Pregnancy FAQs
Is My Pre- Pregnancy Diet Sufficient During Pregnancy?
Good diet and nutrition before you’re pregnant means a healthier you and baby. Eating a well-balanced, nutritious diet before pregnancy means less dietary changes during pregnancy.
What are the Symptoms of Pregnancy?
Are you trying to decide if you might be pregnant? Here's a look at the most common pregnancy symptoms.
Is It Safe to Dye My Hair During Pregnancy?
Whether using hair dye products during pregnancy is safe is a common question on the mind of pregnant women in the U.S. and Canada, as well as other countries where hair coloring is common among women. Do hair dye products affect the health of your developing baby?
Are Over the Counter Drugs Safe During Pregnancy?
According to the New England Journal of Medicine, an estimated 10 to 45 percent of pregnant women in the first trimester and unaware of their condition, reach for the most common OTC drug, aspirin. Are aspirin and other over the counter drugs safe during pregnancy?
Alcohol and Pregnancy - Is It OK to Drink Alcoholic Drinks During Pregnancy?
A warning for women who are already pregnant, as well as those who may become pregnant, concerning the consumption of alcohol and the potential of fetal alcohol syndrome. Learn how much alcohol is safe during or before pregnancy.
Can I Get Pregnant While Breastfeeding?
A look at how breastfeeding may offer protectiong against pregnancy. Learn whether the Lactational Amenorrhea Method or LAM is an effective natural contraceptive.
Old Wives Tales & Fun Ways to "Guess" Pink or Blue:
There are no shortage of people out there telling you non-medical ways to find out the sex of your baby. Many of these ways are inaccurate old wives tales. They are fun to play with and most of them don't involve anything dangerous. Some of the more common ones involve wedding rings spinning or swaying, the size or shape of your pregnant belly and other questions about pregnancy cravings or bed positioning. Do watch out for some of the sketchy ones that include chemicals like Drano.
How can you find out if baby is a girl or boy?:
The most commonly used method to find out the sex of your baby is ultrasound or sonogram. This method is most accurate between 18-22 weeks. It is normally done at the fetal anatomy survey done in the mid-second trimester.
At this point it is usually easier to tell the sex of the baby. Earlier dates are usually too difficult to tell and later dates become difficult because of crowding in the uterus.
What factors play a part in ultrasound being accurate?:
There are many factors that can play a part in whether or not the ultrasound is accurate in predicting the sex of your baby. They include:
- the gestational age of baby
- the equpiment being used
- the training of the person doing the ultrasound
- mother's weight
- baby's position
- other factors
What other ways can you find out the sex of the baby?:
Other methods of sex prediction are more accurate but carry more risk to the pregnancy. These methods can usually be done slightly earlier but are usually only done if other factors are involved that require genetic testing.
The most commonly used methods are amniocentesis and chorionic villus sampling (CVS). These tests can be used earlier in pregnancy. They are also much more accurate than ultrasound, with results very close to 100%. Most practitioners will tell you 100%, but there have been lab errors. These are most often done in the first trimester or early second trimester.
Sex Preference for Baby:
Let's face it, there are people who have very strong preferences for the sex of their baby. Sometimes it comes from really feeling a strong connection to raising a son or daughter. There are also families who have had a loss and feel that a specific sex would be better for their families. Family balancing is another reason that some families have a sex preference for one or more of the children.
Sex Selection Techniques: Choosing the Sex of Your Baby:
There are families who have such strong sex preferences that they choose to do sex selection. Using techniques like MicroSort, preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), Shettles and other methods of sex selection, they attempt to influence nature. Some techniques are very accurate while others are not as reliable.
Do you want to know if your baby is a boy or girl?:
About half of people surveyed say that they do want to know the sex of the baby they are carrying. Some people want to have a surprise. Sometimes they want to know but only in a second or subsequent pregnancy.
The most often stated reasons for finding out in pregnancy are planning reasons and why not know. Some people want to plan for a nursery for their baby or buy clothes for a specific sex of baby rather than wait until after the birth to find out the sex. It's a personal issue and one hotly debated.
Can a woman be pregnant and still have a period?
