour stretches at night. Make sure you vary the times that you pump as well. The body operates on a supply and demand schedule, so the more you pump or nurse the more milk you will make.

3) A baby is far more effective at extracting milk from the breast than a pump, so put the babies to the breast as often as possible!

4) Drink plenty of liquids. Seriously, this is probably one of the most important things you can do. If you are dehydrated, logic would indicate that you will not be able to make as much liquid.

5) Eat plenty of calories. This is also one of the most important things you can do. Your body needs the energy provided by calories (and fat) to make the milk your babies need.

6) Get plenty of rest. I know, something that is so difficult in those first few months, but your body is working hard to make milk so you need to let it rest. Let things go (it is only temporary) and sleep when the babies are sleeping.

7) If someone offers to help, accept it! Let them come cuddle the babies while you get some shut eye or pitch in around the house. Whatever you do, don’t fall into the trap of thinking you can do it all or you will be overwhelmed and exhausted in no time at all!

Preemies can nurse. Although it is usually a more difficult beginning, they will likely eventually get the hang of it around their original due date. Persistence is key! Keep putting your preemies to the breast, starting slowly at first and gradually adding in more sessions as they get stronger. Also, until your babies are nursing like pros, make sure that you pump after each nursing because it is likely that you will need to help stimulate your milk production.

9) Be willing to be flexible. There may come a time when you realize that your body just isn’t able to produce enough milk for your growing babies’ needs. If you reach that point, don’t be discouraged. You can continue to pump and give your baby a mix of breast milk and formula.

10) If you decide to call it quits, there is no shame. Both you and your baby have to enjoy the experience for it to be worthwhile! It was a difficult road at first, and I was armed with a lot of inaccurate and misleading advice, but I stuck with it and the experience turned out to be quite fulfilling to me and my babies. In fact, when my babies stopped nursing and I returned my pump I was sad. It signaled the end of my babies being babies and their transformation into full-fledged toddlers.

I was recently introduced to the Laugh and Learn DVD Series (Childbirth, Breastfeeding & Newborn Baby Care). Wow! I watched the DVDs and all I can think is that I wish I had known about this series three years ago.

Sheri Bayles is the nurse with the personality behind the successful DVD series. She is an award winning childbirth educator and lactation consultant. Plus she is the mother of twin boys, so she knows what she is talking about.

The great thing is that you can watch the videos in the comfort of your own home, on your own time frame (you can press pause every time you get a little overwhelmed about the childbirth explanation or if you feel the need to pee every 10 minutes) and even go back to certain parts as a refresher when you are reaching milestones like giving your baby it’s first sponge bath or deciding what pump to buy for breastfeeding.

The About Childbirth DVD was great. I don’t think I was the only one who still felt a little clueless about the whole childbirth thing, even after the classes I took. These two dvds about childbirth are very thorough. In them, Sheri gives some great pros and cons of using drugs like demerol, pitocin and epidurals. She also talks about the window of opportunity and how it works. I found the part about a c-section to be especially interesting since I really didn’t pay attention to it in our hospital childbirth class only to find myself having a c-section for my son. It’s best to just pay attention to it all just in case.

I would suggest watching the dvds then passing them on to your pregnant friends when you are done. You might just want to write your name on the dvds, so you can get them back as a refresher for baby #2!

“PETA’s request comes in the wake of news reports that a Swiss restaurant owner will begin purchasing breast milk from nursing mothers and substituting breast milk for 75 percent of the cow’s milk in the food he serves,” the statement says.

Ben & Jerry’s response? Classic. In a statement, the company said, “We applaud PETA’s novel approach to bringing attention to an issue, but we believe a mother’s milk is best used for her child.”

PETA points out that using cow’s milk for Ben & Jerry’s ice cream is a hazard to their customer’s health.

“Dairy products have been linked to juvenile diabetes, allergies, constipation, obesity, and prostate and ovarian cancer,” the statement says. “The late Dr. Benjamin Spock, America’s leading authority on child care, spoke out against feeding cow’s milk to children, saying it may play a role in anemia, allergies, and juvenile diabetes and in the long term, will set kids up for obesity and heart disease-America’s number one cause of death.”

Read the full statement from PETA here.