If you’re reading this and you’ve just found out that you are pregnant, then congratulations! This is the beginning of a wonderful life changing experience, that you will cherish forever. But amidst the joy of knowing you are going to have a baby there are also concerns over what changes you will have to make to your current lifestyle.

One of the most common concerns for newly pregnant mums to be is always the question of exercise and pregnancy and whether it is safe.

Years ago it was strictly advised that pregnant women should avoid any strenuous activity and rest as much as possible. As a result, many pregnant women piled on the pounds during their pregnancies and then struggled to lose the excess weight afterwards.

Fortunately with the advance in science and research into this area we now know that not only is it safe to exercise during pregnancy, but that it is actually beneficial to both mother and baby.

Just some of those benefits include a better immune system, relief from morning sickness, reduced postural pain and injury and increased energy levels and feelings of positivity for both you and baby.

Even so, when you first find out you are pregnant, your natural instinct is to reduce your activity to protect your baby. Actually, this instinct is not far wrong – you definitely don’t want to be risking your baby by playing a rousing game of squash or rollerblading down some steep hills, but to stop all activity is crazy!

For one you need to be strengthening your body to support your pregnancy. As your body changes it will put some serious strain on areas like your back, shoulders and neck and if your muscles aren’t strong enough to cope with these postural changes, you could be in for severe long term damage.

You can’t build strength overnight so you need to be starting as soon as possible to support your frame.

You should also consider the amount of fat you are carrying on your body. Roughly 30% of oestrogen comes from fat so if you are carrying too much, (or too little), fat then your hormones will be out of balance, which may also have serious indications for the health of your pregnancy and your baby.

So what should you be doing to ensure you stay fit during your pregnancy whilst making sure your baby is safe and healthy?

The key is to focus on short workouts (15 minutes is fine), comprising total body exercises that target key areas like your bottom, core and midback. Things like squats, rows, pelvic floors and transverse abdominal work are ideal for you right now.

You should also be focussing on short bouts of cardio rather than long steady sessions on the treadmill or cross-trainer. Not only is short burst training about 1000 times more effective at conditioning your body, it is also much more suitable for early pregnancy as you won’t find it as draining on your essential resources.

So, is it safe to exercise in early pregnancy?

Well, yes, so long as you exercise smarter not harder. As with anything, there are always risks. If you are newly pregnant I would strongly recommend you contact a prenatal fitness specialist who can advise you on your personal circumstance and help you with a pregnancy fitness plan to suit your personal needs.

Pregnancy can be an exciting time, but it can also be a scary one. Most mothers and fathers to-be share concerns about things that may go wrong in pregnancy or birth. While this article is not meant as a substitute for sound medical advice, it provides a brief look at some of the most complications of pregnancy. You will want to discuss any specific concerns with your health care provider.

Pre-eclampsia or Pregnancy Induced Hypertension (PIH) is a high blood pressure disorder of pregnancy. It has long been one of the major problems for mothers during pregnancy. It affects 7% of first time mothers. Labor may be induced early if you suffer from severe PIH. There are three different levels of PIH: High Blood Pressure alone; High Blood Pressure and protein in urine and/or swelling; High Blood Pressure, protein in urine, swelling and convulsions.

Gestational Diabetes (GD) is high blood sugar or glucose levels during pregnancy. About 4% of pregnant women will suffer from gestational diabetes. Not every mother will need to be screened using blood tests, there are guidelines as to who needs to be screened. This is typically screened for in the 28th week of pregnancy, if you need additional screening with a glucose tolerance test (GTT) it will be done at this point.

In addition to the blood group (A, B, O, AB), the Rh factor is written as either positive (present) or negative (absent). Most people (85%) are Rh positive. This factor does not affect your health except during pregnancy. A woman is at risk when she has a negative Rh factor and her partner has a positive Rh factor. This combination can produce a child who is Rh positive. If the mother and baby’s blood mix, this can cause the mother to create antibodies against the Rh factor, thus treating an Rh positive baby like an intruder in her body. Rhogam is given to help prevent this sensitivity.

Placenta previa is a condition where all or part of the placenta covers the cervix or opening of the uterus. True placenta previa occurs in about 1 in 200 pregnancies. Many times early ultrasounds may show a placenta previa, but later as the uterus grows, the condition resolves itself. If it is still present at the end of pregnancy a cesarean birth must be performed to prevent bleeding.

