Pregnancy All-in-One For Dummies

Labor Articles

What to Expect When You’re Admitted to the Hospital for Delivery

Whether you’re in labor, being induced, or having a cesarean delivery, you need to be admitted to the hospital’s labor floor. If you preregistered earlier in your pregnancy (ask your practitioner about the process), your records are already on the labor floor when you arrive, and a hospital unit number is assigned to you. When you arrive at the hospital or birthing center, you go through an admission process and are assigned to a room. You settle into your hospital room, following a fairly standard routine:

• You change into a gown.

• A nurse asks you questions about your pregnancy, your general health, your obstetrical history, and when you last ate. If you think water has broken or you’re leaking fluid, let your nurse know.

• A nurse, midwife, resident, or other practitioner performs an internal exam to see how far along in labor you are.

• Your contractions and the fetal heart rate are monitored.

• A nurse may draw your blood and start an IV line in your arm (for delivering fluids and possibly medications).

• You’re asked to sign a consent form for routine hospital care, delivery, and possibly cesarean section.

  You sign the consent form when you’re admitted in case you need an emergency cesarean during labor and you don’t have time to sign consent forms. Signing a consent form doesn’t mean you’re limiting your care options.

• You may want to hand over any valuables you have with you to your partner or another family member (or simply leave them at home).

Most hospital rooms include some standard features, so the room you’re placed in probably includes all of the following:

• A special bed: In a room used for both labor and delivery (also known as a birthing room), the bed is specially designed to come apart and be turned into a delivery table. Some hospitals have rooms where you labor, deliver, and even remain for your postpartum recovery. These rooms are called LDR (an acronym for labor, delivery, and recovery) rooms or LDRP rooms (the p stands for postpartum).

• Doppler/stethoscope: Your practitioner or nurse uses these portable tools to listen periodically to the fetal heartbeat instead of using the continuous fetal monitor.

• Fetal monitor: This machine has two attachments, one to monitor the baby’s heart rate and one to monitor your contractions. The fetal monitor generates a fetal heart tracing, which is a paper record of how the baby’s heart rate rises and falls in relation to your contractions.

• Infant warmer: This device has a heat lamp to keep the newborn’s body temperature from dropping.

• IV line: This tube is connected to a bag of saline (salt water) containing a glucose mixture to keep you properly hydrated. It also provides access for medications in case you need pain control or have an emergency.

• Rocking chair or recliner: The extra chair is for your partner, your coach, or another family member.

General Pregnancy Articles

5 Tricks to Healthy Eating While Pregnant

If you want to feel great during pregnancy, radiate good health, wake up refreshed and energetic and stay that way all day long (well, most days, anyway), avoid major health problems, and provide all the nutrients your baby needs, you must regularly eat well. Here are five tricks that will set you on the right path during your pregnancy:

• Fill up on the good stuff. When you need a snack, grab an apple or banana, not a cookie or box of crackers. Eat before heading out for errands and bring healthy snacks with you in your purse. When you’ve had a bad day and think that the pint of your favorite comfort food or memory food is the only way to solve your problems, first make a big stir-fry with lean chicken (or pick up a container at your local Chinese takeout restaurant), drink a large bottle of water, and then — if you’re still hungry and stressed — put a scoop or two of ice cream in a small dish and see how that feels.

• Don’t completely deny yourself anything tasty. A doughnut once a week doesn’t compromise your health, but a doughnut every day, combined with other unhealthy eating habits, quickly has negative effects on your health.

• Turn off or otherwise ignore all food-related advertisements. The companies advertising food don’t care about you; they care about profits. Whether you struggle with illness or general feelings of blah is completely irrelevant to them, as long as you keep buying those foods. Take charge of your eating by eliminating the influence of commercials on your healthy lifestyle. This goes double for the many unhealthy recipes found in the food section of your local newspaper, many home and garden magazines, and gourmet food publications. Look for publications that cater to healthy eating, especially those that provide recipes that are low in fat and include fresh vegetables.

• Immediately look for the one or two healthy choices upon entering any restaurant, party, or other social gathering. If you’re not doing the serving or bringing a dish with you (as is the case at a restaurant or wedding), search for the veggie plate, a big salad, a lean meat option without any sauces, or a legume or whole-grain food.

• Serve or bring healthy foods, and limit the number and size of treats. If you’re serving the meal, offer an enticing array of brightly colored vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and lean meat, and then offer small slices of a delicious fruit pie with a spoonful of low-fat frozen yogurt. Your guests will be amazed at how colorful and delicious a nutritious meal can be and will be clamoring for recipes. If you’re at a potluck gathering, such as an office party or baby shower, bring one or two healthy dishes that you know you’ll eat, and quickly evaluate what other healthy foods are available at the gathering.

All that said, if you’re unable to keep food down during any part of your pregnancy, find foods that you can tolerate and, until you’re able to keep down other foods, don’t worry about whether what you’re eating is healthy. Sometimes, pregnancy causes you to reject even the healthiest foods, so make gaining weight normally your number-one priority, with healthy eating number two on that list.

General Pregnancy Articles

9 Ways to Avoid Heartburn While Pregnant

Heartburn is common during pregnancy and can happen at any time throughout your 40 weeks, although it often gets worse in the second and third trimesters. Heartburn has two causes, and both are related to the sphincter muscle that connects the esophagus to your stomach. The progesterone your body produces relaxes that sphincter muscle, and your growing uterus presses on it. The result is that gastric acids, liquids, and food from the stomach travel back up your esophagus, leaving you uncomfortable. Heartburn typically worsens as your belly grows and puts more pressure on your stomach, causing the sphincter muscle to allow acid back into the esophagus.

You can lessen the symptoms of heartburn by trying the following tips:

• Stop eating two to three hours before lying down for bedtime or a nap. The less you have in your stomach, the less likely you are to experience acid reflux.

• Sleep propped up to avoid lying flat. When you elevate your upper body, gravity helps keep your stomach acids down. (If you’re past your first trimester, you shouldn’t lie flat, anyway; lying flat can cut off circulation to your baby and your legs. Lie on your left side for optimal circulation.)

• Practice good posture when sitting. When you slouch, you put more pressure on your esophagus, which can lead to heartburn.

• Avoid big meals. Eat small portions so that you don’t overfill the stomach and cause extra food to come back up the esophagus.

• Sip liquids with meals instead of drinking large amounts. Because you want to avoid having large amounts in your stomach at one time, drink small amounts at meals and stay hydrated by spreading your liquids out between meals.

• Avoid greasy or fatty foods. High-fat foods, specifically fried foods, tend to trigger heartburn because they don’t stimulate digestion but do take longer to digest (they just sit in your stomach).

• Skip spicy and acidic foods. Acidic foods, like tomatoes, citrus, and peppers, can be problematic for many women. Onions and garlic are also on some women’s problem-foods list.

• Avoid caffeinated and carbonated beverages. These drinks have been known to cause acid reflux. Sorry to say, but chocolate can also irritate the esophagus, so you may want to avoid it, too.

• Take an antacid when you’re uncomfortable. Talk to your doctor about which one to choose or about a safe prescription medication if over-the-counter antacids don’t work for you.