When I was expecting my first child, threats to my baby's health seemed to lurk everywhere. I knew, of course, that alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs of any kind were off-limits. But what about those lattes I'd chugged before I knew I was pregnant? Did I need to get rid of my beloved cats? What sort of environmental hazards was I unwittingly exposing my fetus to? Nine months of caffeine withdrawal, cat avoidance, and breath-holding-around-noxious-odors later, my strapping baby boy arrived.

Unlike me, you don't have to be paranoid when you're pregnant. "You can't put yourself in a glass bottle during pregnancy all you can do is avoid known risks," says Dr. Robert Resnik, a professor of reproductive medicine at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine. Since some women, such as those with high blood pressure or gestational diabetes, need to take extra precautions, talk to your doctor about special circumstances that relate to you. Also steer clear of the following:

Too Much Caffeine
For java junkies like me, the research on caffeine during pregnancy has been maddeningly contradictory. Some studies point to problems such as miscarriage and low birth weight, while others show no such relationship.
The latest consensus is that only excessive amounts of caffeine (more than 300 milligrams a day) are likely to cause these problems, says Dr. Kathleen Bradley, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist and assistant clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the UCLA School of Medicine. The caffeine content of different brews varies, but you should be able to stay under the 300-milligram mark by limiting your daily quaffing to one or two 5-ounce cups of coffee or tea or a few 12-ounce cans of soda. (Since even non-colas can pack quite a caffeine punch, check the label before you imbibe.) And while chocolate does contain caffeine, it typically has much less 1 to 35 milligrams per one ounce than coffee.

Cat Litter
Cat feces may play host to a parasite that causes toxoplasmosis. The symptoms (fever, fatigue, and sore throat) are similar to those of a garden-variety flu, but the results (miscarriage, preterm labor, or serious health problems in the newborn) can be devastating. Even so, having a baby on board doesn't mean you need to send your puss packing, says Marion McCartney, a certified nurse-midwife and the director of professional services at the American College of Nurse-Midwives in Washington, D.C. It simply means you should put your mate on litter-box duty for the nine-month duration. It's also a good idea to wash your hands after heavy petting sessions with the cat and after handling raw meat. Don't feed yourself or the cat undercooked meat (which can harbor the parasite). Wear gloves when you're gardening and avoid children's sandboxes. (Roaming cats may use these as litter boxes.)

Certain Foods
Beware, foodies: Uncooked, soft cheeses (such as feta, Camembert, Brie, and blue-veined varieties), unpasteurized milk and the foods made from it, and raw or undercooked meats, fish, and poultry may contain listeria bacteria. During pregnancy, listeriosis (symptoms include fever, chills, diarrhea, and nausea) can cause miscarriage, preterm labor, or stillbirth. Some seafood may also contain high levels of mercury, PCBs, and other toxins. If these foods are consumed during pregnancy, the baby is put at risk for developmental delays. (Your local health department may be able to tell you which fish to avoid.) Experts recommend that expecting mothers limit their servings of shark and swordfish which contain higher levels of mercury than other fish to one three-ounce serving a month. Finally, lab tests have linked heavy consumption of saccharine to cancer. Though you're not likely to swill enough of the artificial sweetener to equal several times your body weight, you may still want to forgo those little pink packets for now. Aspartame (NutraSweet, Equal) appears to be a safe sugar substitute.

Herbal Remedies
You know that many prescription drugs are off-limits during pregnancy, but the natural remedies you can pick up at health-food stores are okay, aren't they? Guess again: Herbal remedies can have a potent effect on your body and your baby's cautions McCartney. Don't take anything without running it by your health-care provider first. She'll most likely tell you not to use any during your first trimester. Throughout your pregnancy,
steer clear of goldenseal, mugwort, and pennyroyal, all of which have been associated with uterine contractions (which could possibly lead to miscarriage or preterm labor); Asian ginseng (which interferes with metabolism); and feverfew (though popular for migraine headaches, it has unpredictable effects on pregnant women). It's also wise to avoid herbal teas that purport to have medicinal benefits.