When a woman is said to have too little amniotic fluid she has oligohydramnios. This is defined as having less than 200 ml of amniotic fluid at term. This means that during an ultrasound the largest pocket of fluid found did not measure 1 cm or greater at its largest diameter. Though sometimes it is actually related to maternal hydration, meaning that mom is not drinking enough liquids. There is also some indication that amniotic fluid levels drop as the time of birth comes near.

Polyhydramnios is the opposite end of the scale, being defined as 2000 ml of fluid at term or greater. This occurs in fewer that 1% of the pregnancies. While polyhydramnios may be one cause for preterm labor because of uterine distension, polyhydramnios in and of itself is not a predictor for preterm labor, rather the cause of the increase in fluid is predictive of whether the pregnancy will go to term. Polyhydramnios is more likely to occur when: there is a multiple gestation, maternal diabetes or a congenital malformation.

Premature labor is a very serious complication of pregnancy. Early detection can help prevent premature birth and possibly enable you to carry your pregnancy to term or to give your baby a better chance of survival.

An incompetent cervix is basically a cervix that is too weak to stay closed during a pregnancy. It may result in a preterm birth and possibly the loss of the baby, because of the shortened gestational length. It is believed that cervical incompetence is the cause of 20 – 25 % of all second trimester losses. This incompetence generally shows up in the early part of the second trimester, but possibly as late as the early third trimester.

Of course, these are just basic information about some common complications in pregnancy. The best source of information will always be your medical provider, who can better explain how these conditions may affect your health or your baby’s.

Did your heart just start beating faster? Even the term “sex” or “family life education” brings panic, fear, and increases the heartbeat and sweat glands in most adults. However, once the panic subsides, the debate over whether to have sex education in American schools or not – is done. A new poll finds that over 90% of Americans say sex education should be taught in schools.

According to the poll, the surveyed parents supported teaching 7th and 8th graders basic information on how babies are made, and 56 percent supported teaching all aspects of sex education, including birth control and safer sex in 7th and 8th grade, with a much higher percentage agreeing it should be taught in High School.

On the other hand, exactly who IS getting taught about sex? Unfortunately, the nationwide trend is that fewer young people are learning how to reduce the risk of getting a disease and preventing pregnancy. “The majority of school systems now focus on delaying sexual education as long as possible,” said Barbara Huberman, the director of education for Advocates for Youth, a pro-education group in Washington, D.C. “While you may get an overview of contraception in the seventh or eighth grade, there are many, many school systems that are afraid to talk about it at all.”

I am a School Nurse at a Middle School in a suburb of a large city. They teach about “abstinence” in a brief session. Then, on a daily basis, I get to deal with the student’s choices and mistakes. I hear stories that make me want to cry. I hear parents frequently say, “my daughter/son would never do that”, or “I don’t think (insert child’s name here) would ever have sex”. The all seem horrified at the thought. But, what I see and hear on consistently (and remember, this is middle school) tells a different story. Just so you don’t think my school is unusual, I read articles and stories from nurses all over the country that say the same thing.

I have girls coming to me fearing pregnancy (and some really are pregnant). Some of these same girls have had multiple partners (yes, they are only 12-14 years old and yes, some are a mandatory CPS/Law Enforcement call). Amazingly, these same girls will say statements like, “I know that you can get pregnant through oral sex, but I try to be careful”. They ARE too young to be having sex, but it is happening – and not infrequently. We may have grown up in a different time, and want to believe it can’t happen in our own home, but let me give you some hard statistics:

The average girl today begins to develop some characteristics of puberty between ages 10 and 11, with many showing some changes at ages eight or nine.

One in 12 students experience their first sexual intercourse before age 13, and a quarter of all children (24 percent of girls and 27 percent of boys) have had sex by age 15, and many believe these estimates to be low. Remember, these numbers do not include the “everything but intercourse” in them. Each year, one in four sexually active teens contracts a sexually transmitted disease. Genital herpes (which cannot be cured) has increased by almost 30% in young people in the last 9 years. There are over 900,000 teen pregnancies per year. When it comes to HIV, the largest increase in cases is seen in teenagers. These statistics are frightening.

