Reproductive Health

High doses of daily caffeine during pregnancy -- whether from coffee, tea, caffeinated soda or hot chocolate -- cause an increased risk of miscarriage, according a new study by the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research. The study controlled, for the first time, pregnancy-related symptoms of nausea, vomiting and caffeine aversion that tended to interfere with the determination of caffeine's true effect on miscarriage risk. The research appears in the current online issue of American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

A myth exists that breastfeeding is good for the mother and good for the infant. For the most part, this is not myth but fact. Women who don't have health problems should try to give their babies breast milk for at least the first six months of life. Breast feeding offers many benefits to the baby. Breast milk contains the right balance of nutrients to help your infant grow into a strong and healthy toddler. Some of the nutrients in breast milk also help protect your infant against some common childhood illnesses and infections. It may also help your health. Certain types of cancer may occur less often in mothers who have breastfed their babies.

It’s always interesting to note what the health trends are in America. For the most part, most of us feel only good trends will be seen, as don’t we live in the richest nation on Earth? But that is not true, especially for the poor, ethnic groups, or the young. Witness the statistics from a very recent report from the CDC cited below .

FETAL AND PERINATAL MORTALITY

Pregnancy is always a time when women worry about 'looking fat', or 'looking like a whale', or a number of other metaphors used for the weight one gains during pregnancy. So, how much weight gain is good?

You should gain weight gradually during your pregnancy, with most of the weight gained in the last 3 months. Many doctors suggest women gain weight at the following rate:

• 2 to 4 pounds total during the first 3 months (first trimester)

For every drink you have, your baby also has one. Alcohol is a substance that passes easily and quickly across the placenta membrane. How much alcohol is good for the baby? One drink? Just a little wine? The obvious answer is none. If you drink alcohol, it can hurt your baby’s growth. Your baby may have physical and behavioral problems that can last for the rest of his or her life. Children born with the most serious problems caused by alcohol have fetal alcohol syndrome.

Estrus refers to the phase when the female is sexually receptive ("in heat").
Animals go into ‘heat’ to signal to other animals mating time is ripe for potential pregnancy. Ovulation is about to occur. Animals in heat will no doubt become pregnant if a viable female and male mate. For years now, humans have excluded themselves from the estrus cycle. Researchers have termed this ‘concealed ovulation’.

By looking at insurance claims, it is estimated that almost 100,000 women elect to have Caesarean sections, when there is no medical need.
This statistic is a concern, as Caesarean sections are major abdominal surgeries. The mother is more at risk, and so is her infant.

Therefore, when it was noticed that most of these surgeries were due to older women (above 35 years old) concern levels were raised even further.

It used to be as soon as you thought you were pregnant; you would go to your doctor, who would promptly give you a bottle of pre-natal vitamins. Some of the readers may remember these huge horse tablets that were part of every normal pregnancy.

Other than that, you were considered healthy if you didn’t gain too much weight during pregnancy and saw your doctor on a prescribed basis.
Now we know that is not enough. To prepare a healthy home for a baby, you must begin prior to becoming pregnant. This care is called preconception care.

It used to be as soon as you thought you were pregnant; you would go to your doctor, who would promptly give you a bottle of pre-natal vitamins. Some of the readers may remember these huge horse tablets that were part of every normal pregnancy.

Other than that, you were considered healthy if you didn’t gain too much weight during pregnancy and saw your doctor on a prescribed basis.
Now we know that is not enough. To prepare a healthy home for a baby, you must begin prior to becoming pregnant. This care is called preconception care.

The number of children per family is now slightly over 1 per couple in developed countries, such as Europe or the United States. This is not enough to replace the mating couple. Should we adapt standards such as China did on the number of births required? Of course, our democratic history would not permit such a mandate.

Then what are we to do? Will the Caucasian race disappear?

Some are truly worried that today’s culture which fosters less and less children per household may bode ill, or extinction of the Caucasoids, for developed countries.