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What Painkillers are Safe to Take In Pregnancy?

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Posted by RobynNazarRN on September 8, 2011 at 1:51 pm

In the headlines this week was breaking news that many women are taking painkillers during pregnancy that significantly increase their risk for miscarriage and other complications – despite the warnings on the labels. It is important for all pregnant women to understand the risks associated with painkillers and what medications are appropriate and safe while pregnant.

Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory (NSAID) – NOT Safe

Ibuprofen, Advil, Motrin, Aleve, Naprosyn, Celebrex

NSAIDs are a class of medications which are typically taken for musculo-skeletal pain such as a backache, headache, or muscle soreness. These mediacatons work by decreasing the amount of prosteglandins (chemicals which promote pain and inflammation) in the body. However, if taken during during pregnancy the prostaglandins located in the uterus can be affected – leading to a miscarriage.

According to a Canadian study of over 52,000 women those who used NSAIDs while pregnant were more than twice as likely to suffer a miscarriage.

Aspirin – NOT Safe

As a general rule, aspirin is not considered safe during pregnancy for pain relief. Like NSAIDS. Aspirin can interfere with normal prostaglandin production and lead to a miscarriage. However, in some cases such as women who suffer from repeat miscarriages or blood clotting disorders aspirin may be a recommended course of therapy.

Acetaminophen – SAFE

Tylenol

For women suffering from minor aches and pains during pregnancy, an occasional use of acetaminophen is considered safe both for mom and baby.

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Choosing The Best Fertility Clinic: Specialty Matters

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Posted by RobynNazarRN on August 8, 2011 at 2:54 pm

Fertility treatment is a huge financial and emotional investment for couples and finding the best fertility clinic for you and your partner is important to make sure that you have a favorable outcome.

Although rarely advertized, the best fertility clinics all typically have a specialty such as egg donation, pregnancy at 40, premature ovarian failure, early menopause, etc. Interviewing clinics or going online to their websites to find answers to the following questions may help you determine whether or not this is the best fertility clinic for you.

It is important to know:

  • How many years has the clinic been offering each of their services?
  • Do they have a specific specialty in their clinic?
  • Do any of their doctors have additional training, degrees, or certifications in sub-specialties within the clinic?
  • Does the fertility clinic participate in research studies of their own or contribute to others? If so, in what area?
  • What is the average age of their clients?

These questions are likely to get you more information from the fertility clinic about what specialties they are most familiar with and how their strengths can best help you and your partner conceive your child.

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Add Unborn Child to Facebook Family: Love It or Hate It?

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Posted by RobynNazarRN on August 3, 2011 at 3:05 pm

If you’re expecting, Facebook has just made it easier to complete your online family. The newly added option allows you to add “Expected: Child” to your list of family members on your profile.

While some say this is just a natural progression in the way that online sharing has allowed expecting families to share the news with family and friends – other say its simply TMI.

A critic of the feature, Chenda Ngak from CBS wrote, “Does anyone else think it’s creepy to post so much information about a child online before it’s even born, let alone consent to having its life plastered all over the Internet? What about the data available to marketers before even reaching the delivery room?”

However, not all media source were so harsh. Bonnie Rochman of TIME commented, “The new category may be yet more proof of our cultural penchant for oversharing, but it’s hardly groundbreaking. For years, women have been obsessing over how to break the news of their expanding waistlines creatively via Facebook; “Expected: child” is simply recognition that the observant folks at Facebook have noticed users doing this.”

What Rochman says it true – many families have chosen to break the news to their Facebook friends by posting status updates or simply changing their profile photos to baby bumps, ultrasound pictures, or even urine-dipped pregnancy tests.

Websites such as the BabyBump.com provide readers with suggestions on how to break the news via social networks. They recommend:

  • Changing your profile pic to a bottle of “Prego” sauce
  • Posting a photo of a bun going in to the over
  • Show your positive pregnancy test in a status update photo

So what do you think? Has privacy sharing gone too far?

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Hope and Possibility For Pregnancy After 40

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Posted by Melissa Le Furge on July 29, 2011 at 2:33 pm

It’s 2011 and today’s modern women are busy, busy, busy – to the point where pregnancy after 40 is becoming an increasing trend.  We’re constantly on the go from the age of 18: we go to university, study hard and perhaps go on to graduate school.  Then we spend lots of time and energy looking for a good job  to pay off college.  Once we get a job, we work hard, long hours trying to advance in our career and sometimes it takes years to become an established name in our field.  In our free time we’re off taking yoga classes, hitting up the farmers market with girlfriends and if you’re lucky, taking adventurous trips to foreign countries.

After we get our dream job and have explored life to its fullest, it’s time to settle down and think about finding a partner and starting a family.  For a lot of us, this doesn’t happen until we’re in our late 30s and early 40s.  During these years, many women find getting pregnant to be more of a challenge than it might have been than if they were 10 years younger and end up consulting one or more infertility experts.

Women’s ovary function starts slowing down around the age of 35 and on top of that, 10% will experience premature ovarian aging.  That means healthy egg production could be slowing down at an even younger age.  The slowing of ovarian function does not mean that a woman loses her ability to become pregnant at all.  It just means she may need the help of infertility treatment.  Fertility centers are seeing a steady increase in the treatment of women over 40.  The methods of treating aging ovaries is through outside egg donation, DHEA treatments to jump start egg production and IVF and have seen positive success rates.

Further reading: The High Cost of IVF

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Facts About Pregnancy: 10 Random Things You Should Know

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Posted by RobynNazarRN on July 19, 2011 at 2:45 pm

#1 C-Section Rate: Right now in the US the national C-section rate is an average of 34%, up from 4.5% in 1965. Utah has the lowest rate at 22% and Florida has the highest at 38.6%

#2 Twins: Approximately 3% of women give birth to twins, but if you’re over 45 your chance jumps to 17%

#3 Teen Moms: A half million babies are born to girls under 18 each year.

#4 Birth Weight: The average size of a baby is 8lbs. This is up from 6lbs back in 1981.

#5  Due Date: Less than 10% of babies are born on their due date. But 90% are born within two weeks of the date.

#5 Nausea: About 70% of women experience nausea in the first trimester.

#7 Home births: Still quite unpopular, less than 1% of women deliver at home.

#8 Abortion: More than 1.2 million women terminate their pregnancies every year.

#9 Food: Women only need approximately 300 calories extra when they are pregnant. This is approximately the amount in a half sandwich and yogurt.

#10 Dental Problems: Women are more likely to have teeth and dental problems while pregnant due to hormone fluctuations, changes in blood flood to the mouth and increase susceptibility to infection.

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How long after birth can I restart my birth control pills?

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Posted by RobynNazarRN on July 15, 2011 at 9:48 am

New recommendations from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention says that women should wait at least 3 weeks after birth to restart oral contraceptives. During this time women are at an increased risk for blood clots and oral contraceptive use during this time adds to this risk .

The statement from the CDC explains:

Hematologic changes that occur normally during pregnancy, including an increase in coagulation factors and fibrinogen and a decrease in natural anticoagulants, result in an increased risk for VTE during the postpartum period. In addition, many postpartum women have additional risk factors that further increase their risk for VTE, such as age ≥35 years, smoking, or recent cesarean delivery. This is of concern when considering postpartum contraception options because combined hormonal contraceptives (i.e., those that contain both estrogen and progestin) are themselves associated with a small increased risk for VTE among healthy women of reproductive age.

Other safe methods birth control methods after birth include an IUD and condoms. Talk with your doctor about which method is correct for you.

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