Child And Mather

Pregnancy comes with its own set of physical trials and tribulations: The backaches and sore breasts, the urgent bladder, the restless sleep. Schlepping a swollen belly through the summer heat and humidity only magnifies the discomfort. That’s because “pregnant women are more sensitive to the heat,” thanks to increased body temperature and weight, says Dana Gossett, MD, chief of general obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. To stay cool, take advantage of your more spacious maternity wardrobe. Wear loose, flowing summer dresses and lightweight, breathable clothes made from cotton and other natural fibers. Also give your feet some breathing room in comfortable sandals or canvas shoes. Shoes should offer good support and cushion. Whenever you can, prop up your feet to relieve swelling in your feet andankles, which is partly the result of your expanding uterus putting pressure on your leg veins and slowing...

Pregnancy: Why Your Favorite Foods Gross You Out ou’ve heard about the off-the-wall cravings some women get duringpregnancy. The legendary midnight runs for pickles and ice cream. The sudden, overpowering longing for watermelon or chips. You might even have had them yourself. But cravings have a flip side that fewer people know about. Once you’re pregnant, you may  not  crave that morning latte that’s had been getting you going every day. You may not be able to walk past your local coffeejoint because you can’t stand the smell of it now. About half of all expectant mothers end up with one or more food aversions. All of a sudden, they cannot stomach certain foods, even ones they used to love. “People have all kinds of aversions. They’re not the same,” says Jennifer Wu, MD, an obstetrician and gynecologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. Your cup of joe tends to top the list of aversions. Other things you may no longer want are meats,...

HealthDay Reporter THURSDAY, Jan. 5, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- A drug commonly prescribed to ease the nausea of morning sickness may not be as effective as once believed, a new analysis suggests. Diclectin (pyridoxine-doxylamine) has been prescribed for millions of pregnant women for years. But an unpublished study from the 1970s used by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Health Canada to approve the drug may have overstated its benefits, the Canadian researchers behind the new research said. Study co-author Dr. Nav Persaud, a family physician at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, said the earlier study's data about the effectiveness of Diclectin is shaky at best. "We found two main problems with the [unpublished] study. Data was missing for 31 percent of participants. There are questions about the integrity of the data," Persaud said. "The approval and prescribing of this medication are based on this study. The decision to approve this medication...

In a recommendation that reaffirms previous guidelines, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said that folic acid supplements reduce the risk of neural tube defects. As it advised in 2009, the independent panel of experts said women who are pregnant or able to get pregnant should take a daily supplement that contains between 400 and 800 micrograms of folic acid to prevent these potentially fatal birth defects. Neural tube defects occur when the brain or spinal cord do not develop properly, leading to serious disabilities or even death. These birth defects take place very early in pregnancy. Sometimes they occur even before a woman knows that she is expecting, the task force explained. Folic acid supplements are most beneficial if women take them one month before becoming pregnant and continue taking them for the first three months of pregnancy , the panel concluded. Folic acid is a naturally occurring B vitamin found in many fruits and vegetables, such as leafy greens, brocc...