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"The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommend that all women have an oral glucose tolerance test to look for gestational diabetes. It's usually assessed somewhere between 24 and 28 weeks. Up to 10% of pregnancies can be impacted by gestational diabetes, which can sometimes go along with gestational hypertension or high blood pressure, but not always. And when you have gestational diabetes or a woman has gestational diabetes, it means that she has a higher level of blood sugar. And when there's a higher level of blood sugar, there's a higher level of insulin, which crosses the placenta and is essentially a growth factor for the baby. So the baby could be big, could be so big that you need to have a cesarean section, or there could be blood sugar controls issues with the baby as well. So monitoring for gestational diabetes and having it appropriately treated in pregnancy will help you have the best outcome for you and the baby. Now, if you have gestational diabetes, it indicates that you may develop type two diabetes later in life. About 50% of women who have gestational diabetes will end up with type two diabetes. So what you can do about that is be on the lookout, have yourself assessed or screened after your pregnancy, six to 12 weeks later, and then regularly thereafter maintain a normal body weight, because that is also linked to type two diabetes that may increase your risk and eat healthy and exercise healthy. And just get yourself back to your pre pregnancy health after the delivery of your baby."
"The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommend that all women have an oral glucose tolerance test to look for gestational diabetes. It's usually assessed somewhere between 24 and 28 weeks. Up to 10% of pregnancies can be impacted by gestational diabetes, which can sometimes go along with gestational hypertension or high blood pressure, but not always. And when you have gestational diabetes or a woman has gestational diabetes, it means that she has a higher level of blood sugar. And when there's a higher level of blood sugar, there's a higher level of insulin, which crosses the placenta and is essentially a growth factor for the baby. So the baby could be big, could be so big that you need to have a cesarean section, or there could be blood sugar controls issues with the baby as well. So monitoring for gestational diabetes and having it appropriately treated in pregnancy will help you have the best outcome for you and the baby. Now, if you have gestational diabetes, it indicates that you may develop type two diabetes later in life. About 50% of women who have gestational diabetes will end up with type two diabetes. So what you can do about that is be on the lookout, have yourself assessed or screened after your pregnancy, six to 12 weeks later, and then regularly thereafter maintain a normal body weight, because that is also linked to type two diabetes that may increase your risk and eat healthy and exercise healthy. And just get yourself back to your pre pregnancy health after the delivery of your baby."
Bleeding in the second trimester can be normal, but only if it's very light intermittent, or a little bit of spotting, if there's any heavy bleeding or any clotting that goes with that bleeding or cramping and pain or other symptoms of concern, then bleeding is not normal. And you have to talk to your healthcare provider about that. What would be some of the reasons that you should go to your emergency room or call your doctor for any emergency consultation? Those would be things like heavy bleeding, abdominal cramping, or sharp cramping, things like a seizure, which could indicate preeclampsia or eclampsia. If you have a headache, blurred vision, if you have really bad trouble seeing, or your headache is something that you're not used to, those are the kinds of things that may indicate a worsening problem in pregnancy. And you absolutely need to go see your doctor right away for some of those more emergent concerns.
"Pregnancy is broken down into three trimesters. If you're pregnant, first of all, let me congratulate you. That's very exciting. And I'm sure that you're having a lot of nerves and fears and anxieties intermixed with a lot of excitement and optimism and a lot of positive emotion as well. And if you're feeling nervous, don't worry. A lot of people do. In fact, most new moms definitely feel nervous. You can absolutely figure this out. Pregnancy is broken down into the first 12 weeks is the first trimester from 13 to 26 is the second trimester. And from 27 to full term is the third trimester. Now we use those weeks of dating from the first day of the last menstrual period. And we know of course that you're not pregnant on the first day of the last menstrual period. You actually conceive somewhere in the middle of that first month, and that is taken into account with all of these calculations, but to figure out your absolute due date or the number of weeks you are along, you want to calculate from the first day of your last menstrual period. And sometimes your healthcare provider will have an early dating ultrasound ordered it's not required, but an early dating ultrasound, the earlier it is in pregnancy will give you more accurate dates. So between your first day of your last menstrual period and your dating ultrasound, putting all of that information together will help determine when you reach what's called the estimated data confinement or your due date. And that is estimated to be about 40 weeks. Now, full term is 37 completed weeks and beyond. And we know that 37 weeks and beyond any time in there would be full term. But when we have an estimated data confinement, you can deliver anywhere from one to two weeks on either side of that due date and still be considered full term normal pregnancy. So if you're not sure of your absolute due date, that's okay. Not likely you'll deliver exactly on that date. You're more likely to deliver in and around that date. And any time after 37 weeks would be considered full term."
