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

Dr. Phil: Having A Baby Later In Life Advice

Dr. Phil Talks About Having A Baby When Older

Having a baby at an older age always seems to be an item of discussion.
See Also: www.getpregnantover40.com for more articles and encouragement for pregnancy over 40
  I've certainly had no problems raising my daughter.  Yes, all parents are tired most of the time...the young ones and the old ones!
I don't always have a lot of time to watch daytime TV, but for you Dr. Phil fans, here is an article from drphil.com about having a baby later in life:

If you decide to get pregnant later in life, Dr. Phil has advice:

Think ahead to what the future will be like. "Age is not just a state of mind," says Dr. Phil. "It makes a good story, but it's not. It is a state of body, it is a state of organs, and the mortality risk goes up as you get older." The difference in your body between 40 and 55 is not the same as the difference in your body between 55 and 70 because the aging curve accelerates. You're going to deteriorate more per year between 55 and 70 than you did between 40 and 55. Consider what age you'll be when your child becomes a teenager. How will your parenting abilities be? Imagine being 70 years old during that high demand time. Will you have the energy? Will you have the physical presence and health?

Work closely with medical personnel that are skilled in older-age pregnancies.

Make a conscious decision to take the best possible care of yourself by not smoking, not exposing yourself to any toxins, not allowing yourself to get overweight, out of shape, run down or overworked. You truly have to take care of your children's mother, because you know that some of the high demand years are some of the years that you are going to have to be at your absolute best in order to cope and companion them through those times. Put yourself at the top of the list.

Prepare your child for the eventuality of your death. As morbid as it sounds, you have to take your death into consideration because your chance of death between 55 and 70 is a whole lot higher than it is between 40 and 55. How will your child get along without you? Will there be a legal guardian? Will your child have financial support? If you have a support system of friends and family, the transition may be a little easier on your child. As soon as your child is old enough, start talking about the fact that you're older than a lot of moms. Of course, any of us can be gone in the blink of an eye, whether we're 22 or 72, but you want to take particular care to prepare your children to have a really good foundation about who they are mentally, emotionally and spiritually so they don't feel devastatingly alone if they lose you during their teen years. By making sure there are significant others in their life, a spiritual foundation, things to fall back on, you can really mitigate the impact should something happen. 
from: 
 (www.drphil.com)

Have A Baby, Lose Yourself?

Having A Baby Over 40 - You Can Still Have A Life

The following article is so true. When you're pregnant, all the attention is focused on you. People go out of their way to help and you feel entitled to just sit back and be "lazy".
See Also: www.getpregnantover40.com for more on increasing your chances of getting pregnant and motherhood over 40
But when the baby comes along, it's a different story. You're so busy feeding, bathing, and most of all worrying, that you rarely take time out for yourself. Read more about how you can take care of yourself after having a baby:
 Does that mean building a meditation room -- complete with New Age music -- and setting aside an hour a day for yourself? Like that would happen, Louden laughs. The important thing, she says, is giving yourself permission to put yourself first. So much, and so many precious people, depend on your ability to do so.


(www.webmd.com)

Childfree By Choice

Pregnancy Over 40 or Childfree

If you read my blogs, you're probably trying to conceive or you became a mother later in life.
See also: www.getpregnantover40.com for pregnancy information later in life
 However, it certainly is worth mentioning that some women don't want children and have chosen to remain childfree (until my upper 30's, I never wanted children, so I certainly understand opting for this life choice). I have a sister who has chosen to live childfree, and I must say she has a very full, exciting and fun life. Here is an article about how some women choose to live childfree and how other women may judge them unfairly:

From the article:

Although child-free-by-choice women have always endured criticism from other females, it's only recently that people like Semper have chosen to square off against the motherhood mafia: baby-biased women eager to smother any whimper of dissonance in the ranks.

"There has been an assumption among some mothers that I haven't really thought through my decision and can be easily dissuaded from it," says Semper.

"It tends to take on the air of proselytizing -- it's rude, it's uncomfortable. (It's) almost as if you've verbally or physically attacked a person and they now feel they must defend themselves or their values."

She believes the lack of understanding may stem from other women's own self-doubt, noting "people tend to fear that which isn't the same as them, and begin to question their own choices when presented with an alternative."

Jane Dahl, who by age 18 was requesting a tubal ligation to ensure she never became pregnant, had one woman tell her she was "selfish, immature and irresponsible" for opting out of motherhood.

"Women tend to judge other women very harshly," says Dahl, a 47-year-old trust accountant for the federal government. "If you aren't interested in hearing about colic and spit up, you aren't part of the club. You're an outsider. Now, we have our own exclusive club that only we get to join."
from:
canwest