Yes!
The best way to protect your baby during pregnancy is to protect yourself. Seatbelts for the best way to do this while driving. It is a myth that seat belt and extra an unnecessary risk to your baby; on the contrary, they may save your life and your babies life.
Buckle up!
Yes!
Because of high-levels of mercury, pregnant women should avoid shark, swordfish, king mackerel and tilefish. Smaller fish are usually safe, such as light tuna, salmon, pollock, and catfish. Up to 12 ounces per week of these fish is considered safe.
In fact, regular consumption of fish (and their omega fats) has been associated with lower rates of preterm labor and other complications of pregnancy.
At your first visit, review on medications that you regularly take with your doctor, even over-the-counter medications in herbals and supplements.
Sometimes you’ll have a problem develop during pregnancy and you’ll wonder if you can take an over-the-counter medicine or remedy. Click here for a list of acceptable drugs. If you don’t see what you’re interested in on the list, check with your doctor.
Yes!
There has never been a reason for women to abstain from sex during pregnancy except in rare cases where the doctor felt that the risks outweigh the benefits. This may include certain cases of preterm labor with advanced cervical dilation preterm premature a rupture of membranes, for placenta or vasa previa. Also, women who have had a cervical cerclage during pregnancy should probably abstain. Otherwise, have fun!
Most women find sex during pregnancy more satisfying and pleasurable then outside of pregnancy. Sex during pregnancy is not associated with an increased risk of miscarriage, preterm labor, or any other complications of pregnancy. Even in cases where penetration maybe recommended against, like the situations listed above, orgasms during pregnancy are still perfectly fine. If you have a cervical cerclage and don’t need penetration to orgasm, then stop reading this and get to work!
Yes, please do.
Good dental hygiene is associate with good pregnancy outcomes. A severely infected tooth, on the other hand, may the lead to problems for the pregnancy. There are no routine practices at the dentist’s office that are unsafe during pregnancy. This includes pulling teeth and getting dental x-rays. A pregnant woman can undergo many tens of thousands of shielded dental x-rays during pregnancy without fear of delivering a harmful amount of radiation exposure to the pregnancy.
Local anesthetics, antibiotics, in pain medicines better commonly used by dentists are all also safe during pregnancy. If your dentist has a question about a particular antibiotic or other medicine, have her ask your doctor.
A lot of women ask this question because they’ve been told to never sleep on their backs, particularly in the third trimester. Much advice on the Internet and in books about pregnancy recommends against sleeping on your back. There is no good scientific evidence that sleeping on the back increases the risk of stillbirth, and even in the third trimester. There have been studies that show that babies have some fetal heart rate changes in different sleep patterns while the mother is sleeping on her back, but these changes have not been definitively associated with an increased risk of stillbirth.
What’s more, a woman has little control over her sleeping position. Women in the third trimester are unlikely to sleep on their backs in the first place due to their belly size, so they will naturally tend to sleep on one side or the other anyway. If they should sleep on their backs, there is little to do about it since women have no control over how they turn and flip about during sleep. Since there has been no definitive connection between back sleeping and stillbirth, then women should not lose too much sleep (pun intended) worrying about how they sleep.
Yes!
The Internet is full of advice recommending that you don’t dye your hair while pregnant, at least in the first trimester. this is born out of ignorance and a fear of everything during the first trimester. There is no scientific data that says that dying your hair is associated with any adverse problems, even in the first trimester. If you think about it, most female beauticians and hairstylists also become pregnant at sometime, and they are exposed to the chemicals hundreds or thousands of times more that receive while getting your hair dyed. We don’t recommend to those women that they changed their occupation.
Yes.
It is a myth, sometimes perpetuated by massage therapists themselves, that massages can be so relaxing that they might stimulate preterm labor. This is completely untrue. Some massage therapist may want a note from your doctor stating that a massage is safe, and I can’t think of a good reason why your doctor wouldn’t give you such a note.