In women with diabetes, increasing hemoglobin A1C levels early in pregnancy — an indicator of poor blood sugar control — are associated with increasing risk of poor pregnancy outcomes according to a report in the journal Diabetes Care. In other words, when you have your blood sugar under control during your pregnancy, you are at a better place to have a healthier baby. In a study, pregnant women with higher hemoglobin levels had an array of poor outcomes with labor, such as stillbirth, miscarriages, neonatal death or a birth defect. The outcomes do vary from person to person and women with even higher blood sugars have had healthy babies.

Many people’s advice will pertain to pregnant women with diabetes as well as those without it, such as maintaining a good diet, exercise, avoiding unhealthy habits (drinking, smoking, caffeine intake, etc.) and taking a prenatal vitamin that will give you enough folic acid. Your medical professional can help you choose the right prenatal vitamin for you.

During pregnancy, you need to lower your blood glucose levels as much as you can. You need to get them to as close to normal as possible. This is significant during your first trimester, because high blood glucose levels can cause a miscarriage or birth defect.

How to Control Your Blood Sugar:

If you are taking pills to help regulate your blood sugar, your medical professional will probably switch you to insulin injections. To keep your blood sugar low, you need to know what it is and that means constant monitoring. It is recommended that you do this about eight times a day.

You need to follow your doctor’s meal plan for you. If you have hypoglycemia, it will need treatment. You’ll need to keep giving yourself the insulin injections and adjusting the dose when needed. You will also need to maintain a healthy routine of exercise. With all of these combined, you will increase your chances of having a healthy baby.

Your Blood Glucose Level Goals –

Before Meals:
Whole Blood Glucose Levels – 70-100mg/dl and Plasma Glucose Reading – 80-110mg/dl
Two Hours After Meals – under 140mg/dl and Plasma Glucose Reading – under 155mg/dl

Fish can be an important part of a balanced diet for pregnant women. It is a good source of high quality protein and other nutrients and low in fat. However, pregnant women and women considering pregnancy should avoid shark, swordfish, king mackerel, and tilefish because they contain excess mercury if eaten frequently.

Mercury consumed by a pregnant woman through contaminated fish can cross her placenta to damage the brain of her baby. Exposure to mercury in the womb can cause learning deficits, delay the mental development of children and other neurological problems. However, experts say eating the right type of fish is the key.

Smaller fish such as sardines and anchovies with a shorter life span are specially recommended for consumption because they naturally contain oils that are lower in environmental toxins (e.g. heavy metals such as mercury, lead, cadmium and arsenic, pesticides, dioxin and PCBs) than larger predatory fish such as tuna and cod.

Is it safe to take omega-3 fatty acids during pregnancy?

Adding a new wrinkle to the long- running debate over the safety of fish consumption by pregnant women, British researchers are reporting that eating oily fish appears to boost the weight of newborn babies. There have been a few studies to show that fish oil concentrates improve a baby’s brain development.

There are two types of fish oil supplements: those made from the liver of the fish and those made from the body of the fish. Supplements made from the liver of the fish, such as cod liver oil, contain the retinol form of vitamin A and need to be either avoided altogether or strictly limited in pregnancy.

On the other hand, fish oils derived from the body of the fish contain lots of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which is essential for your baby’s normal brain, eye and vision development, especially during the last trimester. This may be one reason why premature babies are particularly at risk of eye and brain damage.

DHA must be supplied through mother’s milk or infant formula as the infant is unable to synthesise it from other dietary sources such as flaxseed oil. It is assumed that a mother’s daily diet affects the composition of her breast milk.

Fish oil concentrate benefits the mother and baby. Studies have found that babies whose mothers were given fish oil supplements during pregnancy had reduced infant immune responses to allergens such as cat and house dust mite. It was also noted that these babies were three times less likely to develop allergies to food such as eggs, and have less severe infantile eczema in the first year of life.

It is not clear why breast-fed infants may log higher IQs as adults, but the researchers speculated that breast milk contains beneficial nutrients not found in formula or cow’s milk. Breast milk contains DHA and arachidonic acid (AA), the long- chain polyunsaturated fatty acids that appear to support brain development of the child.

It is important to remember that foetal development, as well as newborn infant development, depends on the maternal supply of DHA. If a mother’s supply of DHA is low, the foetus will take most of that supply, leaving the mother depleted of DHA. This may lead to the mother developing postpartum depression.

Good nutrition during pregnancy will help to keep a developing baby and its mother healthy. Aim to eat oily fish at least two or three times per week. If you’re not a big fish eater, choose a fish oil concentrate that is in the form of triglyceride for superior bioavailability. This would ensure you and your baby get the most out of the supplement.

About the Author
www.medical-explorer.com

What should you do now? Well, in the early days, there was a trip to the doctor and the rabbit test. Unfortunately, if you were expecting all the rabbit could expect or hope for was a quick death. Today there is something better! In the early 1970’s the home pregnancy test came to be. By detecting levels of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) in the urine we are now able to quickly and effectively find out if we are expecting, in our own home without endangering any wildlife. But, how reliable are these tests?

Don’t be misled by manufacturers claiming 99% accuracy within the first day or two of a missed period. New research suggests that the majority of home pregnancy tests are not able to detect the small amounts of hCG passed in the urine this soon. “If it’s really essential to you to know whether you’re pregnant as early as possible, then you must use a super-sensitive test.” It was noted that among 18 products tested,
only one - First Response Early Result Pregnancy Test - appeared to be sensitive enough to detect pregnancy in at least 95 percent of women on the first day of their missed periods.

