It’s not news that pregnant women need vitamin D… and that up to 70% aren’t getting enough.  But now it seems that vitamin D is more crucial than previously thought.

A recent study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology suggests a link between low vitamin D levels and a severe form of pregnancy-related high blood pressure.

The condition, known as early-onset severe preeclampsia because it strikes before week 34, causes a sudden increase in blood pressure and protein in the urine (your doctor checks both at every prenatal visit).

While it affects fewer than 4% of pregnant women, early-onset severe preeclampsia is responsible for 15% of nationwide preterm births. The study found that women the condition had lower vitamin D levels in their blood than other pregnant women.

So what’s the best way to get enough vitamin D? Drinking a couple glasses of milk a day won’t do it. In fact, diet alone rarely supplies enough vitamin D.

Exposure to the sun helps – ultraviolet B (UVB) rays initiate a process beneath your skin that creates vitamin D. The catch is, sunscreen actually prevents this process from happening. The solution: Go outside with some exposed skin between 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. two or three times a week – for 10 minutes max.

Another option is vitamin supplements. According to the Institute of Medicine, pregnant women should get 200 I.U. of vitamin D per day. Most prenatal vitamins include vitamin D, so be sure to check. Also, there are different forms – vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) is the recommended type.

And, as always, check with your doctor before starting a supplement while pregnant.

How are you getting your vitamin D?

Want to have an old-fashioned vaginal delivery? Tough luck if you’ve had a Cesarean section in a previous delivery. Hospitals, doctors and insurers have been loathe – or flat-out refuse – to allow vaginal births after C-section (known as VBAC).

But new medical guidelines from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) may change that. According to that organization, hospitals should respect women’s preferences about the kind of birth they want and not strong-arm them into repeat C-sections.

That’s good news for moms-to-be who don’t want to go under the knife again, especially since risks associated with VBACs are much lower than previously thought.

Read the rest of this entry »

Sadly, not all pregnancies end well. Sometimes, the joy of expecting is cut short by the crushing loss of miscarriage.

It’s estimated that about 10%-20% of pregnancies end in miscarriage. In a Wiser Pregnancy survey, about 4% of women miscarried their current pregnancy. However, almost two-thirds of these women had had a previous miscarriage.

While miscarriage can be heartbreaking for women, experts used to think that men weren’t that affected by the loss. They simply weren’t attached to the unborn child.

Not so, according to a new study.

While women are more affected by miscarriage, the study found that losing a baby can have a profound effect on both partners.  Just over half of women (52%) and 40% of men reported having significant psychological distress after losing a baby. Falling into depression isn’t uncommon either: 26% of women and 17% of men had serious depression immediately after the event.

Gender does a play a role in grief, though. Women who had seen the fetal heartbeat on ultrasound or had troubled marriages had the toughest time recovering from miscarriage. Men, on the other hand, were likely to be more depressed if the pregnancy was planned.

It takes time to recover physically and mentally after a miscarriage.  If you’re feeling sad or depressed, you don’t need to keep your feelings to yourself.  A counselor and/or support group can help you and your partner in the aftermath of your loss.

Learn more about depression and where to get help. Your doctor may also have some suggestions.

Have you had a miscarriage? What helped you recover?

Need that morning cup of joe to get going in the morning? Turns out you don’t have to give it up when you’re pregnant.

According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), caffeine isn’t the no-no during pregnancy that was previously believed. (That sound you hear is a stampede of moms-to-be heading to Starbucks.)

A review of recent studies on the effects of caffeine on pregnancy has found that moderate caffeine consumption (less than 200 milligrams a day) won’t increase the risk of miscarriage or preterm birth.

That’s good news for all those expectant women (75%, according to a Wiser Pregnancy survey) who avoid caffeine during pregnancy – some of them reluctantly.

So how much is 200 milligrams of caffeine? It’s equivalent to one of these:

• One 12-ounce cup of coffee (although the amount of caffeine in coffee can vary)
• Four 8-ounce cups of tea
• More than five 12-ounce cans of soda a day
• Six or seven dark chocolate bars

However, there may be risks associated with consuming more than 200 milligrams of caffeine daily, so ACOG recommends keeping your intake below that.

Does this new position change your mind about caffeine? Would you have caffeine while pregnant?

Between fatigue, heartburn and stocking up on baby supplies, many women wait too late to research their birthing location. A new study suggests that might be a mistake.

HealthGrades, a leading independent health care ratings organization, looked at more than 1,500 U.S. hospitals. Their findings: The better the hospital, the less likely there was to be complications with births.

The best-performing hospitals boasted 51% fewer complications among women giving birth vaginally, and 74% fewer C-section complications, compared to poorly performing hospitals. Infants were also more likely to survive in a top hospital.

Of course, this study only looked at hospitals, which is where most women give birth. According to a Wiser Pregnancy survey, 93% of women polled gave birth in a hospital. And 99% of doctors we asked had their own babies in a hospital.

Read the rest of this entry »

You may not watch your weight during pregnancy, but if you’re obese before getting pregnant, you could be putting your and your baby’s health at risk, according to a recent New York Times article.

Two out of 3 maternal deaths in New York State between 2003 and 2005 were linked to maternal obesity, the article notes. And babies born to obese women are 3 times more likely to die in the first month of life than babies of women who are at a healthy weight.

Other risks linked to obesity during pregnancy include:

• Higher likelihood of requiring a C-section
• Fewer viable pain relief and delivery options
• Increased risk of having a baby with a birth defect
• Increased risk of giving birth to a stillbirth baby
• Higher likelihood of having a premature baby
• Increased risk of severe health conditions, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, complications from anesthesia, severe bleeding, blood clots and strokes during pregnancy and childbirth

Nearly 40% of obese women found it difficult or very difficult to cope with their weight during pregnancy, according to a Wiser Pregnancy survey. About 7% were even admitted to the hospital for two or more days while pregnant due to obesity-related complications.

