Short of developing a cure or vaccination to prevent it, a new urine test to predict if a woman will develop preeclampsia is one of the most encouraging developments the disease has seen in years. It's not on the market yet, but researchers have seemingly found a highly accurate and easy-to-administer test that could alert women and their health care providers that they're at risk of developing the deadly disease.
While just knowing it's coming doesn't necessarily mean it can be prevented, that knowledge would make a huge difference for women who are often hit by it without warning, women whose bodies turn on them with no advance clues, women like me.
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When I was pregnant with my first son and heard that you could rent those baby doppler gadgets online in order to hear the fetal heartbeat in the comfort of your own home, I thought it sounded kind of cool, but rife with the potential for obsession. I didn't want to be constantly poking a goo-slathered microphone around my belly, intently listening for sounds of distress, not that I even knew what a fetal sound of distress might be. (A tiny voice begging me to stop already with the Haagen-Dazs?)
If you follow my posts regularly, you know that I had a
Not everyone who leans toward natural birth practices started there -- many have had bad experiences in hospitals or have been close to women who have. Sometimes it's women who read incredible amounts of literature on pregnancy long before peeing on the stick. It's not just
My daughter tried to tell me the other day that she remembers being in the womb and that it was dark and wet. I know, easy guess. But I swore something was up when she flashed what was either the heavy metal or hook 'em horns sign on her very first sonogram. (As a University of Texas alum and lover of all hair bands in the 1980s, I was quite pleased.) Gang signs aside, it does seem that those babies are up to something in there, and it's kind of amazing.
When your baby is born, there are so many things that happen so quickly, but each one of them has rhyme, reason ... and repercussions. The general theme that the ACOG, March of Dimes, and many other medical organizations have been trying to make clear to people is this: Patience. We need it.
The way my doctor talked about the 3-D ultrasound, I thought it was going to be the pregnancy test version of an IMAX movie.
When I was pregnant with my first son, I was just starting to hear about 3D/4D ultrasounds and I couldn't wait to try it out. For those who aren't familiar, a 3D ultrasound uses fancy computer technology to render 2D into a 3D image, so in theory, you get a more comprehensive view of your growing fetus than those black and white Skeletor pictures. The 4th dimension is time, which means ... uh, let's see, I think it means the machine tunnels a wormhole into space and risks the very fabric of the universe via the classic time traveler's paradox.
Look, for me to tell you to stop getting so many ultrasounds ... well, you know what they say about people who live in glass houses. I'll confess: During both of my pregnancies, I really looked forward to my ultrasounds. I never considered asking my doctor to reduce their frequency (not that they were particularly frequent, as I was fortunate enough to not have complications with either baby).
Capturing those first moments of your baby's life on video may be incredibly important to you. After all, it's possible you may be too out of it from either euphoria, pain, or drugs to remember the details of the moment you became a mom. But some hospitals are