Pregnant women can have some light irregular bleeding during pregnancy, but it should not be like a “normal” period. Some women can confuse this for their period because often it can come right around the time she was expecting her normal period. The irregular bleeding or spotting that can occur during pregnancy is often a dark brown color or a light pinkish. It should not be enough bleeding to fill pads or tampons over a few days. If you are bleeding enough to fill pads and tampons, then this would be a good indication that you are not pregnant.
What if I have a positive pregnancy test and then start bleeding?
About 25-30% of pregnant women experience some type of spotting or bleeding in early pregnancy. This can be a result of many different factors including implantation bleeding, infection, cervical irritation, ectopic pregnancy or a threatened miscarriage. Many women who have this light bleeding go on to have normal pregnancies and healthy babies. About half of the women who experience some light bleeding will go on to have heavier bleeding that will ultimately result in miscarriage. Unfortunately there is no way to predict whether or not vaginal bleeding will progress to miscarriage. If you experience light bleeding that continues to get heavier, accompanied by painful cramping, back pain or stabbing pains, then you would want to seek medical attention right away.
If you experience some very slight spotting that then goes away, you would want to make sure to share this with your healthcare provider so that they are fully informed of everything you are experiencing in your pregnancy.
What if I have symptoms of pregnancy but then have a heavy period?
If you are having some weird symptoms that made you think you may be pregnant, but then have heavy bleeding, you may want to see a healthcare provider to find out what is going on. This could be caused by a hormonal imbalance, an infection, or a possible miscarriage. But the only way to know for sure is by seeking medical care.
What if I notice some cramping and I am pregnant?
Pregnant women can have some light cramping early in pregnancy. The cramping is often like light menstrual cramps through the lower abdomen or on one side or the other. The cramping is often a result of all the changes that are occurring in the uterus. The uterus is experiencing change as the implanted egg begins to grow and develop.
Some light cramping may also be from the small cyst that can develop on the ovary at ovulation called the corpus luteum cyst. A small cyst forms in the spot on the ovary where the egg pops out before making its journey to the uterus. This cyst then produces progesterone until the placenta has formed enough to begin producing its own progesterone. This small cyst can cause some discomfort for women in early pregnancy.
Can the exact date of conception be determined accurately?
Many women have questions about the date of possible conception, and unfortunately figuring this out is not always so easy. The assumption is that if a woman has pretty regular menstrual cycles, then she will be ovulating during a certain time of the month. Ovulation is the time when conception can take place because that is when an egg is made available. The problem is that most women do not ovulate on an exact date each month, and many women have a different ovulation day from month to month. If you also take into account that sperm can live in the body 3-5 days after intercourse has taken place, this can make figuring out conception very difficult. Most doctors use the first day of the last period (LMP) and ultrasound measurements to gage the gestational age of a baby and determine when the baby was conceived. But these are just tools used to estimate the dates—it is very hard for anything to tell what the exact date of conception really is. Most people do not realize that ultrasounds can be off up to 5-7 days in early pregnancy and up to a couple weeks off if the first ultrasounds are done farther into the second trimester or beyond. Due dates are not an accurate tool for determining conception since they also are only an estimation date (only 5% of women give birth on their due dates).
If you are seeking the estimated date of conception for paternity reasons, and intercourse with two different partners took place within 10 days of each other, we strongly encourage that paternity testing be done; this testing can be done during pregnancy and after the baby is born. It is the only way to accurately know who the father is.
If I have a negative pregnancy test after I have missed my period, does that mean I am not pregnant?
A negative result can mean that you are not pregnant, you took the test too early, or you took the test wrong. Pregnancy tests vary in their sensitivity (how soon they can detect the hormone hCG), and you may not have given your body enough time to produce enough hCG hormones that will show up on the test. Also, if you let a test sit for too long (after the instructions on the box tell you), the test is invalid. It is best to follow the instructions and wait until you have missed a period before taking the test. Some women show up accurately on a test the day they miss a period, while others may not show up positive until 3-4 weeks after a missed period. We encourage women to test after a missed period; if the result is negative they should wait a week and test again if a normal period has not started.
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