I was flipping through our OnDemand selections under Parenting and actually found a bunch of little shows regarding pregnancy and fertility. I was jotting down notes.<\/p>\n
When finding a doctor or midwife who will be looking after you during pregnancy and labor&delivery, three important questions to ask are:<\/p>\n
1) Their episiotomy rate. She said this gives a very good indication as to what kind of training they’ve had and how they approach childbirth. If they have a high epi rate, for instance, they probably weren’t trained in how to properly massage and ease the mother through the birth (so not needing an epi).<\/p>\n
2) Their cesarean rate. This depends also on whether they specialize in high-risk pregnancies or not (midwives usually have lower rates, because they don’t take high-risk pregnancies), but by choosing a doctor with a lower rate you are putting yourself at a lower risk for a c-section.<\/p>\n
3) How is the baby monitored during labor, intermittently, or continuously? Obviously if something comes up and there is a reason to monitor continuously, that’s one thing. But, given the choice, the statistics say that monitoring continuously during a normal labor does not benefit the baby any more than monitoring intermittently, but actually results in a higher rate of c-section (higher risk for the mother).<\/p>\n
All these questions speak to the doctor\/midwife’s approach to childbirth. It’s important to feel comfortable with your doctor or midwife, and to feel as secure as possible during labor.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Most OBGYNs will want to make your first appointment for when you are 8-10 weeks along. That’s when they can start running bloodtests and measuring the fetus to estimate the due date and other things. Before then, when you first find out you’re pregnant, all they can really do is confirm the pregnancy.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
A choice you’ll make for your labor and delivery is where you’ll have it: attended home birth, a birth center, or in a labor&delivery unit in a hospital. First of all it depends on your risk factor, if you’re high-risk you’ll have to be in a hospital – and if something occurs during the delivery you’ll be moved to one. But for a normal pregnancy, the choice depends on where the mother feels safest and most comfortable. She recommended touring your options early and comparing, to decide what’s best for you. I’m pretty sure I’d prefer a birthing center, it’s a nice balance. I’ll have to do research and see if there’s any in the area. (Can you imagine all the fur that would cause problems here at home? Yuck.)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
A recommended infertility book: A Few Good Eggs<\/i>. I’m going to buy it if we continue having no luck getting pregnant. It addresses all aspects of infertility, was referred to as a “road map” for couples dealing with infertility. Some of the things mentioned in the interview with the author were myths like “I’m young and healthy, it won’t happen to me,” and the fact that your eggs are limited and getting older, so don’t put off TTC too long thinking they’ll be around forever. Also she said, if you’re dealing with IF issues, see an RE – your OBGYN is not properly equipped to deal with it.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Starting at a healthy weight like I am now you should expect to gain 25-35 lbs during your pregnancy, and it should be a consistent weight gain through the second and third trimesters.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n As far as diet, obviously that’s important. Some food suggestions I jotted down: whole weat pasta, rice and breads; look for low fat yogurts and cheeses; avoid aged, soft cheeses; protein from eggs, lean tenderloin, skinless chicken breast; cooked<\/i> fish has lots of healthy things in it, but be careful of the big fish like tuna and shark (and no uncooked fish); and for fruit smoothies are great!<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n I like doing research. It makes me feel more in control and positive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I was flipping through our OnDemand selections under Parenting and actually found a bunch of little shows regarding pregnancy and fertility. I was jotting down notes. When finding a doctor or midwife who will be looking after you during pregnancy and labor&delivery, three important questions to ask are: 1) Their episiotomy rate. She said this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[16,14,15],"class_list":["post-193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-fertility","tag-labor-delivery","tag-pregnancy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lunardreams.net\/baby\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lunardreams.net\/baby\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lunardreams.net\/baby\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lunardreams.net\/baby\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lunardreams.net\/baby\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/lunardreams.net\/baby\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lunardreams.net\/baby\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lunardreams.net\/baby\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lunardreams.net\/baby\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}