Amniotic fluid is what fills that comfy pool your baby-to-be floats, flips, and lounges around in for nine months. Aside from cushioning him from trauma, it also helps to maintain a constant temperature in the womb, prevents against infection,...
Gestational diabetes involves a buildup of glucose in your blood that first occurs during pregnancy and resolves itself after giving birth. Gestational diabetes can be dangerous to both you and your unborn baby, causing potentially...
While your skin has elastic properties that help it to bounce back when pulled, when the skin is stretched too far, stretch marks can occur, according to the Mayo Clinic. Stretch marks resemble jagged lines of skin that are red or purple in color....
If you are pregnant, excess amniotic fluid can increase your chances of developing gestational diabetes, characterized by high blood glucose levels. Having too much amniotic fluid may also be a signal that you have gestational diabetes. This...
Premature labor refers to going into labor before a fetus is 37 weeks gestational age. In the United States alone about one in eight babies are born before 37 weeks. Unfortunately, premature labor and delivery is the leading cause of death in...
Pregnancy causes your body to go through many changes. The weight that you gain during pregnancy to support your growing baby can cause stretch marks to develop on various parts of your body. The most common areas for them to appear are on your...
Premature labor happens when you start having contractions that cause your cervix to dilate before week 37 of your pregnancy. Premature rupture of the membranes is another way to go into premature labor. Babies who are born between weeks 34 and...
Although your baby's lower respiratory system started forming shortly after its heart began to beat, the lungs are among the last organs to fully mature before birth. Most newborns come into the world ready to breathe on their own, but some don't,...
Watching your belly grow as your baby develops is one of the many joys of being pregnant. However, the state of your belly also can be a source of concern, particularly if your belly starts showing much faster than a pregnant friend’s belly...
Stretch marks are an inevitable part of pregnancy. Although some women do not get as many stretch marks as others, the rapid amount of weight gained during pregnancy puts you at risk of getting multiple stretch marks. Pregnancy-related stretch...
Pregnancy is not a medical emergency, in most cases. Outside of well-established labor, times when a pregnant woman must go to the hospital rather than calling her obstetrician are rare. However, medical emergencies do occur in pregnancy, and when...
Vitamin E is a fat-soluble antioxidant found in a variety of food products, such as spinach, hazelnuts, avocado and sunflower oil. It is also available as a supplement and in beauty products and may be ingested orally or applied topically as an...
While all women have some degree of vaginal discharge on a daily basis, pregnant women will notice an increase in the production of their vaginal secretions. This is just one of many changes they will undergo throughout the course of their...
A baby's temperature while in the womb remains constant at about the same body temperature as the mother's, which is about 99.86 degrees Fahrenheit, according to Birth.com. The website further reports that the common body temperature for a newborn...