Home Hazards
If you haven't been gripped by that famous pregnancy cleaning-and-nesting frenzy, chances are you will be soon. Safety tips for those 3 a.m. floor-scrubbing and nursery-decorating sessions: Read labels carefully.
Wear gloves and work in well-ventilated areas. And avoid aerosols (which disperse more chemicals into the air than pump bottles do), oven cleaners, paint fumes, solvents, and furniture strippers. Although frequent, heavy exposure to chemicals in the workplace (home workshops count, too) has been linked to birth defects, Bradley explains, home use of most products is more likely to make you feel faint or nauseous not a great proposition when you're nine months pregnant and perched high on a ladder or wedged behind the toilet.

Overheating
Soaking in the hot tub or relaxing in a sauna may seem like the perfect way to pamper your pregnant body, but raising your core temperature especially during the first trimester may boost the odds of birth defects. It's safe to soak in a lukewarm bath, though. Just make sure that the temperature is not above 100 degrees and that you get out after about ten minutes, Resnik advises. Sustained exercise in very hot, humid weather can also raise your core temperature. When you do exercise, be sure to drink liquids before, during, and after, and if you find that you're heating up, take a five- or ten-minute breather.

Lead
Lead exposure has been linked to miscarriage, preterm labor, low birth weight, and mental and behavioral problems in children. Residue from the toxic metal can lurk in places you might not suspect: houses built before 1978 (the year lead paint was banned), tap water, even calcium supplements. A few precautions will reduce the amount of lead you come into contact with: Call in a lead-abatement specialist if you live in an older home with chipping or peeling paint. (Whatever you do, don't try to sand or scrape it off yourself.)
Filtering your water may help, or have your tap water tested. (Call the Environmental Protection Agency's Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 800-426-4791 for a testing lab in your area.) Finally, if you take a calcium supplement, ask your doctor to recommend one that's low in lead, such as Tums 500 Calcium Supplement.

Oral Sex
Don't worry, you needn't swear off oral gratification entirely. (After all, when you hit that physically awkward last trimester, there may not be much else you can do between the sheets.) But when he's pleasuring you, your mate should be careful not to blow air into your vagina, if that's something that's part of his, uh, repertoire. Why? Your blood vessels are dilated during pregnancy, and, though the chances of this happening are very rare, a fatal air bubble could potentially enter your bloodstream, McCartney explains.

Certain Over-the-Counter Drugs
Your back is aching, your heart is burning, and your stomach is roiling do you have to forgo all pharmaceutical relief? Not necessarily, says Bradley. But since even benign-seeming remedies, such as aspirin, ibuprofen, and certain cold preparations, can cause problems for your baby, don't pop any pill without your doctor's approval. If one medication is off-limits, she can suggest an alternative. Acetaminophen (Tylenol), for instance, is fine.

Secondhand Smoke
You may have given up cigarettes, but if your mate's still puffing away, your baby's getting hefty doses of the 43 cancer-causing chemicals in cigarette smoke. In fact, exposure to secondhand smoke during pregnancy raises the risk of low birth weight, sudden infant death syndrome, and other health problems. So ask your partner to quit or to cut down if not for his own health, then for yours and your baby's. And tell anyone who lights up around you to kindly take it outside.

Stress
Every time you look down, your growing belly reminds you of just how much your life will change once your baby is born. Exciting, yes. Stressful? You bet. Even so, try to take it easy. Stress causes the release of hormones that reduce blood flow to the placenta and triggers contractions, and it has been linked to miscarriage, preterm birth, and low birth weight, Bradley explains. If you hold a high-pressure job, do what you can to scale back. If you're feeling the heat in your personal life, practice relaxation techniques, surround yourself with supportive people, and seek counseling if need be.

Vitamin A
As is the case with its chemical relative Accutane (a prescription acne drug), high doses of vitamin A during pregnancy can cause heart and facial defects, says Resnik. How much is too much? Some studies have indicated that problems can occur when pregnant women take more than 10,000 international units (IU) a day, while others
list 25,000 IUs and even 50,000 IUs as the threshold. You get a fair amount of vitamin A from the food you eat, and though the dose in your prenatal vitamin should be fine, your doctor can tell you whether it's an excessive amount.

Umbilical cord accidents are the stuff of which nightmares are made. Occurring in otherwise textbook pregnancies, they result in the deaths of one in every thousand babies. The mortality rate is noteworthy enough -- twice as many babies die from cord accidents as from SIDS -- but it only tells part of the story.
Another three in every thousand babies are left severely disabled as a result of cord accidents.

Study Results

While the majority of medical doctors continue to believe that it is impossible to predict or manage cord problems prenatally, the results of a ten-year long study by a Louisiana-based researcher and obstetrician challenge the conventional wisdom.

