Pregnancy and Fibroids: Problem or not?

Even if you have fibroids, the chance of delivering a healthy baby is high. Learn how fibroids can affect pregnancy from medical experts and two women who had fibroids and birthed healthy babies.
They can be microscopic, the size of a grapefruit, and even grow to volleyball proportion or beyond. These unwelcome guests call a woman's uterus home. We are talking about tumors of the muscle of the uterus, commonly known as fibroids.
The good news is that with the monitoring modern technology enables, the great majority of pregnant women who have fibroids give birth to healthy babies, says Dr. Pedro Arrabal, MD, a Baltimore OB-GYN and maternal fetal medicine specialist.
According to Dr. Bobbie Gostout, MD, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, fibroids infrequently cause difficulty with conception. Yet once a woman is pregnant, fibroids can enlarge rapidly—especially during early pregnancy—cause severe pain, and even necessitate hospitalization, Dr. Gostout explains. Still, she says most fibroids do not cause any difficulties with pregnancy.
Nevadra Johnson, of the Washington DC area, was about to undergo surgery to remove her fibroids when she learned she was pregnant with her second child. "It was kind of bittersweet. You're excited about it. You're also worried," she says of the news. "You're saying, 'Will the baby make it?' There's a lot of worry in the beginning stages of pregnancy. It's even more so when you know you have a condition."
Fibroids and the Growing Fetus
Johnson, who was referred to Dr. Arrabal, learned that for the safety of her unborn child, her surgery needed to be postponed until after delivery.
"During pregnancy, fibroids are not treated," explains Dr. Gostout. "We simply try to manage the symptoms in a woman who wishes to preserve fertility." After pregnancy, she says fibroids can be surgically removed through a myomectomy and adds while there are newer treatments which appear promising, so far they have only been applied in large numbers to women who are done having children, "mainly since the unknown effects on the strength of the uterus and the ability of the uterus to carry a healthy pregnancy."
When Johnson's fibroids were first discovered in 2000, she had a five-year-old son, but in early 2006, pregnant with her second child, her three fibroids ballooned from the size of a quarter to grapefruit size. At three-months pregnant, Johnson says her protruding stomach made her look twice as far along.
Johnson admits wondering if the fibroids were cancer. The answer was no. Dr. Arrabal says that the odds of developing cancer as a result of fibroids during pregnancy are less than one percent.
"Whenever we tell anybody things are out of the ordinary, people tend to assume the worst. The way I look at it, it's my job to assume the worst and to try to prevent the worst," says Dr. Arrabal, who asks patients to leave the worrying to him and to stay as positive as possible.
He explains as a woman's estrogen levels significantly rise during early pregnancy, fibroids can grow tenfold or more. The traditional method of measuring a mother's abdomen to determine a baby's approximate size can give a false sense of security, as the fibroids can throw off the numbers. Thanks to major medical advances in the last 30 years, Dr. Arrabal says the baby and the fibroids can be monitored in ways never before possible. Ultrasounds and other tests are used to track the baby's size and the location of the fibroids.
While Dr. Arrabal emphasizes the favorable odds, he also prepares patients for potential complications, such as an obstructed birth canal necessitating a Cesarean section, preterm contractions, and preterm labor. In a minority of cases, the fibroid settles under the placenta, forcing it to separate from the uterus, which Dr. Arrabal says can cause a woman to hemorrhage or have a stillbirth.
for more info, see entire article at www.babyzone.com/pregnancy/health_wellness/complications

So you've just found out you're pregnant?

If you've just found out you're pregnant, congratulations! This is one of the absolutely most exciting times in a human's life...no doubt about it. You're probably full of questions, concerns and ideas of what you want to do. I believe that lots of good, accurate, and up-to-date information is extremely important. For that reason, I'm going to do a series on how pregnancy progresses. Of course it will also include information on how music fits into the picture! Hope you'll enjoy this and email me with any questions you might have!

How your baby's growing: This week's major developments: The nose, mouth, and ears that you'll spend so much time kissing in eight months are beginning to take shape. If you could see into your uterus, you'd find an oversize head and dark spots where your baby's eyes and nostrils are starting to form. His emerging ears are marked by small depressions on the sides of the head, and his arms and legs by protruding buds. His heart is beating about 100 to 160 times a minute — almost twice as fast as yours — and blood is beginning to course through his body. His intestines are developing, and the bud of tissue that will give rise to his lungs has appeared. His pituitary gland is forming, as are the rest of his brain, muscles, and bones. Right now, your baby is a quarter of an inch long, about the size of a lentil bean.See what's going on in your uterus this week.Note: Every baby develops a little differently — even in the womb. Our information is designed to give you a general idea of your baby's development.How your life's changing: You may find yourself developing a bit of a split personality — feeling moody one day and joyful the next. Unsettling as this is (especially if you pride yourself on being in control), what you're going through is normal. Ricocheting emotions are caused partly by fluctuating hormones. But hormones aside, your life is about to change in a big way — and who wouldn't feel emotional about that?Spotting (spots of blood on your underpants or toilet tissue after urinating) or bleeding is relatively common in early pregnancy, affecting up to a quarter of pregnant women. It may occur in a normal pregnancy, but sometimes it can be the first sign of miscarriage or an ectopic pregnancy. If you have any spotting or bleeding, call your provider. (information found on www.babycenter.com)

Do you know about "Kangaroo Care?"

