Your Pregnant Body

From the first sign of pregnancy to the last contraction, your pregnant body is changing and growing a baby. Do you just glow like all the books say? What about your belly? Is it big enough, small enough, round enough? How is your baby growing? Follow the pregnancy week by week pregnancy calendar to find out what is going on with your body and baby!

Prenatal Care

As soon as you find out that you are pregnant, it is vital that you call your health care practitioner to set up an appointment. Proper prenatal care will ensure that you optimize your chances of having a healthy baby. It is also very important to start taking a prenatal vitamin right away. Be sure to choose one made without artificial dyes and with the recommended amount of folic acid.

It’s very important to find the best care during your pregnancy. You need to find someone whom you trust; someone who will be there for you when you are in need. Choosing Your Practitioner will provide you with some valuable information about what to consider when you are trying to find someone for your prenatal care.

Nowadays, people have a choice between obstetricians, family practitioners and midwives as their health care providers when they are pregnant. We have a directory that will help you find a caregiver. Many women are rediscovering the wonderful experience of using a doula at their birth. To help you with your choice of caregiver, refer to the list in Questions to Ask your Prenatal Care Provider. Even if you are set on one type of care, it is important to read about all your options so you can be sure that you choose the best type of care for you.

If you are anxious about that first medical appointment, read Your First Medical Exam to get a better understanding of how it will be different from other medical exams. A standard feature of prenatal care from the eigth week of pregnancy on is checking the baby's heart beat. If you're particularly nervous about your pregancy, though, you may want to consider having a fetal heart monitor at home.

And if you are already looking forward to that wonderful day of birth, read Birthing Alternatives. Here you will learn about different ways of giving birth that can help you get the most out of the experience.

We hope this information will help you to decide what works best. A positive pregnancy experience and a wonderful childbirth often result from a respectful and trusting partnership with your practitioner.

Naming Your Baby - How to Choose the Right Baby Name

Where to start with picking a name for your baby: There are many ways to name a baby. Perhaps you stumbled on the perfect name. Maybe you and your spouse have already decided long ago. Or maybe you're like me and wrestling with the decision for a long, long time. I'd suggest starting with narrowing some of the names or types of names you don't like. If you hate certain names don't consider them. Start with the positive names. Then define your baby naming style. From there I'd suggest lists of baby names. Baby names books are great for that purpose.
Baby Names for Boys: Names for baby boys are changing. Gone are the days of about 20 standard names. The names parents are choosing for a baby boy vary greatly. You still see the standard names like John and Mark, but now names like Ashton are creeping up the charts as well. There is still more pressure placed on baby boys when it comes to the perfect name, so take everything to heart when choosing an offbeat name for your child to wear.
Baby Names for Girls: What's in a baby girl's name? Sugar, spice and anything, including nice or naughty depending on the parent. The names that are given to baby girls are more open to spelling variations (Caryn, Karen, Karen, etc.) and don't seem to be confined to any preconceived notions. That doesn't mean you should go wild, but know that the constraints are fewer. There is also a resurgence in older names that had fallen out of favor, like Olivia, Sophia, Lilah and Clara.

Pregnancy Weight Gained Questioned

A recent study from Harvard indicated that packing on too many pregnancy pounds may lead to obesity in your baby in the first three years of life. The thing is, they found this to be true when women gained the recommended pregnancy weight gain sometimes. They advised that maybe we need to look at revising what we tell pregnant women about weight gain during pregnancy. Remember weight gain doesn't have to be the first sign of pregnancy!

The whole issue of obesity in kids is a huge issue, pardon the pun. I truly believe it is multifactorial. For instance, we also know that babies who are breastfed tend not to be obese, but that isn't enough to make everyone want to breastfeed. We also know that feeding kids junk food will make them obese, and yet parents still do it. My only fear is that we will see women restricting their pregnancy weight gain to the other end of the spectrum and experiencing preterm births and low birth weight, which is the number one killer of babies. So be sure to talk to your midwife or doctor about the right amount of weight gain for you and your baby.

The Ultrasound Quiz

I think we are all fascinated by the ability to be able to discern the sex of our baby before birth. The biggest question still lies within the validity of the answers to that question, "Is it a girl or a boy?"

The answer depends on many factors. From the machine being used, to the person reading it - the technology issues abound in the pregnancy sex determination debate. Is your ultrasound tech certified? Is the machine new or old? Is the machine a 2D or 3D ultrasound? When you add physical factors like the position of the baby or the gestational age of the baby you have a lot of variables.

Here is a fun quiz, designed to test your ultrasound knowledge:

Start the Quiz

Prenatal and Fetal Development - How you and your baby grow during pregnancy

Pregnancy Overviews: The amount of growth both physically and emotionally in pregnancy is vast and rapid. There are many ways to watch a pregnancy proceed. Some prefer to look at pregnancy from the standpoint of the three trimesters, while others enjoy a pregnancy week by week format. For those that want a middle ground, there is also a monthly view of pregnancy. Each has the basics to more in depth coverage of both fetal development and how the changes occur in the mother's body.
Fetal Development: Pregnancy is amazing to go from being a couple of cells to a total, albeit small, human being in the period of about nine months! Most people enjoy tracking their baby's developments during pregnancy. There are many ways to peak into the uterus during this time. Sometimes your doctor or midwife will order an ultrasound exam or genetic testing like an amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling (CVS). You may also enjoy reading about your baby's growth.

25 Signs of Pregnancy and Pregnancy Symptoms

If you're like everyone else you're trying to figure out what the signs of pregnancy or pregnancy symptoms are and how likely they are to mean that you are pregnant. You can ask other people, you can worry in silence, but the best thing is to read through the categories and add up the signs. The more you have the more likely you are to be pregnant.

On the chart below are 25 of the most common signs of pregnancy and what they mean. You can also click the sign to get more information on each sign of pregnancy. The three categories of pregnancy signs are: possible, probable and positive.

Pregnancy Week by Week

This Pregnancy Calendar is trying to help you understand your pregnancy and the fetal development taking place week by week through your pregnancy including ultrasound pictures. You will find lots of pictures from the smallest embryo to the largest baby! We hope you enjoy this section! (See below for the pregnancy week by week calendar links to each week of pregnancy.)

Here we are!

So You Got a Double Line!
"Baby On the Way" - Congratulations! You've now uttered those words "I'm pregnant!" and are probably feeling excited, scared, and curious about what lies ahead. Here you will find a guide to our resources as you make your way through morning sickness, butterfly kicks, ultrasounds, preparing your nursery and more!