Dr Jason Collins of the Pregnancy Institute studied over 1000 pregnancies in an attempt to gather as much information as possible about umbilical cord accidents. By using ultrasounds and external fetal monitors, he was able to determine that cords around the neck that are formed when the fetus slips its head through a loop in the cord are more likely to result in injury or death than ones that are formed when the cord crosses over
itself. He also discovered that pregnancies in which the placenta is situated to the posterior are more susceptible to cord accidents than ones in which the placenta is located elsewhere; and that more than three episodes of fetal hiccupping per day in late pregnancy may be indicative of a disruption in cord flow to the baby.
Careful Monitoring

His most dramatic finding, however, concerned the timing of umbilical cord accidents. After interviewing more than fifty women who had experienced such accidents, Collins concluded that pregnant women are at greatest risk of experiencing a cord accident when they are sleeping and their blood pressure is at its lowest.

Collins believes that the careful monitoring of pregnant women in an effort to avoid cord accidents is "a missing piece that should be a part of prenatal care" and that the strategic use of ultrasound technology and fetal monitoring equipment could enable doctors to dramatically reduce the incidence of cord accidents.

The heartbreak that he witnessed ten years ago when he first had a patient lose a baby to a cord accident is reason enough for the medical profession to pay attention to cord accidents, he insists.

"There is a problem here that we've ignored and we can't ignore anymore."

Your "little" sister has just called to say that she's getting married and they've set the date for exactly six months from today. They're planning the ultimate romantic wedding on a beach in the Caribbean, and in between tears she asks you to be her matron of honor. You both scream with excitement and suddenly you remember the positive pregnancy test that you had last week. Oh no - what to do?

Despite what your grandmother told you about pregnancy "in her day," traveling during pregnancy is quite safe as long as you use common sense, discuss it with your doctor or midwife, and follow a few widely accepted guidelines. Precautions to be taken depend upon your stage of pregnancy, your method of travel, and the intended destination. Traveling during your second trimester, the middle three months, is usually the best in terms of your physical comfort and the risk of miscarriage or labor. It's also the time when the morning sickness may have stopped, and your size doesn't diminish your comfort and energy levels.

It's always best to discuss your plans well ahead of time with your physician or midwife, who may strongly caution you against any type of travel if you have had any signs of miscarriage or high-risk complications in this or previous pregnancies. When given the okay to go, it's a good idea to carry some proof of your due date, especially if traveling by air as most airlines will only allow you to travel up to 35 weeks of pregnancy. Be sure to check when making flight plans to avoid last minute disappointment. Sometimes travel can't be avoided, so if it's late in the pregnancy ask for a copy of your prenatal record, in case you have a problem or go into labor at your destination. In this case, it's also best to ask for a refferal to a hospital or physician in this locale before you depart.

Travel by car, while certainly the most common, requires a few preventative measures. Always wear a seat belt with the lap belt applied across the hips, not over the abdomen. It's important to take frequent stops along the way to empty your bladder and to exercise your legs. Stop the car, go to the bathroom, and walk a few steps at least every hour. While in the car, don't sit on your legs; keep them uncrossed and get your blood circulating by contracting and relaxing the leg muscles and by wiggling your toes.

Always drink plenty of water. During pregnancy it's important to be well hydrated to maintain enough oxygen for the baby. Water is best for you, followed by fruit juices. Avoid carbonated soda which fills you up with gas and gives you empty calories. If your travel includes a foreign country, you should drink only bottled water because the vomiting and diarrhea caused by contaminated water can quickly lead to dehydration. Most medications normally given in this instance are not safe during pregnancy.

Commercial transportation, including train travel, can be quite safe and comfortable during pregnancy. While on the train it would again be important to get up and stretch your legs at least every hour or two. Take a bathroom break even if you don't feel the urge. Get assistance from the bellman to lift your luggage into the overhead rack since heavy lifting should be avoided at all costs. While it's quite common for some train travel to occur without a pre-arranged ticket, it may be wise to pay a little extra for a guaranteed seat, especially if you'll be on a well-traveled route.

As previously mentioned, airplane travel will be limited by your weeks of pregnancy. Moms-to-be are frequently concerned about the effect of cabin pressure changes on the baby. Just like you, the baby is easily able to adjust to the changes, so it's completely safe. As soon as you check in, ask if a bulkhead seat is available. These seats have more room to stretch your legs. If this is not possible, at least get an aisle seat.