TORONTO: Swaddling a tiny premature baby against the skin of a parent - a technique known as "kangaroo care" - can help the infant cope with the pain inflicted by necessary medical procedures, a new study suggests.
The research shows that the technique - which has already been shown to be effective in full-term babies and moderately premature infants - is also helpful with those born very pre-term, between 28 and 32 weeks of gestation.
"We found that babies in skin-to-skin contact with their mothers showed less pain response than when they were in the incubator" when they were undergoing a procedure, said lead author Celeste Johnston, a nursing professor at Montreal's McGill University.
"The effect was significant and we were surprised to find that in babies this young."
The study was published Thursday in the journal BMC Pediatrics.
The options for pain control are limited for infants born so prematurely. Anesthetic creams applied to numb the skin don't appear to work in these babies and morphine would not be given for routine but painful procedures like the lancing of a heel to take blood or the insertion of an intravenous line.
Breastfeeding has been found to help infants cope with pain, but very pre-term babies may not be able to breastfeed. So Johnston and colleagues set out to study whether a technique known as KMC - kangaroo mother care - could help them through painful procedures. (While the study was done using mothers, kangaroo care can be provided by fathers too.)
Kangaroo care started in South America as a way to deal with a shortage of incubators, Johnston explained in an interview. It was thought that skin-to-skin contact between a baby and a parent might be a substitute for the heat that incubators provide to babies too tiny to regulate their own body temperature.
"The baby only has on a diaper. The mother's bare chested. And then they would wrap a blanket or a cloth, a swaddling cloth, around the mother and the baby," Johnston explained. "And the baby then is kept warm on the mother's chest."
The technique is now sometimes used in neonatal units to help infants bond with their parents.
But it was noticed that babies in kangaroo care were in a calmer state, with better blood oxygen levels and lower heart rates. So Johnston and her co-authors wanted to see if the technique could help preemies cope with pain, which sends heart rates racing and blood oxygen levels plummeting.
No one enjoys pain. But in these fragile infants, pain inflicts a cost.
"When painful thing happen to them, that destabilizes them," Johnston said. "Their heart rates go way up, their sats (oxygen saturation levels) go way down."
"When their heart rate goes up like that when something painful happens to them, then that's taking away energy that they could be using to be growing, if you will."
It wasn't clear, though, that infants this young had yet developed the mechanisms that would allow them to benefit from the technique - responses like the ability to produce pain-killing endorphins. For that reason Johnston and her colleagues weren't sure kangaroo care would work with these babies.
However, in a trial where some infants underwent procedures while in kangaroo care and others while simply in an incubator, the swaddled infants recovered more quickly and seemed to be in less pain.
The effect was not as pronounced as with babies born closer to term. But Johnston said it still makes sense to consider the technique in the younger preemies.
"Well, I think so. I mean, what's the alternative? It's better than not being in kangaroo care," she said.
"It's kind of a natural way to go. It doesn't cost anything. (And) the mothers feel much better about doing it."

Provided by: The Canadian PressWritten by: Helen Branswell, Medical Reporter, THE CANADIAN PRESSApr. 23, 2008

Breastfeeding and Lullabies ♪♫♪♫

Nursing your baby is one of the best things you can do to get her off to a healthy start in life. Research and common wisdom tells us that Mommy's milk is meant to feed a newborn baby and no baby is ever going to be allergic to Mommy's mild. It almost seems like a miracle to me that the whole process works so beautifully---usually!

Sometimes new mothers or mothers who have had difficult pregnancies get tense and anxious and have trouble getting their mile to "let down." This happened to me after my first child was born: my breasts were full of milk and my baby was crying but the milk would not "let down" into my breasts so that my daughter could satisfy her hunger!

So how do lullabies play a part? Women have been softly singing, humming and crooning to the infants since the beginning of time. The benefits of mother singing to her baby, rather than playing a CD or radio, is that THIS is the same voice that baby has been hearing for the past nine months and is the voice that makes baby feel safe and secure. When baby calms down, mommy calms down and before you know it, the milk is flowing. Is this immediate and instantaneous? Of course not. It's a process and can take days depending on how anxious the mother is.

My recommendation is that mother listen to my lullaby CD during pregnancy so that the melodies come easily to her when she sits down to nurse baby! You can order the CD or you can download these classic lullabies that have been passed down from generation to generation! Do let me know how it goes!!

