What Are the Pros and Cons of Water Birth?
Far too many mothers know firsthand the frequent pitfalls of giving birth in a regular hospital, on a bed. The pain can be excruciating, often prompting women to use hospital-administered drugs. The baby can take many hours to come. An episiotomy may be performed. The obstetrician may rupture the amniotic sac with a stick in an attempt to speed up a slow labor; but tearing the amniotic membrane can lead to other complications.
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Two chemicals commonly found in plastics have been linked to lower I.Q.’s in children when the mothers were exposed to higher amounts of the chemicals during pregnancy, according to a new study by researchers from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.
The two compounds are di-n-butyl phthalate (DnBP) and di-isobutyl phthalate (DIBP); they belong to a class of chemicals called phthalates which are used for varied purposes, including making plastics softer and less brittle, improving spreadability of products like household paints and nail polish, and extending shelf life of scents in grooming products, household cleaning liquids, detergents and air fresheners.
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If you gave birth recently and you’re struggling to lose the weight you gained during pregnancy, you’re like most women, says a new study published online in December, 2014 in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.
The study followed almost 800 women who had given birth, from five geographic locations in the United States, and measured the moms’ height and weight at 6 months and 12 months post-partum.
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New moms may have the best intentions in wanting to breastfeed their newborns; but sometimes, nursing the baby doesn’t happen so effortlessly. This can lead both mom and infant to feel discouraged and want to give up trying.
But don’t give up! Your breast milk carries in it a large assortment of vital, life-sustaining nutrients, germ-fighting immunity cells, hormones, and many strains of beneficial bacteria that will colonize your baby’s gastrointestinal tract and aid digestion, as well as prevent allergies later on.
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Back in 1995, a study by two child psychologists from the University of Kansas found that children whose parents were professionals were exposed to almost twice as many words as children in working class families; the latter in turn heard twice as many words as children in welfare families, the study noted.
In the ensuing years, much was made by governmental entities and developmental psychologists about exposing children, starting from birth, to a lot of words spoken by their parents and caregivers, which had been theorized by the study’s authors to be key to a child’s language acquisition and school success later on.
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Some parents may not think about it, but one of the things expecting parents ought to do before their little one is born, is to learn the proper techniques for placing the newborn in the car safety seat they’ll use, as well as installing the safety seat correctly.
According to a recent small study, the far majority of parents make one or more big mistakes when they place the infant in the seat or in installing the seat, as they drive home from the hospital with their newborns.
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For many years, scientists have been trying to answer the question, Is a child’s intelligence inherited from its parents, or can the environment in which the child grows up determine intelligence? The old “nature vs. nurture” debate. A new study has found that “nature” may play the bigger part, when it comes to IQ.
A small group of universities from several countries, including three from the United States (Florida State University, University of Nebraska and Western Illinois University), collaborated on a study that found that genetics, and not parenting style, are linked to a child’s verbal intelligence: Verbal IQ is not the result of parental socialization, the study found.
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A recent study from the University of Calgary has found that increasing numbers of parents are refusing to consent to their newborns receiving a shot of vitamin K at birth, due to fears about possible reactions to the high single dose of the vitamin, as well as the other ingredients that come with it.
Vitamin K is necessary for normal blood-clotting in both adults and children; however, babies are usually born with insufficient amounts of the vitamin in their system, as it doesn’t cross very well from the mother’s blood through the placenta. The mother’s diet does not affect the levels of vitamin K that her baby is born with to any large degree.
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More than a hundred studies in recent years have documented the apparent benefit of moderate alcohol consumption to the health of men and women. One to two daily drinks for men, and one for women, are associated with lower risk of cardiovascular disease, including heart attack and the most common type of stroke. Studies have also found that this low alcohol intake may protect against gallstones and improve insulin sensitivity, thus decreasing the risk for type 2 diabetes.
But when it comes to women who are pregnant or trying to conceive, most health authorities agree that not drinking any alcohol is best, given the degree of harm that it can cause to a developing baby.
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As recently as the 1950’s, American moms were being told that formula was better for their babies than breast milk. A lot of moms bought into that fallacy, and more and more babies started being fed formula, instead of breast milk, even in the decades that followed. Food allergies subsequently exploded in numbers, and other potentially deadly newborn digestive diseases also saw a rise in incidences.
But in recent years, scientists have uncovered an increasing number of reasons why breast milk is in fact the perfect food for a baby — yet another case where Mother Nature knew best, after all.
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