Be sure to wear your seat belt across your hips, and as long as you're on a smooth flight, you should get up, walk around the cabin and go to the bathroom.

If you're considering international travel, be sure that the country has appropriate facilities and doctors to care for pregnant women. Many countries require immunizations which cannot be given to pregnant women. It is not recommended that pregnant women travel to countries where malaria is common. Even though the pregnant woman can take some medications that protect against malaria, you may still get the disease, which can have devastating consequences for the baby. Be careful to avoid some foods, as it may be common in some countries to consume raw or undercooked meats and unpasteurized milk and cheese products.

Feeling overwhelmed by now? Don't be, it's really quite simple. Use your head, check with your doctor or midwife and most importantly, sit back and enjoy yourself!

Find out some well known and some not so well known parenting facts and figures in our parenting trivia section!

Baby's First Year

• The average child will eat 15 pounds of cereal in a year.
• Aside from medical costs, it's been determined that new parents in the U.S. typically spend $7,000 in a baby's first year on everything from diapers to formula to day care.
• Diaper rash occurs more often after 8 months of age.
• Baby oil and baby lotion lubricate the skin equally well.

Newborns

• A fetus in the womb can hear. Tests have shown that fetuses respond to various sounds just as vigorously as they respond to pressures and internal sensations.
• A four month old fetus will startle and turn away if a bright light is flashed on it's mother's belly.
• Babies in the womb will also react to sudden loud noises, even if their mother's ears are muffled.
• A newborn baby's head accounts for about one-quarter of it's entire weight.
  According to researchers at the University of Texas, babies like pretty faces better than plain ones.
• Babies are born with 300 bones, but by adult we have only 206 in our bodies. The reason? Some bones fuse together later.
• Children born in the month of May are on the average 200 grams heavier at birth than children born in any other month.

Your Baby's Sex

• A survey conducted at Iowa State College in 1969 suggests that a parent's stress at the time on conception plays a major role in determining a baby's sex.
• The child tends to be of the same sex as the parent who is under less stress.
  According to Aristotle, wind direction determined whether a baby would be a boy or a girl.

Pregnancy

• Statistics based on more than a half-million births occurring in New York City hospitals between 1948 and 1957 show a significantly greater number of births taking place during the waning moon than during a waxing moon.
• During pregnancy, the uterus expands to 500 times its normal size.
• A woman's arthritic pains will almost always disappear as soon as she becomes pregnant.

Genetics

• According to research conducted by Soviet scientists, girls born to men who are older than 50 have an average life span that is six years shorter than their brothers. They believe the X, or female, chromosome a father passes to his daughter contains the gene that determines longevity.
• Human reproduction follows lunar time rather than sidereal, or solar, time: Gestation is about 266 days -- nine lunar months -- and the menstrual period is one lunar month.
• If one identical twin grows up without a given tooth coming in, the second identical twin will usually also grow up without the tooth.
• The daughters of a mother who is colorblind and a father who has normal vision will have normal vision. The sons will be colorblind, however.
  Midgets and dwarfs almost always have normal-sized children, even if both parents are midgets or dwarfs.
• Newborn babies are not blind. Studies have shown that newborns have approximately 20/50 vision and can easily discriminate between degrees of brightness.
• The world`s first test-tube twins were born in June 1981.
• Twins are born less frequently in the eastern part of the world than in the western.
• During pregnancy a woman's blood volume increases up to 50%. In addition to meeting the needs of the fetus, this is a reserve against fluid loss that occurs during childbirth.

Multiple Birth

• More in-vitro babies are born in Australia than anywhere else in the world.
• Australia also produced the world's first test-tube twins, triplets, quadruplets, baby born from a donor egg, and frozen-embryo baby.
• In 1994 alone at least 79 sets of quadruplets were born in the United States.
• There are approximately 15-19 sets of quints born per year in the US.
• In 1996 there were 100,750 (50, 375 sets) twins, 5,298 (1766 sets) triplets, 560 (140 sets) quadruplets, and 81 (16 sets) quintuplets and higher born in the USA.
• The number of triplets born in the US in 1994 (4,594) was more than triple the number born in 1971 (1,034), an increase attributed to older age of the mothers and the use of fertility-enhancing drugs and techniques.