Obesity makes your ob-gyn’s job harder, too. Routine procedures, such as drawing blood, are more difficult. It’s also harder to get a good image of the baby using ultrasound. And facilities often don’t have the equipment to accommodate obese women.

That’s why some doctors may recommend drastic weight loss – even gastric bypass surgery – to patients considering having a baby.

Do you think obese women should try to lose weight before pregnancy? And have you experienced any weight-related issues during your pregnancy?

Have you had a Cesarean section and are interested in a vaginal delivery for your next baby? You may have a tough time convincing your hospital or doctor.

The number of women who undergo vaginal birth after Cesarean (VBAC) has plummeted since the 1990s, according to a panel of experts at a national conference on the procedure. And many times it’s the hospital that says no.   

The panel found that one-third of babies are delivered by C-section in the U.S., and nine out of 10 of women who have one C-section have a repeat surgical delivery in future pregnancies.

A Wiser Pregnancy survey supports this. More than 90% of women choose to give birth in a hospital, and of the 1,510 U.S. women polled, 23% of respondents have delivered by Cesarean section, and 16% of women who have had a C-section in the past delivered vaginally in a subsequent pregnancy. 

So why are C-section rates high and VBAC rates low?  Read the rest of this entry »

Wondering whether to paint that nursery pink or blue?  You may not have to wait so long to find out, thanks to a maternal blood test.

A recent Norwegian study published in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology found that a special maternal blood test was 100% accurate in determining a baby’s sex in 200 different pregnancies.

Most parents who want to know the baby’s sex have to wait until the second trimester, when an ultrasound exam can tell if you’re carrying a boy or a girl. 

According to a WiserPregnancy survey, 81% of women have an ultrasound.  Although ultrasound exams are often part of routine prenatal care, 51% of these women have an exam specifically to learn the baby’s sex.   

However, the blood test in the Norwegian study could be particularly valuable for parents who have a family history of a sex-linked genetic disorder,  such as hemophilia or Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Being able to learn the baby’s gender sooner could help parents and doctors make important decisions about managing the pregnancy.

If this test becomes publicly available, it could offer an alternative to riskier prenatal tests such as amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling (CVS) in evaluating the risk of a genetic birth defect. 

Do you plan on learning the baby’s sex before delivery?  Why or why not?

Earlier this year, a judge ordered a pregnant Florida woman to stay in bed after her doctor advised she go on bed rest.  The woman, Samantha Burton, questioned her doctor’s recommendation.  Although she was at risk for a miscarriage at week 25 of her pregnancy, she wondered if bed rest for up to 15 weeks was necessary. And as a working mother of two toddlers, she didn’t think it was feasible. 

Before Burton could seek a second medical opinion, a circuit court judge ordered that Burton stay confined to her hospital bed and to undergo “any and all medical treatments” her doctor deemed necessary for the fetus.  Unfortunately, after three days in the hospital, Burton underwent an emergency C-section and the baby was found dead. 

The case continues in district court to determine if the lower court overstepped its boundaries. Can a court intervene in a pregnant woman’s care of her fetus? 

Burton’s predicament isn’t so unusual. According to a Wiser Pregnancy survey, just over 11% of pregnant women have been put on bed rest.  Although medical professionals debate the effectiveness of bed rest at preventing preterm delivery or miscarriage, women with certain conditions – high blood pressure, cervical insufficiency, pregnancy with multiples – may very well end up spending several weeks on bed rest.

Doctors may recommend bed rest even for conditions that aren’t severe. Of women put on bed rest:

• 21.8% report that their condition was not severe
• 37.6% report that their condition was somewhat severe
• 20.0% report that their condition was severe
• 20.6% report that their condition was very severe

Obviously, bed rest can take a substantial toll on career, parenting and other responsibilities. Yet regardless of the severity of the condition, many women will go on bed rest if their doctor advises it.

Do you think Burton was justified in her objection, or was the judge right to step in to protect the fetus’s best interest? And if your doctor orders bed rest, how will you respond?

Our site is getting bigger and better! Thanks to your feedback, we’re making WiserPregnancy even more useful.  New content, data and features are coming your way, plus some parts have been redesigned.

Stand-out additions include: 

• Doctor data – Ever wonder what your doctor did in her pregnancy? Now you can find out. More than 225 doctors – who are also moms – took our pregnancy survey.  About 50% of the docs are OB/GYNs; the other half are internal medicine and general practitioner doctors. Get access to these doctor-moms’ decisions about their pregnancies, and compare them to your own decisions.
• More peer data – WiserPregnancy currently has data from more than 530 women. In the last few weeks, an additional 1,510 expectant or new moms completed the survey.  That’s even more relevant information about the important decisions they made in their pregnancies.
• More info about pregnancy topics – We currently cover just over 40 pregnancy-related health issues. You wanted more? You got it! We’ve gathered data and research on an additional 26 pregnancy topics. Coming in February, you’ll have access to data, descriptions and questions to ask your doctor about nearly 70 different pregnancy issues. New topics include: bed rest, diet, financial planning during pregnancy, eco-friendly pregnancy, parenting while pregnant, miscarriage and multiples, among others.
• New and improved community – Connect with others on our forums, in our blogs and on our Twitter page.
• Customized newsletters – Each week you can get an email newsletter that tracks your pregnancy and shares some of the health issues you may be experiencing that week. Just sign up – it’s free! 

Do you have any other suggestions for us? What do you think about the improvements?