Ideally, parents should give strong teaching to their kids about honesty, integrity, self-value, and abstinence for the first 10 to 12 years of life. If they did a really good job of this, and taught their children to make good decisions, we wouldn’t be having this epidemic and being forced to have as many conversations with 14, 15 and 16 years old about what to do about an unplanned pregnancy or a STD.

Which leads to why this should be taught in the school – parents would be the ideal choice to teach this to children. That would be assuming you have parents who are willing to do so. But, a majority of parents don’t know how to talk to their kids about sex and sexually transmitted diseases. The other part of that equation is that many families today are very dysfunctional – some parents abuse alcohol, drugs, work too many hours, have high stress or anxiety, or have various other reasons for not having the ability to talk with their children. That leaves the “job” of teaching kids about sex and STD’s to the educational system.

Although this is an uncomfortable subject, it IS an important one. I am a strong believer in abstinence. If it were up to me, everyone would abstain until marriage. However, I am a realist as well. We cannot bury our heads in the sand and hope teen sex goes away. Teens are “doing it”, getting pregnant, and catching diseases. They need education and support and we need to guide them. It is our job as educators and adults to keep them safe. Please start early talking to your kids and have a good relationship with them about everything. They are the most important “assets” you have. Also, talk to your school Administrators about how you can support the family life education and be involved. Let’s try to put a dent in this sad epidemic.

It can be a bit of a shock to step on the scales a few weeks after having a baby – even more so if it’s been a few months. The number on the scales can have you seesawing between desperation and depression as you recall your pre-pregnancy figure and mentally tot up the time it will take to get back to that.

But don’t despair! Pregnancy weight loss is possible – here are a few tips to get you started.

1. Get Motivated

We all know how being overweight can make you miserable, especially if you can remember a time not long ago when you felt great about yourself and fit into everything in your wardrobe. Think about what your greatest motivation is to lose that baby fat. Is it so you can fit back into those skinny jeans? So you can enjoy time with your children without feeling exhausted by their constant energy? So you feel sexy and feminine again? Find your motivation and think about it any time you feel yourself faltering.

2. Get Nutrition Wise

So now you have your greatest motivation, start thinking about how to achieve your goal. Don’t believe those who say you should cut down to less than 1000 calories a day – this is bad for your health, and with the busy lifestyle of a new mom you’ll find yourself crashing. It is easy to eat healthily, despite what the fad-diet gurus would have you believe. Avoid snacking on unhealthy treats, instead eat fresh fruit and vegetables and drink at least one glass of water with every meal – they will fill you up and make your skin look great!

3. Get Physical

Unless you are advised otherwise, brisk walking is one of the best forms of exercises to do following pregnancy and you can do this as soon as you feel able. Although it is best to consult your obstetrician, after about six weeks you can move up to more vigorous exercise, like swimming or aerobics.

Losing pregnancy weight can seem like an uphill struggle, especially with the pressures of a new or growing family – but there are so many benefits to becoming the new healthier you, and by changing just a few habits you can feel and look better than ever.

Pregnancy hemorrhoids are of the mostly complained issues from pregnant women. With a baby in your body, things are quite different from things at other times when you were normal. Being pregnant can mean that you might become more vulnerable to diseases and health-related problems. All of these can be attributed to hormone.  

Pregnancy hemorrhoids are considered one of the victims of hormone changes because the hormone slows the foods down that are going through the gastrointestinal tract. This slowing down results in constipation which leads to hemorrhoids because you would have to strain at stool. This straining would get the anal veins enlarged, causing hemorrhoids.  

Now that we know one of the causes of pregnancy hemorrhoids, we can take some home treatment for them right away. If you are suffering from them at the time being, it would be helpful to subdue the pain or itching by applying ice packs to the rectum area.  

However, prevention is the most important thing when it comes to hemorrhoids during pregnancy. First things first, don’t sit long in front of the desk. After finishing reading this article, you need to stand up and do some walk or exercise. However, don’t stand too long, either. The reason is that the veins in the anus will suffer pressure too if you stand for a long time.  

To prevent pregnancy hemorrhoids, another most significant thing you need to do every day is drinking enough water or other fluids. Fluids can not only alleviate the dry stool so that constipation can be eliminated, but also accelerate your metabolism, which is good because frequent visits to the bathroom can force you to exercise.