Miscellaneous

• Did you know that every three seconds a baby is born?
• Sweden has the lowest birth rate in the world, 1 in 100. Malawi, in Africa, has the highest, 5.3 in 100.
• The largest number of children born to one woman is recorded at 69.
• From 1725-1765 a Russian peasant woman gave birth to 16 sets of twins, 7 sets of triplets and 4 sets of quadruplets.
• According to a survey, women prefer blue bedrooms more than other colors; men are happier with white bedrooms.
• A Swiss study found that a majority of women unconsciously choose mates with a body odor that differs from their own natural scents, which, as a result, ensures better immune protection for their children. "Longevity" magazine reported that the genes that battle disease-provoking substances also influence body odor.
• The first child ever born on the continent of Antarctica was born in 1978.
• The average stay in a hospital to give birth was 4.1 days in 1970. It was 2.6 days in 1993.

A child teaches you a lot of responsibility. It makes you a responsible citizen of the society. Parents find it hard to balance work and family life. Some of the biggest problems are that:

(1) New parents can feel isolated.

(2) Parents are worried about the quality of childcare.

(3) Childcare available can be very expensive.

(4) It can be difficult to find the right kind of childcare.

(5) Childcare can be very expensive.

(6) Some mothers feel they have to return to work too soon after their child is born.

(7) Fathers aren’t able to spend as much time with their children as they would like to.

UK Govt wants to give parents greater choice about balancing work and family life. In this ten year strategy Govt is announcing new policies to help working parents with home and work responsibilities. The new policies include

(1) Extending paid maternity leave to nine months from April 2007 with a goal of 12 months by the end of the next parliament.

(2) A new right for mothers to transfer some of their maternity pay and leave to fathers.

(3) Extending the right to request flexible working arrangements (currently available to parents of young children) to parents of older children.

Availability of childcare?

Some parents have problems finding a childcare place. For parents of three and four year olds, it can be difficult to fit work or training around the free 12.5 hours of early education that they are entitled to each week. Parents of older children are often unable to get the before or after school care that their children need. Some parents can have trouble finding information about childcare.

An affordable, flexible, high quality childcare place will be available for all familiar who need one. The goals set in this regard are:

• by 2010, affordable before and after school care all year around for children aged between three and fourteen,

• by 2010, a Sure Start children’s centre in every community. Children’s centres offer services for under fives and their families, bringing together health, early education, childcare and advice and support for parents. Children’s centres build on the successful Sure Start approach and are responsive to the needs of the local population.

• more hours of free early education and care for three and four year olds so that
• from 2006 all three and four olds will get 12.5 hours free for 38 weeks a year, up from 33 weeks now.
• Starting in 2007 this will be extended to 15 free hours a week.
• In the longer term, it will be increased to 20 free hours a week.
• Parents will be able to spread their free childcare entitlement flexibly over a minimum of three days.

Improving the quality of childcare

Parents need to have confidence in the quality of childcare. There have been reports that some kinds of childcare can be bad for some children. It is hard to find out how good a particular provider is, and parents are not happy leaving their child in the care of people they don’t know.

The Govt. says it is committed to guaranteeing high quality childcare for all children. The ten year strategy for childcare sets out the following measures to make sure that the childcare is among the best in the world:

• investment to ensure quality, sustainable, affordable provision
• a better qualified workforce, with a reformed career and training structure
• professional support for childminders and other home based childcarers
• reforms to childcare regulation and inspection, including more clear information for parents on the quality of providers.

Making childcare more affordable

Some families can not afford childcare outside their home. Families with pre-school children can face high bills, as do larger familiar and those who live in high cost areas like London and the South East.

Govt wants all families to afford high quality childcare that meets their needs. In the ten year strategy for childcare, the Govt is announcing:

• more free hours of early education and care for all three and four year olds
• commitment to reducing proportion of childcare costs paid by a typical family over time
• improvements to the childcare part of the Working Tax Credit to help low and middle income families with their childcare costs
• an increase in the proportion of childcare costs that parents can claim from 70% to 80% from April 2006.

Community Involvement

The UK Govt wants to hear views about the strategy from parents, childcare providers, the voluntary sector, childcare experts, employers and other interested groups. Details on consultation process can be found at

http:www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/childcare.

You can also write your views and send to

Childcare Strategy

HM Treasury

1 Horse Guards Road

London SW1A 2HQ

Or by email at childcare.consultation@hm-treasure.gov.uk

[Source: P. Ray – London , UK ]