Pregnancy & Childbirth

Delivery
Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care : 8th Edition
by Benjamin Spock, M.D.
What kind of delivery do you want? Parenting is about choices, and one of the first you will be asked to make is the kind of childbirth you'd prefer. In the old days, there wasn't a lot of choice.

Releasing Fear
HypnoBirthing®: The Breakthrough Natural Approach to Safer, Easier, More Comfortable Birthing - The Mongan Method
by Marie Mongan, M.Ed., M.Hy.
Childbirth is not something to be feared; it is a natural expression of life. With HypnoBirthing, your pregnancy and childbirth will become the gentle, life-affirming process it was meant to be.

Great Expectations
Pregnancy Blues: What Every Woman Needs to Know about Depression During Pregnancy
by Shaila Kulkarni Misri, M.D.
It should be a time of joyous anticipation - the happiest time in a woman's life. But for many women, the joys of pregnancy are clouded by feelings of fear, sadness, and confusion. And unlike postpartum depression, which is widely portrayed in the media

Preventing Birth Defects : Nursery, Accutane and Birth Defects
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Chemicals - whether it's paint in the nursery or exhaust fumes in a parking garage - have long been suspected of causing birth defects. It's important for pregnant women to realize that most birth defects are not caused by a single factor, nor are they

Old Self, New Self
Dreaming for Two: The Hidden Emotional Life of Expectant Mothers
by Sindy Greenberg, Elyse Kroll, Hillary Grill, M.S.W.
As you begin to embrace motherhood-possibly the biggest change you'll ever experience-you'll find the identity that has taken you a lifetime to form is now entirely up for revision. You may feel pressure to leave parts of your old self, and your old life

When You Are Pregnant ...: How Drinking Can Hurt Your Baby
by National Institute of Health
When you are pregnant, your baby grows inside you. Everything you eat and drink while you are pregnant affects your baby. If you drink alcohol, it can hurt your baby's growth.

Healthy Pregnancy: Exercise, Testing for Birth Defects
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
There's increasing medical evidence to show that exercise, even a vigorous workout, is healthy during pregnancy. An October 1998 study published in the American Journal of Public Health found that exercise is usually safe during pregnancy, and that women

Overactive Bladder
Ever Since I Had My Baby
by Roger Goldberg, M.D., M.P.H.
Stress incontinence refers to the sudden accidental leakage of urine when you cough, sneeze, laugh, lift a heavy object, hit a tennis or golf ball, or quickly change your position - in other words, during any activity that creates pressure or stress

You Have to Lie Down
Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife
by Peggy Vincent
'Please lie down,' I begged Zelda. 'Please.' Wearing nothing but a shiny coat of sweat, the young black woman stood upright on her hospital bed, stomping from the lumpy pillow to the foot rail and then back again.

Healthy Pregnancy: Medications, Avoid Infections
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Many infections during pregnancy can be dangerous to an unborn child. Urinary tract infections and any sexually transmitted diseases need to be treated immediately. Cat litter and raw meat may contain the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, which can cause

Finding a Complementary or Alternative Medicine Practitioner
The Whole Pregnancy Handbook
by Joel M. Evans, M.D.
Just as when you're looking for a new doctor or nurse-practitioner, when you set outto find an alternative practitioner you want to find someone who's not only well qualified, but who's also a good match for your personality and needs.

Recognizing Your Postreproductive Problem
Ever Since I Had My Baby
by Roger Goldberg, M.D., M.P.H.
Pelvic-floor disorders are much more common than you might think - millions of women suffer from one or more symptoms of pelvic-floor injury. These problems often stem from the strain placed on the body during pregnancy and childbirth, although symptoms

Preventing Birth Defects : Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
A pregnant woman who has a serious medical condition may face a greater than normal risk that her child will have a birth defect. Diabetes, for example, can complicate a pregnancy in many ways.

Unborn Babies: Fetal Ultrasound for Keepsake Videos
by Health Canada
Health Canada is recommending parents not expose their unborn babies to fetal ultrasound for the purpose of making "keepsake" videos. Fetal ultrasound creates images of the unborn baby in the womb.

Managing Gestational Diabetes: A Patient's Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy
by National Institute of Health
Gestational diabetes is one of the most common health problems for pregnant women. It affects about 5 percent of all pregnancies, which means there are about 200,000 cases each year.

Gestational Diabetes and Pregnancy
by National Institute of Health
Gestational diabetes is a type of diabetes, or high blood sugar, that only pregnant women get. In fact, the word gestational means pregnant. If a woman gets high blood sugar when she's pregnant, but she never had high blood sugar before

Ultrasound Keepsake Images
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Ultrasound imaging is a common diagnostic medical procedure that uses high-frequency sound waves to produce dynamic images (sonograms) of organs, tissues, or blood flow inside the body.

Monitoring High-Risk Pregnancy
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Pregnancy is usually a serene time in a women's life. However, sometimes it can be complicated by unexpected illnesses or medical conditions. When this happens, the pregnancy becomes high risk.

Your Pregnancy Self-Care Plan
Body, Soul, and Baby: A Doctor's Guide to the Complete Pregnancy Experience, From Preconception to Postpartum
by Tracey W. Gaudet, M.D., Paula Spencer
In a culture that rarely sees pregnancy as a journey to self-discovery, Body, Soul, and Baby offers a fresh perspective on this transformative life experience by showing women how to tune in to the cues offered by their bodies and souls

Pregnancy and Drug : Pre-Pregnancy Planning, Untreated Disease
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Some drugs, such as oral contraceptives, land in Category X simply because there is no reason to use them in pregnancy. And a drug can fall into Category C because there is some medium level of risk based on animal studies, or because no animal studies