Pregnancy High Fat Diet May Lead To Obesity In Child

Pregnancy Over 40,Watch Your Fat Intake

It seems like everyone worries about what to eat when you're pregnant.

Visit www.getpregnantover40.com for more pregnancy over 40 articles 

 More and more research is showing that what you eat can have longterm consequences for your child. This article talks about the connection between a high fat diet in pregnancy and obesity in the child. Read more:

"We've shown that short-term exposure to a high-fat diet in utero produces permanent neurons in the fetal brain that later increase the appetite for fat," says senior author Sarah F. Leibowitz, who directs the Laboratory of Behavioral Neurobiology at Rockefeller. "This work provides the first evidence for a fetal program that links high levels of fats circulating in the mother's blood during pregnancy to the overeating and increased weight gain of offspring after weaning."

from:  (www.news.medical.net)

UTI's In Pregnancy and How To Treat

Pregnancy Over 40 and UTI's

Pregnancy women tend to be more susceptible to urinary tract infections (and yeast infections.  But there are some things you can do to avoid UTI's.
Drink lots of water.  Water helps eliminate and flush away bacteria (I think of it as "washing out your bladder".

See Also: Early Pregnancy Symptoms (www.getpregnantover40.com) 

Drinking cranberry juice can also help.  The pH of this juice creates an environment where bacteria don't like to grow.  Women should also wear breathable cotton underwear and stay away from tight clothing.  Use wet wipes instead of toilet paper, this may help wash the area so bacteria do not travel up the genitourinary system.

Of course you should talk with your doctor if you think you have a UTI...he/she may prescribe some of the following medications as mentioned in this article:



Ampicillin

One of the most common antibiotics used in treating UTI’s during pregnancy. This drug is under pregnancy category B which means that it was tested on animals and was proven safe. However, pregnancy category B drugs are not tested on humans. Mothers who take this drug can feel side effects such as nausea and vomiting.

Cephalexin

This drug is a member of the third generation cephalosporin that is well tolerated by pregnant mothers and proves to be effective in treating UTIs. Side effects of taking the drug includes diarrhea, but it is only minimal and does not need any immediate intervention.

Erythromycin

It is safe to take during pregnancy and cures most UTIs.

Although these drugs are said to be safe to take during pregnancy, it is still important to consult your health care provider before taking in any medications while you’re pregnant. Self- medication is a big NO-NO for expectant mothers. Natural remedies for UTI are still best.
from: 
www.utiresource.com

Bonding With Your Baby Before Birth

Pregnancy Over 40, Bond With Your Baby

When I was pregnant with my daughter, I would frequently pat my belly and talk to her out loud. This can be a real bonding experience according to this article. Babies in the womb have emotions memories. See Also:  Vision Boards (www.getpregnantover40.com)


From the article:

Jeanne might be interested to know that there is indeed science to back up her intuitive feelings. According to Carista Luminare-Rosen, PhD, author of Parenting Begins Before Conception: A Guide to Preparing Body, Mind, and Spirit for You and Your Future Child, research shows that babies in the womb have the emotional and intuitive capabilities to sense their parents' love. "Prenates can see, hear, feel, remember, taste, and think before birth," says Luminare-Rosen, founder and co-director of The Center for Creative Parenting in Marin and Sonoma counties, Calif.

Bonding (also known as attachment), says Marilee Hartling, RN, prenatal program manager at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, is how babies -- before and after birth -- learn what the world is all about. "It's also part of their personality development.

"When there's a healthy attachment between baby and parent," Hartling says, "the baby comes to believe that the world is a safe place. This is the beginning of the establishment of trust." 
from: 

www.medicinenet.com

Pregnancy, Allergies and Children

Pregnancy Over 40, Allergies and How It May Affect Your Children

I've always been worried that my daughter would inherit my husband's allergies. One weekend, we went to my sister's house and my daughter broke out in a major case of hives when she came in contact with her cat.
See My Site For Foods For Fertility and Pregnancy (www,getpregnantover40.com)
She's been around the cat before, but I've heard that some allergies don't manifest themselves until 2-3 exposures. Anyway, now I'm also wondering if her excema (which she's had for a couple of years now) is somehow related to a food allergy (like dairy).

It's so hard to prevent allergies because you don't know what they're going to be allergic to. Here is an article about childhood allergies and some things you could try even while pregnant or breastfeeding:

Prevention of Allergies and Asthma in Children
From Daniel More, MD (allergies.about.com)

Stress In Mother May Pass Cortisol to Baby

Pregnancy Over 40 and Stress

Stress can cause infertility, but if you're already pregnant it can affect your unborn baby. This interview explains some of the mechanisms involved with how stress hormones may be passed on to the fetus.

See Also: Stress, Infertility and Miscarriage (www.getpregnantover40.com) 

 Being pregnant over the age of 40 doesn't have to be stressful, but I found the the healthcare professionals, although well-meaning added to my stress when they kept telling me about all the complications that can occur when you're older and pregnant.

