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Pregnancy can be a time of joy, but also a time of worry. Am I eating the right foods? Am I gaining the correct amount of weight? Am I allowed to dye my hair? These questions and more are really just the first way a woman becomes a mom: by...
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Pregnancy
Unfortunately, complications do arise over the course of some pregnancies. Issues like gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, or bleeding may make a previously carefree pregnancy filled with anxiety, worry, and sadness. A delivery that comes too early...
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Pregnancy
An estimated 10-25 percent of pregnancies end in miscarriage, resulting in millions of women dealing with a potentially traumatic situation. With today’s medicals advances, like home pregnancy tests and fetal ultrasounds in the first trimester,...
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Pregnancy
Occasionally pregnant women may need to take pain medicine. This may be for a back injury, after recovering from surgery, or during a gallbladder attack. Usually, doctors and midwives will try to use medicine such as acetaminophen and heat or...
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Pregnancy
Prescription painkillers are a class of drugs that are used to treat pain. Among the most popular prescription painkillers is the group of medications known as opioids. Common opioids include morphine, oxycodone, and codeine, among others. These...
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Pregnancy
Many women experience headaches in pregnancy — in fact, almost one-third of women will have them frequently! While this common symptom is often harmless, headaches can still be uncomfortable and, at times, may require more attention to make sure...
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Pregnancy
Your thyroid gland is a butterfly-shaped gland that is located in the front of your neck. Its job is to produce thyroid hormones that help regulate your metabolism, and these hormones affect many organs in your body. Having too much or too little...
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Pregnancy
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Pregnancy
Opioids are a type of prescription medicine that is commonly used to treat pain. Drugs that fall into this category include morphine, fentanyl, oxycodone, and codeine, to name a few. While these drugs are legal and play a role in pain management,...
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Pregnancy
When it comes to pregnancy, many women know that it is important to eat healthy (most of the time…), exercise, and take your prenatal vitamins. But far fewer realize how important it is to take care of one more important thing: your teeth. In fact,...
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Pregnancy
Welcome to Week 25! It’s always fun to think about your baby’s growth and come up with funny comparisons to various foods (“This week my baby is a melon! A lemon!” “A rutabaga!”). The truth is, by week 25, your baby is already beginning to chart...
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Pregnancy
There is definitely one pregnancy symptom that is not at all enjoyable: hemorrhoids. They can show up during pregnancy or in the postpartum period, and up to 35 percent of pregnant women will experience them. Either way, they can be a nuisance....
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Pregnancy
Preterm labor is defined as labor that starts between 20 and 37 weeks of pregnancy. Approximately 10 percent of babies are born preterm in the United States. This can be an overwhelmingly scary time, especially if you are earlier in your pregnancy....
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Pregnancy
In October 2013, the American College of Obstetricians/Gynecologists (ACOG) issued an updated definition for term pregnancies. The updated definitions are significant because they change when pregnancies are classified as “full term.” Prior to the...
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Pregnancy
For many women, pregnancy is a time when they scrutinize everything that goes into their body for the sake of their developing baby. With flu season officially here, now is a good time to dispel a few myths about the illness and reiterate the...
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Pregnancy
Gestational diabetes is diabetes that a woman develops during pregnancy. Out of every 100 pregnant women in the United States, three to eight develop gestational diabetes. Fortunately, with the right tools, gestational diabetes can be treated...
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Pregnancy
Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a virus that can be spread by sexual contact, as well as through contaminated blood, saliva, or urine. While this infection doesn’t usually lead to major problems in adults, it is the most common infection mothers pass to...
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Pregnancy
Fibroids are non-cancerous solid tumors that grow in the uterus. They are extremely common, with up to 70-80 percent of women having them by the time they are 50 years old. Most of the time they cause no problems and are only discovered because an...
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Pregnancy
With the various types of obstetric providers that can care for you during your labor and delivery, some women choose to be seen by a midwife. Different categories of midwives exist, but the bottom line is that they all care for low-risk women....
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Pregnancy
Having diabetes, any type of diabetes, means that you have too much glucose, a form of sugar, in your bloodstream. When you have gestational diabetes, your blood glucose has risen above normal during your pregnancy. Gestational diabetes may occur...
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Pregnancy
Approximately 35 percent of adult Americans, or 1 in 3 people, are now obese. Obesity is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or above. While we know many complications associated with obesity, being pregnant and obese has its own...
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Blog
The media had a field day recently when results from a new study about the flu vaccine and its safety in pregnancy were released. Despite the authors themselves saying that practices should remain unchanged based on this one small study, many...
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Pregnancy
Every year, 10 million American women deal with an eating disorder. While many of these women will stop having periods because of their low weight, some will still menstruate and become pregnant. How an eating disorder can affect a pregnancy can be...
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Pregnancy
Miscarriage is unfortunately a common occurrence, complicating approximately 25 percent of pregnancies. Another term for a miscarriage is a “spontaneous abortion.” Dealing with this can be very difficult, so it is important to understand your...
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Pregnancy
Food poisoning occurs when people eat or drink harmful microorganisms (bacteria, parasites, viruses), usually in contaminated food or drinking water. Food poisoning is especially important to avoid during pregnancy because the immune system is...
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Pregnancy
With asthma being a very common medical condition, many women wonder how this diagnosis may affect their pregnancy. And with some women being afraid to take any unnecessary medications in pregnancy, they may think they should skip their asthma...
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Pregnancy
Once you get a positive pregnancy test, you will probably start wondering how your new baby is going to affect all the aspects of your life. For women who work outside the home, many start to think about when to tell their bosses they are pregnant...