“Only 3 of the 18 products tested produced a positive result when testing urine that contained the amount of hCG typically present during the second day after a woman’s first missed period. By the third day, 8 products tested appeared effective. It should be noted that all home pregnancy tests become more accurate after at least one week of a missed period”. CONGRATULATIONS!
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Source: Scienceblog, Reuters Health
(c) 2004 Karen Zastudil

About the Author
Karen Zastudil is a graduate of Cleveland State Univeristy, - as the parent, Karen is an advocate for others who are interested in parenting and womens issues. Karen shares her wisdom and her resources at http://www.womenatthesummit.com

* Baby (aka the bun in the oven): 7.5 pounds

* Placenta: 1.5 pounds

* Amniotic Fluid: 2 pounds

* Increase in uterus (This gets bigger, too): 2 pounds

* Larger boob size (Yay, for you!): 2 pounds

* More blood (She now overheats easily): 4 pounds

* Fluid retention (Not fun for your partner): 4 pounds

* Maternal fat stores (Her weight gain): 7 pounds

Total Average Gain: 30 pounds

To help keep the weight gain on track, your partner should aim to gain 3-5 pounds during her first trimester, which averages out to 1-1.5 pounds per month. During her second trimester, she should gain about 0.5 pounds per week, and she should gain an average of 1 pound per week throughout her third trimester. Again, this is just a guideline, so don’t freak out (and don’t let her freak out) if she gains 2 pounds one week and nothing another. For the most part, her body is doing its own thing. Just relax and enjoy the ride.

Nada Arnot is the owner and creator of http://www.thefunkystork.com - the only site for the modern expectant father.

Before Pregnancy

If you’re thinking about getting pregnant, or are already pregnant, taking care of your health is more important than ever. Follow these tips for a healthy pregnancy:

Get 400 micrograms (or 0.4 mg) of folic acid daily. Eat foods fortified with folic acid, take a multivitamin, or take a folic acid pill to get your daily dose. Taking folic acid in a pill is the best way to be sure you’re getting enough. Including 0.4 mg of folic acid (or folate) in your diet before you get pregnant and in the first three months of pregnancy can help prevent some birth defects. If you don’t get enough folic acid, your baby’s spine may not form right. This is called spina bifida (spy-nuh bif-uh-duh). Also, your baby needs folic acid to develop a healthy brain. Many doctors will prescribe a vitamin with folic acid. But you also can buy vitamins or folic acid pills at drug and grocery stores. Some foods rich in folate include: leafy green vegetables, kidney beans, orange juice and other citrus fruits, peanuts, broccoli, asparagus, peas, lentils, and whole-grain products. Folic acid is also added to some foods like enriched breads, pastas, rice and cereals.

• Start watching what you eat. Load up on fruits, vegetables, and whole-grains (such as whole-wheat breads or crackers). Eat plenty of calcium-rich foods such as non-fat or low-fat yogurt, milk, and broccoli. Your baby needs calcium for strong bones and teeth. When fruits and vegetables aren’t in season, frozen vegetables are a good option. Avoid eating a lot of fatty foods (such as butter and fatty meats). Choose leaner foods when you can (such as skim milk, chicken and turkey without the skin, and fish). Find out more about what to eat and what to avoid for a healthy pregnancy.
• Tell your doctor if you smoke or use alcohol or drugs. Quitting is hard, but you can do it. Ask your doctor for help.
• Get enough sleep. Try to get seven to nine hours every night.
• Take steps to control the stress in your life. When it comes to work and family, figure out what you can and can not do. Set limits with yourself and others. Don’t be afraid to say NO to requests for your time and energy.
• Move your body. Once you get pregnant, you can’t increase your exercise routine by much. So it’s best to start before the baby is on the way.
• Get any health problems under control. Talk to your doctor about how your health problems might affect you and your baby. If you have diabetes, monitor your blood sugar levels. If you have high blood pressure, monitor these levels as well. If you are overweight, talk to your doctor about how to reach a healthy weight.
• Ask your mother, aunts, grandmother or sisters about their pregnancies. Did they have morning sickness? Problems with labor? How did they cope?
• Find out what health problems run in your family. Tell these to your doctor. You can get tested for health problems that run in families before getting pregnant (genetic testing).
• Make sure you have had all of your immunizations (shots), especially for Rubella (German measles). If you haven’t had chickenpox or rubella, get the shots at least three months before getting pregnant.
• Get checked for hepatitis (hep-uh-tie-tus) B and C, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and HIV. These infections can harm you and your baby. Tell your doctor if you or your sex partners have ever had an STD or HIV.
• Go over all of the medicines you take (prescription, over-the-counter, and herbals) with your doctor. Make sure they are safe to take while you’re trying to get pregnant or are pregnant.

Planning Conception

While trying to conceive, you can use natural planning methods such as the ovulation method (have intercourse just before or after ovulation) or the symptothermal method (evaluating fertility based on your daily temperature). Remember: women are more likely to become pregnant if intercourse takes place just before or just after ovulation. This is because the unfertilized egg can live for only 12-24 hours in your body. If you’e been trying for a few months with no results, don’t get discouraged. Only 20% of women trying to get pregnant are successful on the first attempt. So don’t lose hope or assume something is wrong.

Adoption and Foster Care

If you are having fertility problems, you and your partner might want to explore other ways to raise a child. Find out more about adoption and foster care. Adopting or becoming a foster parent could be one of the most rewarding experiences of your life.