Read more about the affects of stress:

Vivette -  ...we have some evidence that if the mother is stressed, this affects the function of her placenta which usually filters what passes from the mother to child, it is usually a very effective barrier to cortisol, but if she’s anxious more cortisol passes to the child. So, we think that’s part of the mechanism. The placenta’s function is affected and the foetus is exposed to more cortisol and that changes the development of the foetal brain.

Meera - It’s thought that the increase in the amount of cortisol reaching the baby could be perhaps be to do with an enzyme that isn’t functioning quite correctly, is that right?

Vivette - That’s right what we think is happening is that the placenta usually has a very high level of the enzyme that breaks down cortisol and it has been shown in animals, and we are just studying now because we think it’s probably happening in humans, that the enzyme gets what’s called down regulated, it becomes less effective, so the barrier to cortisol becomes weaker, more cortisol goes through the placenta, but we’re studying on that right now. 
from: 

www.thenakedscientists.com

Pregnancy Over 40 and Morning Sickness

I've often heard of ginger as a home remedy for a number of conditions, including nausea and vomiting.

See Also My site for more articles on foods for fertility and pregnancy over 40 (www.getpregnantover40.com) 

It seems like most women have their own cure for morning sickness.  For me, the only thing that seemed to help was continually sucking on starlight mints (the little red and white peppermints).  However, this didn't take the nausea away, it just smoothed over my gag reflex.  I had heard about ginger for morning sickness, but I never gave it a try.

This article actually sites a study done which proves that it is helpful in pregnancy. Read more:

Pregnant women may safely take ginger root for morning sickness
The venerable medical journal Obstetrics and Gynecology published a 2001 study on the effectiveness of ginger for pregnancy-related nausea and vomiting. Seventy pregnant of women who were less than 17 weeks pregnant were studied for five months to determine if ginger had any effect on morning sickness. They were given either 1 gram of ginger daily or a placebo. Both nausea and vomiting decreased significantly in the ginger group, while barely at all in the control group. No adverse outcomes were reported. The researchers concluded that ginger is safe and effective for nausea and vomiting during pregnancy.

Complementary Therapies in Nursing and Midwifery reviewed safe alternatives for nausea and vomiting during morning sickness in pregnancy in 2002. The author noted that most pregnant women were reluctant to take any prescription drugs during pregnancy, but that these women did want to find relief from morning sickness. Ginger root was one of the alternatives noted as safe and effective.
from: www.naturalnews.com

Pregnancy and Group B Strep

Pregnancy Over 40 and Infection

Although Group B strep sounds scary, it is a common bacteria. However, if this bacteria is passed on to a pregnant woman's baby, it could lead to potentially severe complications. Read more:

Group B strep, is a bacterium that normally lives in the genitourinary or gastrointestinal tracts, areas like the vagina and rectum. In adults, GBS infection is relatively easy to treat. Unfortunately, in babies, it can be potentially deadly and could cause conditions such as meningitis (inflammation of membranes of the brain/spinal cord), sepsis (infection of blood), etc. These conditions could lead to serious disabilities or even death of the newborn.

See Also: Having A Baby Over 40 (www.getpregnantover40.com)

About a third of healthy adult women have GBS present, although not all of them would pass the bacteria along to their babies. However, some instances can make the passage of the bacterium to the baby more likely. These include:

•If you've had a fever during labor.
•If your water broke prior to 37 weeks.
•If you've had a urinary tract infection caused by GBS.
•Have had a prior baby with GBS.
originally published in 
hubpages.com

Pre-eclampsia in Pregnancy May Be Caused By Both Mother and Father

Pregnancy Over 40 and Pre-eclampsia

I was fortunate that I didn't develop high blood pressure or pre-eclampsia in my pregnancy.
For More Articles On Pregnancy Over 40 Click Here (www.getpregnantover40.com)
 I had always heard and read that older women tend to have more problems with blood pressure in pregnancy so I would go to my local discount store and pharmacy to check my blood pressure on one of those automated machines at least twice a week. However, it appears that pre-eclampsia may have a hereditary component. The article below talks about how pre-eclampsia may be passed on through the generations, even by the father:


Pre-eclampsia is a serious condition where abnormally high blood pressure and other disturbances develop in the second half of pregnancy. It occurs in 3-5% of pregnancies and is dangerous for both mother and child.

Researchers in Norway used birth registry data to study whether men and women who are born after pre-eclamptic pregnancies pass on this risk to the next generation, compared with those who had no familyhistory of pre-eclampsia.

See Also: Get Pregnant Naturally www.getpregnantover40.com

They found that daughters of women who had pre-eclampsia during pregnancy had more than twice the risk of pre-eclampsia themselves compared with other women. Men born after a pregnancy complicated by pre-eclampsia also had a moderately increased risk of fathering a pre-eclamptic pregnancy.

These associations were stronger for the more severe types of pre-eclampsia.
from:   (www.sciencedaily.com)