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Pregnancy
Most OB/GYNs have long advised pregnant patients that it’s perfectly safe to take acetaminophen (Tylenol) for pain, headaches, and fever. But while many will still give the green light to take it, you’ll likely start to hear some additional...
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Pregnancy
Amniocentesis is a diagnostic procedure that is used before birth to look for genetic problems and birth defects in the developing fetus. During the procedure, your doctor removes a small amount of amniotic fluid from the uterus using a long...
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Pregnancy
When you have gestational diabetes, insulin may become part of your management plan. And as with many medications, insulin may cause certain side effects. One of the most common side effects of insulin is hypoglycemia, or low blood glucose. Insulin...
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Pregnancy
By now, almost everyone has seen or heard of the MTV show 16 and Pregnant, which documents the pregnancies and deliveries of teen moms. The show demonstrates the reality of teen pregnancy and has actually been credited with some of the recent...
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Pregnancy
Sickle cell anemia is a disorder where a certain type of hemoglobin — a compound found in red blood cells that is responsible for helping transport oxygen — is abnormally formed. This changes the shape of a person’s red blood cells from a circular...
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Pregnancy
If healthy food choices and physical activity do not keep your blood glucose in a healthy range when you have gestational diabetes, your healthcare provider may prescribe insulin to help manage gestational diabetes. It may help you to understand...
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Pregnancy
When you have Gestational Diabetes, you will need to check your blood glucose several times a day to see how well your food choices, physical activity and medications, if necessary, are affecting your glucose levels. To check your glucose you need...
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Pregnancy
Having a baby can be an expensive proposition, but not all childbirths cost the same. In general, you can expect to pay more for a C-section—but not always. When comparing a vaginal delivery versus a scheduled C-section, there are a few factors...
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Pregnancy
When you have gestational diabetes, your diabetes care team may prescribe insulin to help you reach your blood glucose goals. Some women who inject insulin use an insulin pen. Keep in mind that there are several different pens to choose from and...
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Pregnancy
When you have Gestational Diabetes, using insulin may become part of your management plan. You may be nervous about injecting insulin at first. Meet with your diabetes care team to go over the correct steps for injecting insulin with a syringe....
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Pregnancy
Preeclampsia is defined as high blood pressure that develops in the second half of pregnancy and is associated with too much protein in your urine, along with other concerning findings such as headaches, vision changes, or pain coming from your...
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Pregnancy
The use of bed rest or extreme activity restriction is a common first-line treatment for many complications of pregnancy, including: preterm labor, being pregnant with multiples, placenta previa, and preeclampsia or high blood pressure, to name a...
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Pregnancy
As of 2015 in the United States, about 9.5 percent of all babies are born preterm, meaning they were born at less than 37 weeks gestation. We know that being born preterm can lead to multiple complications for a new baby, such as problems with...
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Pregnancy
With summer in full bloom, many people may be wondering, “Whatever happened to the Zika virus? Do I still need to worry?” Just a couple years ago, the scare of infant birth defects, including microcephaly, was a very real concern for women who were...
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Pregnancy
You’ve just given birth to a beautiful baby. But when your pregnancy is complicated by gestational diabetes, you may be concerned about the health of your baby as well as your own. To check for possible complications, your baby may be taken out of...
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Pregnancy
Streptococcus agalactiae, otherwise known as Group B Strep (GBS), is a bacteria that approximately 20-25 percent of pregnant women have in their vagina and rectum. Carrying this bacteria does not mean that you acquired a sexually transmitted...
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Pregnancy
Chorioamnionitis is when an infection develops in the uterus during labor. This condition complicates 1-4 percent of all deliveries. Also known as intra-amniotic infection, the diagnosis is made when a mom develops a fever during labor and no other...
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Pregnancy
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Pregnancy
Round ligament pain is a common cause of discomfort for many pregnant women. While it does not put you or your baby in any danger, it can still be a nuisance. The round ligaments are support structures in the uterus. They are bands of tissue that...
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Pregnancy
Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is the diagnosis of diabetes, or carbohydrate intolerance, in pregnancy. This condition complicates about 5 percent of all pregnancies, with some ethnic groups being more affected than others. There are a few...
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Pregnancy
The birth of a child is a highly anticipated, joyous event for many families. Sometimes, though, new moms struggle with feelings of sadness, detachment, and doubt after they bring their baby home. It can be frightening when these unexpected feeling...
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Pregnancy
HELLP syndrome, also considered a possible variant of preeclampsia, is a life-threatening complication that usually occurs during pregnancy’s later stages or even up to a week after childbirth. The acronym HELLP describes what happens to women when...
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Pregnancy
When you have Gestational Diabetes, making healthy food choices is one of the best ways you can manage your blood glucose while providing enough nutrients to you and your growing baby. This doesn’t mean you have to go on a boring,...
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Pregnancy
Medicine is rarely so straightforward that it can offer a “one size fits all” pattern. In fact, there is a reason it is called the “practice” of medicine or the “art” of medicine — because oftentimes a doctor or midwife needs to carefully consider...
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Pregnancy
Chicken pox (varicella) is a highly contagious herpes virus that is transmitted by respiratory droplets. While the incidence of chicken pox has decreased dramatically in recent years thanks to the varicella vaccine, the virus is still risky to...
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Pregnancy
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Pregnancy
The abbreviation PPROM stands for preterm premature rupture of membranes. This is when the amniotic sac, or bag of waters, breaks before 37 weeks’ gestation and before labor has started. This complication affects approximately 3 percent of...