"The difference between pregnancy and any other time of life is that you are in a body that is constantly changing. That means that the context of your risks, as well as the level of risk and what the potential treatment plan could be, is always changing. Staying up...
"The chiropractor looked like a combo of Buddha and Santa Claus. He had the biggest smile and a calm demeanor. He asked if he could examine my daughter, and she teetered up to him like an old friend. The doctor explained something I hadn’t considered: the weight of...
" During that time, I had a lot of time to think. Perhaps too much time. Sometimes the thoughts were heavy and difficult to endure. Sometimes the thoughts were questions I would try to work through. One such question began as a plague and ended as a treasure."...
** This is a repost of a classic Informed Pregnancy Article " Some signs and symptoms that should always trigger a call to your medical provider include any sign of dehydration, dizziness, dark-colored or infrequent urination, vomit containing blood, fever, abdominal...
"This isn’t part of my plan. I’m supposed to be pregnant by now!” Stubbornly, (did I mention I’m Ukrainian?) I refused to accept that I had a medical issue that I couldn’t plan to resolve on my own, so I spent the next nine months decanting smelly herbs, working with...
**This is a repost of a classic Informed Pregnancy article. "Stress is also implicated in decreased birth weight. The hormones that are released in a chronic stress state affect blood vessel constriction and may decrease the appetite of the mother, in turn affecting...
Once we received news of the surgery, the rest was an agonizing blur. We were pushed upstairs to sign paper after paper with the anesthesiologist, releasing them of responsibility if they accidentally killed my baby. Having my newborn go through invasive surgery at...
"It is very important not to stop any necessary asthma medications due to a possible pregnancy without speaking to your doctor because an asthma attack in early pregnancy due to stopping medications can also be very dangerous to you, and your baby." Asthma is a common...
"In the past, women with MS were told that they should avoid pregnancy, mostly because of an increased risk of relapse in the postpartum period and lack of effective and safe treatments for peripartum use. But with the use of careful monitoring and/or highly effective...
**This is a repost of a classic Informed Pregnancy Project article. "The squat is the queen of pelvic floor exercises, so you can ditch all of the kegels and start squatting each day!" As a yoga teacher and doula, I have discovered that healing the core postpartum...
"I must admit, after I gave birth, the last thing I thought I would have to worry about was feeding my baby. I had always planned to breastfeed. My mother nursed me for two years and bragged about how fat my siblings and I got from her supply. As expected, my baby...
"D-MER (Dysphoric Milk Ejection Reflex), she told me, is a specific condition that is often confused for postpartum depression but is distinct in a number of ways. Its defining characteristic is that the intense and often overwhelming negative feelings are confined to...