Cloth Diapers - The healthy choice for newborns and their environment

By: Rob Parker
You have to think that life must be pretty difficult as a newborn. After all, so far you’ve spent your whole time in a warm and wet environment; basically bumping around naked, not really worried about anything. Then all of a sudden you are thrust out into this cold, bright place, your means of nourishment is cut off, and you have to learn to breath in a whole new way in a matter of seconds, and then they wrap you in plastic!While some people may have the time to set a schedule for their newborns so that they can get them cleaned every time the baby produces waste, for many this simply isn’t feasible. A new generation that rejects unnatural products both for the environment and for their children are choosing to use cloth diapers instead of disposables for catching the bodily waste that newborns produce. Let’s take a look at the benefits in health and in terms of our eco footprint, that choosing cloth diapers for your newborn can mean.Less diaper rash. Cloth diapers simply can’t hold the same amount of waste, either solid or liquid, that a disposable diaper can. While at first blush this may seem convenient, the fact is that the healthy choices for our children are never convenient. The amount of waste that can build up in a disposable diaper can cause newborns, infants and toddlers significant pain and discomfort in the form of a rash. Using a cloth diaper mitigates this occurrence.Renewable. The biggest benefit as far as the environment with cloth diapers as that by being washable, they are far less likely to be thrown out than disposables. Most disposable diapers contain quite a lot of plastic and other materials which will not break down for hundreds of years; a quick look at just how many disposables the average newborn goes through in a day is enough to make anyone’s spine creep when the eco impact is considered. The fact that you can use cloth diapers again and again, also means there is less impact on your bank account!Less chance of an allergic reaction. As allergies are becoming more and more severe, many new mothers are finding that the synthetic materials used in disposable diapers cause their newborns to have a reaction. Not a very great way to start out life! Choosing cloth diapers made of non-allergenic material will greatly reduce the chance of a reaction from your baby.As with so many are finding today, the old ways of doing things are proving to be the smartest for a new generation. Cloth diapers are a flash from the past, but perhaps they are a part of taking care of a newborn that should never have been left behind.
Article Source: http://babyboomerarticles.com

The womb's "sound carpet," baby loves it!

Have you wondered what your unborn child really hears? According to Giselle E. Whitwell, a pre-natal music therapist in Los Angeles, "Uterine sounds form a "sound carpet" over which the mother's voice in particular appears very distinct and which the prenate gives special attention because it is so different from its own amniotic environment. These sounds are of major importance because they establishes the first patterns of communication and bonding. Some researchers have discovered that newborns become calmer and more self-regulated when exposed to intrauterine sound (Murooka et. al 1976; DeCasper 1983; Rossner 1979). The soothing sounds of the ocean and water are probably reminiscent of the fluid environment in which we began life. Tomatis suggests that the maternal heart beat, respiration and intestinal gurgling, all form the source for our collective attraction to the sound of surf and may have to do with our inborn sense of rhythm. Prenatal sounds form an important developmental component in prenatal life because they provide a foundation for later learning and behavior. With fetal sound stimulation the brain functions at a higher level of organization."
Stay tuned for more fascinating information about the growing baby's sonic environment!

Infants can un-Ravel classical music!

Recent research is suggesting that even infants can detect slight changes in a piece of classical music. Canadian researchers say babies can remember complex classical music, even after a two week delay. Their findings were detailed at a recent meeting of the Acoustical Society of America.

said Beatriz Ilari of McGill University in Montreal.
For her study, Ilari, a violinist, music teacher and doctoral candidate, chose the "Prelude" and "Forlane" from "Le Tombeau de Couperin" by Maurice Ravel.
"First, because it's unusual," said Ilari. "It is a beautiful piece of music, also a piece that, for people who are trained in classical music, we know it's considered very complex," she said.
Researchers gave a Ravel CD to parents, either the "Prelude" or "Forlane." Parents were told to play that piece to their seven- to eight-month-old infants three times a day, for 10 days. The CDs were then collected. After two weeks of not hearing that music, babies were tested at a McGill laboratory.

The test consisted of listening to 20-second excerpts of music, eight from the familiar piece mixed with eight from the unfamiliar one. During testing, the baby was seated comfortably on a parent's lap in a three-wall pegboard booth.
A red light was mounted on each side of the booth, to the left and right of the baby. One light would blink to attract the baby's attention. Once the baby looked at the light, a musical excerpt would come on through a loudspeaker hidden behind the light.

The excerpt would keep playing until the baby turned its head away, in another direction. Listening times were recorded for each excerpt and added up for each piece.
The researchers found that babies listened 20-30 percent longer to the music piece they had heard at home, compared to an unfamiliar piece.

"We had a lot of parents, many unfamiliar with classical music, say that they really liked Ravel," said Ilari. "They asked to keep it after the study, because it was helpful in putting their baby to sleep, or calming the baby at feeding time," she said.
Some parents who introduced music to their kids at very early ages say there are a wide range of benefits. Victor and Adele Ronchetti's ten year old son Victor picked up a violin at age four and hasn't put it down. He's now in a young artists program at the Juilliard School in New York.
"Listening to music is great," said Adele Ronchetti. "I think playing an instrument is terrific. It keeps you away from the television set. You never hear about anybody who plays the violin building a bomb in their basement. I mean, I think it keeps you on the right track socially, it builds your self esteem. I think it's good for so many things," she said.