"Exercise is really important before, during and after pregnancy. So if you're in really good physical condition, there's a good chance that you can continue your exercise routine in your pregnancy. So you may want to ask your healthcare provider, but if you're doing low intensity, cardio, long duration type of walking or even jogging or bike riding or swimming is really good, those kinds of activities are very safe. Remember your baby's encased in an amniotic fluid sac. That's protecting it from all that jarring and moving around. Things you want to avoid is taking on a new exercise program. If you're maybe not in really great shape, you don't want to do that while you're pregnant, or if you do, you want to do it very slowly at the beginning and under the guidance of your healthcare provider, you don't want to do any contact sports or high-intensity or jarring activities that would create a real impact for the baby, or might get you in trouble. If you were to bang into something or have a crash, check with somebody beside you. Like if you're trying to play hockey while you're pregnant, those kinds of things, you don't want to do anything. That's going to really jar you or really create a lot of impact for the baby. But other activities are generally very safe. If it's really hot and humid, you want to make sure your electrolytes are replaced and you want to be really, really well hydrated. But other than that, you really want to continue with some form of exercise during pregnancy, and also after you deliver and taking the baby on a jog and a jogging stroller, or having the baby outside so that you can both stay active is not just good for your health and good for your baby's health, but also really good role modeling."
Over the counter medications should be taken with caution and with the advice of your healthcare provider. So if you're looking to take anything over the counter for symptom relief, make sure you talk to your doctor. So certain cold remedies would not be okay to take during pregnancy while others may be safe. And so it's really important to look at the ingredients, the active ingredients, and to talk to your healthcare provider or to use a call in line or a reputable internet site to make sure you get that information. Tylenol is one of those things that's known to be safe to take during pregnancy inappropriate dosages over the counter prenatal vitamins. Most of the time are also known to be safe, to take during pregnancy. And it's really important to be taking full like acid or making sure that you get enough folic acid in your prenatal vitamin prior to conceiving and throughout your pregnancy to protect your baby from neural tube defects or spinal bifida. It's also important to be getting enough vitamin D to be getting little bit of sunshine, to help with vitamin D. And also if you have low iron to making sure you get enough iron, which is often in your prenatal vitamin, other than that, make sure you talk to your doctor before taking anything in your pregnancy.
When you see your healthcare provider and talk about what tests should be done in the second trimester, you may find out about a couple of different tests and these prenatal tests are emerging and changing all the time. One test is an ultrasound that's done about 18 to 20 weeks, and it's an anatomical ultrasound, which has a really good look at the baby's growth and organs to determine if the baby is growing and developing appropriately. Another test that's done often is the maternal marker screen or the triple screen. And it looks at HCG estriol. And alpha-fetoprotein essentially, it's trying to get an indicator as to whether your baby has down syndrome, trisomy 18 or spinal bifida, which is a neural tube defect or an opening in the spinal cord. Now, if those tests come back positive, it does not mean that something is wrong with the baby. They're simply an indicator that you need to move on to a more aggressive or invasive tests like an amniocentesis, which takes a little bit of amniotic fluid or chorionic villus sampling, which takes a little piece of the placenta, thereby actually testing the baby's genes to rule out these problems. So those are the kinds of tests that your doctor is going to talk with you about in the second trimester to make sure that your baby is growing and developing appropriately, and that you both stay healthy.
"Once you're pregnant, you may have all kinds of questions about what you're going to do about work. Are you going to continue work? Are you going to cut back? How are you and your partner going to negotiate? All of those challenges around childcare, around caring for the baby, being up with the baby at night, feeding the baby through the night, all of those things that create sleepless nights, all those things that create stress. Those are the kinds of conversations you would want to have preferably before you get pregnant. And definitely before you have the baby. So having a baby is teamwork, and it involves a lot of teamwork between both parents. So if you have a partner and that partner is participating in the care of the baby, make sure you have those conversations. How will you manage when the baby's up at night, what will you do when the baby's sick during the day, who's going to stay home from work. Who's going to go into work all of the considerations around maintaining that relationship with your partner, but also the financial considerations about how are you going to continue to pay the bills, continue to draw an income when you have this other human being to look after. So these are not meant to be very stressful times, but they can be. And being prepared is the best medicine. You can have to make sure that you are set and that you know what you and your partner are going to do to have the best health of this baby and this family front of mind. Now, if you are a single parent that raises all kinds of issues around the stress of, do you stay home from work? Do you go to work? How do you find childcare? Who do you trust to take care of the baby too, while you're going to work? And if you're a single parent, it's very likely that you're going to work in order to be able to continue to pay those bills. And as a single parent, it's very important that you consider before the baby's born, how you're going to deal with making those very, very important decisions for you, for your baby and for your family."
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