Our Baby News

No two labors are the same but it is useful to know how they usually start so you know what to expect and how to interpret the signs. Above all, don’t worry that you won’t recognize when your labor starts as this very rarely happens.

There is one early sign of  labor that experienced mothers may be able to recognize easily; it is a psychological reaction that while it does not happen to all pregnant women is still quite common. The mother who has been a little tired and feeling very heavy suddenly finds she has an excess of energy and a wish to hurry about the house dong things she would otherwise not bother with. A very experienced old midwife used to tell her patients, ‘If you find yourself  in the last days of pregnancy scrubbing the kitchen floor because you actually want to, or baking a batch of bread because you’ve an irresistible urge to do it, make sure your hospital bag is packed – you’ll be in labor in the next few hours!’ It is a little like the ‘nesting instinct’ in fact.

More reliable signs of  labor, however, are physical ones. There may be an intermittent low backache, deep in the pelvis, but this is hard to identify, as it may come from the stretching ligaments of the sacroiliac joints rather than from the uterus. But if this backache is followed or accompanied by a change in the Braxton-Hicks contractions so that instead of starting gradually and lasting for about twenty seconds before wearing off equally gradually, they rise slowly to a rather higher degree of tension, which is maintained for between 30 and 50 seconds and then wear off quite quickly, labor has probably started. The contractions come at 15 or 20 minute intervals and are quite strong, though far from painful in these early stages.

Many pregnant women find they do and become very dozy and try to fight it. Not a good idea – if you are sleepy it’s because you need the sleep. Often the sleepiness lessens after the first three months and does not return until the last few weeks.

Some women worry because they sleep less, especially in the later months when lying down is uncomfortable and it is difficult to arrange the bump easily. Also, a very active baby may have the effect of keeping his mother awake. The commonest cause of sleeplessness, however, is likely to be anxiety of some form or another.

Many women have secret fears about their own health, their baby’s health, the future and what it holds and whether they will be able to cope, and they may also find their husbands are tense and anxious for the same reasons. All this can add up to a sleep-spoiling tension that in itself adds to the anxiety.

There is a generalized plumping up in pregnancy showing quite early, which is due to the way the hormone progesterone encourages fluid retention in the tissues. This is needed by the pregnancy, both to supply the extra fluid needed by the mother’s blood (it increases about ten per cent in volume) and also the baby’s needs. It is also suggested that extra fluid is stored up ready for milk-making later on.

This is normal swelling and may show itself in slightly tighter rings and shoes, and little more, though swelling of the face is common, and sometimes experienced people can spot that a woman is pregnant before she knows it herself by the way her face seems to plump up. Fingers may swell and become stiff and clumsy, especially in the morning (which may be why pregnant women are always dropping things).

One of the causes is constipation outside pregnancy – in other words, a woman who has always suffered from this tiresome problem because she eats the wrong foods, will have an exaggeration of it when she is pregnant and other factors are added on.

The other factors include the taking of iron, which is commonly given to pregnant women and which always causes a harder drier stool and the higher levels of progesterone in the woman’s body. Progesterone has a side effect of relaxing muscle and this affects the muscles of the intestine so that they don’t push waste material along as fast as they should. This too results in a harder drier stool, since water is reabsorbed from the gut contents all the time it remains inside the body.

About half of all pregnant women develop morning sickness nausea and sometimes vomiting – on waking in the morning. The best treatment is simple: take your time about getting up (set the alarm clock a few minutes earlier if necessary so that you don’t have to rush to get out of bed) and take a cup of tea -best without milk, but with lemon and a little sweetener if liked – and a plain biscuit. This will settle the stomach very well indeed.

Alternatively, and if there is no-one to prepare a morning cup of tea for you, mix in a bedside flask the chilled juice of a fresh orange and a fresh lemon, a teaspoonful of glucose and top up with soda water. This makes a refreshing and very restorative sickness-preventer. Generally speaking, this symptom disappears after the twelfth week of pregnancy.

The impact of exercise on the pregnant woman and the fetus has been the source of considerable debate resulting in conflicting recommendations.

Physical fitness enthusiasts have championed maintenance of vigorous activity during pregnancy, whereas others, particularly those concerned with the effects of manual labor, have urged caution.

Historically, traditional advice to women from the obstetric community has been to decrease activity and increase periods of rest during pregnancy, particularly in the third trimester.

Over the past decade, a number of studies have been conducted regarding this issue; unfortunately, most have been of weak scientific method and reflect the bias of the investigators.

In 1982, the National Institutes of Health sponsored a planning workshop dealing with physical activity in pregnancy.

This workshop identified dimensions of research needed, particularly prospective studies regarding both beneficial and adverse effects of exercise in pregnant women.

The teratogenicity of common food additives is largely unknown in human situations.

Metabolites of cyclamate and red dye no. 2 reportedly damage developing rat embryos, but both of these additives have now been banned from use in the U.S. food supply.

Artificial sweeteners have come under careful scrutiny in the past few years. Neither saccharin nor cyclamate has proven to be teratogenic in rodents.

Kline teal reported that the incidence of spontaneous abortion in a human population was not associated with ingestion of any sugar substitute.

However, because saccharin has been shown to be weakly carcinogenic in rats, moderation in its use seems appropriate.

This is especially true for the woman of reproductive age, since studies in rats indicate that saccharin is most effective as an initiator of bladder cancer when the mother is exposed to high doses before pregnancy and the offspring are exposed in utero and throughout their lives. Because saccharin can also markedly promote or enhance the potential of other carcinogens in rats, another basis for moderation in use is available.

Herbal teas and herbal remedies have been part of folk medicine for centuries.

There are currently more than 400 distinct herbs and spices commercially available to use either alone or in blended mixtures as tea.

Many commercially prepared drugs originated from plants.31’74 Consumers interested in “natural food” often turn to these products; other consumers looking for alternatives to caffeine-containing beverages often find herbal teas attractive.

Pregnant women should be discouraged from unlimited consumption of herb teas.

The major reason for this is that the composition and safety of most of them is unknown.

Rather than seek FDA approval, most manufacturers of herbal tea preparations stopped marketing the mixtures as medicine and simply list the ingredients on the label.

In 1983 the FDA officially designated 28 plants as unsafe to consume and wrote,

Definition

Pica refers to the compulsion for persistent ingestion of unsuitable substances having little or no nutritional value. Pica of pregnancy most often involves consumption of dirt and/or clay (geophagia) or starch (amylophagia). However, compulsive ingestion of a variety of nonfood substances has been noted, such as ice, burnt matches, hair, stone or gravel, charcoal, soot, cigarette ashes, mothballs, antacid tablets, milk of magnesia, baking soda, coffee grounds, and tire inner tubes.

The practice of pica is not new nor is it limited to any one geographical area, race, creed, culture, gender, or status within a culture.

Description

Pica practices of pregnant women have been assessed through a systematic review of the literature for the period 1950 through 1990. Pica behavior was considered in terms of its prevalence, risk factors, clinical profile and effect on pregnancy outcome. The prevalence of pica among pregnant women in high-risk groups declined between the 1950s and the 1970s but now remains steady; about one fifth of high-risk women are affected. Women at high risk for pica are more likely to be black, to live in rural areas and to have a positive childhood and family history of pica.