Pregnancy

If you’ve ever seen me in the clinic then you know I love the updates. When I haven’t heard from a patient in a little while, I’ll always send over a quick note to see how they’re doing. How did your cycle go? Are you finished the cleanse? Have the improvements held out? How are the herbs going? It’s a great way to get continuity of care while tracking successes and seeing where improvements are needed. We are always asking the question: could we be doing better? But often, believe it or not, I get the best response ever, like the email I got today.

YOU DID IT!! You’ve been waiting and waiting….and waiting…. for that little blue line to show up on your pregnancy test and it finally happened! First things first, let’s do the Happy Dance.

Ok..now that we’ve had a chance to celebrate, it’s time to get organized. Many of my patients become so tunnel-visioned about getting pregnant, that they find themselves feeling lost once they finally become pregnant. This week’s blog post is a guide map for a healthy pregnancy.

Have you been searching for the signs of early pregnancy? The magic symptom that will tell you for sure if your pregnant or not? Most if not all of my fertility patients are. The hard part is that there are no perfect, definitive symptoms which can 100% guarantee that you are pregnant. Besides doing a home pregnancy test or better yet a blood test with your doctor the symptoms of pregnancy are often similar to that of PMS. Very confusing indeed! Even more confusing is if women are using fertility medications.

Dear One,

For the last several months, you and your Womb have stretched and expanded to house the tiny bones and organs that contain this Soul you call your child. You watched the impossibly small heart flicker on a screen and felt your own flutter to your throat. Previously, your body felt solid, stable, static. But you rumbled and shifted your tectonic plates to make room for the volume of this child. And in this shift, you somehow feel more rooted, more grounded, more solid than before.

It’s estimated that somewhere between 70-80% of women struggle with nausea and vomiting during pregnancy. Most of the time, the symptoms are limited to the first trimester – and somewhere around 13 or 14 weeks it’ll start to lift. Unfortunately, a small percentage of women have prolonged symptoms that can last until delivery.

At some point during pregnancy, most women will battle with pain – from headaches to muscle aches, back pain to pelvic pain, it’s incredibly common and is often a huge source of discomfort. Faced with pain, many women may consider taking something to ease it, and may turn to over-the-counter meds. Ibuprofen is one of several medications that fall under the category of over-the-conter (OTC) nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and may be considered for pain relief.