What you Need to Know About the Second Trimester
What you need to know about the second trimester will give you the confidence to enjoy the rest of your pregnancy and prepare you for the arrival of your progeny. This period gives you an eagerness to learn about your changing body and find a way to embrace it. It’s the time you’ll relish the comfortability you feel in comparison to the rest of the pregnancy. By this time, you’ve accepted the pregnancy and put some semblance of order back into your life. You have more energy, feel hungrier, more clear-headed than you’ve been, and may even have a lighter mood. At some point between 16-21 weeks, you will no longer be “guessing” if you felt a kick and will likely cherish these odd sensations. Maybe you’ve even announced your pregnancy or perhaps had a gender reveal party at some point in this stage. These weeks feel most awkward since you aren’t quite showing until the end of this trimester. Only you and your partner are fully aware of the changes your body is going through. Second Trimester Tips: Now is the time to re-evaluate your prenatal care decisions. Sometimes when we find out we are pregnant, there isn’t much thought put into where to get the best care. We want someone to confirm the pregnancy and tell us it’s healthy. So consider these; Who are you going to pay for their expertise in maternity care? Physician or midwife? Have the first few visits with your caregiver been helpful, accepting, informative, supportive, friendly, and comfortable? Will they teach you what you need to know about your second trimester or any trimester? Or will you have to learn on your own? How about the office? Nurses, secretaries, and medical assistants can give off good or bad vibes as well. Have you had to sit in the waiting room for extended periods? Are you more than a number in their practice? Have they called you the wrong name or had the wrong chart information? Do you feel like you could ask your attendant anything that is on your mind? Have you checked out the birthplace or taken a tour? Will you deliver at home, birth center, or hospital? It’s your prerogative to chose whomever and wherever to have your baby, even if you change your mind a few times. This decision will probably be the most critical step in preparing for a less stressful delivery. 2. An obstetrician or midwife is not the only specialist needed. Start putting feelers out for an expert that you’d like to bring baby to, a pediatrician, or family doctor. It could take weeks to interview a few prospects and make a decision. You’ll likely ask fundamental questions like these; What insurance they accept The days & times they’re open Whether they have separate rooms for sick children What emergency plans they have in place If they have privileges at the facility you are delivering Consider bringing a list of far-reaching questions and take notes. Examine the parenting philosophies that you and your partner have discussed. Decide how vital those key points are and talk to the prospective pediatrician. You’re paying their salary, so be critical. Start with some of these; How do they help with breastfeeding questions or problems Talk about the circumcision decision Vaccination schedule and the pros and cons What procedures are a necessary part of this practices routine Whether they do bloodwork in the office Educate Yourself 3. Take time to research a quality prenatal birthing class. Ask around for recommendations. While online courses, videos, and chat groups can give useful information, you’ll have a clearer picture of labor & birth in a class “off” your couch. For one thing, when we pay for a class that forces us to attend at a specific time and day, we listen and absorb the content and get our money’s worth. Secondly, having tangible props and physical exercises to practice together can be a game-changer. Be honest, are you and your partner going to practice breathing and squatting at home? Third, there is something to be said for meeting other couples and sharing the same journey. Creating long-lasting friendships on your break at the water cooler during a birth class can make your transition into parenthood even more fulfilling. In a world full of technology, let’s keep birth at the old fashioned level. 4. If you haven’t started a pregnancy exercise program, now is the time. With more energy, you can gain more benefits. A specific prenatal exercise class will have an instructor who is able to teach you what you need to know in the second trimester and all of the trimesters. If a class is not your thing, try swimming, dancing, walking, hiking, yoga, etc. Make sure to build your quads for birthing and upper body for munchkin holding. By creating your stamina and muscles, the third trimester should be a breeze, and recovering from childbirth will be even smoother. 5. Kegel, kegel, kegel: if you’re not aware of this exercise, practice stopping the flow of urine the next time you’re in the bathroom. Get familiar with this muscle and make it stronger by holding it longer and longer. Compose a habit of doing 100 per day. By making a conscious effort to keep this part of you healthy, you secure a quicker postpartum recovery. Try my favorite 10 rule to live by; ten in the shower ten on your way to work ten at break time ten at lunch, ten at break time ten on your way home from work ten while exercising ten at dinner ten while lounging ten before bed. Teamwork in the Second Trimester 6. Consider who you’d like on your birth team, outside of the birth attendant. How do you picture your birth? Is your partner squeamish? Do you want another family or friend there when you’re delivering? It’s essential to have an advocate with you every step of the way. Your partner or family can be too emotionally involved to be objective in decision making, so start looking
First Trimester Woes
If you’ve been feeling the first trimester woes, take it easy, give yourself permission to take a nap or go to bed early. Understanding the changes your body is going through will help you conquer this first phase. An amazing amount of effort is going on behind the scenes. Not only does your body have to work double time to keep you both alive, but your brain must shift gears into the less logical and more nurturing side. Imagine the magnitude of hormone changes to allow for this. Here’s a peak at the most common first trimester woes: Tired all the time/low energy-those prenatal vitamins may be hard to swallow right now, but can aid in giving you the correct vitamins to give a little more energy. Unfortunately there isn’t a cure for this short phase, but most can muddle through exhaustion and allow your body to rest as often as it tells you. Your baby needs you to shut down often in the beginning for the healthiest chance at developing. Even if you can’t sleep at work, take your breaks out to your car or behind a door and close your eyes (set an alarm first). Even 20 minutes can change the way you feel for the rest of the day and increase chances for a healthier pregnancy. Keep in mind that if you exercise a little every day, you’ll get a deeper, quality sleep. Sore, tender breasts and nipples-from the minute of conception your body is going through a major transformation. The hormones needed for this will cause your nipples to become tender. It’s usually the first obvious sign that you are pregnant. Support your breast with a good quality bra that can grow with you. You probably won’t grow more than a half cup to one cup bigger during pregnancy. Try to avoid chafing fabrics and use a quality natural oil on your body after showers. Hydration helps avoid extra dryness, but you’ll want to become more aware of what’s in your skin cream before using it. One or two natural ingredients is best. This phase is worst in first weeks. You will feel better as the hormones calm down. Nausea-some studies suggest that having morning sickness is a sign that miscarriage is highly unlikely. In most research, the higher the HCG levels (pregnancy hormones) the more likely you will feel nauseous. There is also a misnomer about feeling sick in the morning as this can happen at anytime in the day or night. For 95% of the pregnant population this feeling will wind down by the second trimester as your body acclimates to pregnancy. Some tips to help you through the rough patches; drink water with lemon and ginger upon waking -ideally it is already at your bedside, have crackers or toast before you get out of bed, keep a citrus smell around you during intense times of nausea, keep a quality diet of protein-fruit-veggies, avoid the “standard american diet”, stay hydrated, take prenatal vitamins at night, try cold meals, eat small meals often, be sure to rest/sleep when your body warrants it, talk to other mothers and seek alternative therapies (chiropractor-acupuncture-aromatherapy-kinesiology-reiki etc). For those of you who can’t get a handle on feeling sick all the time, talk to your doctor about medications. Acne-you will feel like that teenager going through puberty again, but this is temporary. As those hormones regulate through pregnancy you should see improvement. In the meantime, try a clean diet, drink plenty of water, avoid chemicals (unnatural makeup) on your skin, cleanse with a mild soap, use tea tree oil or apple cider vinegar as a toner, moisturize with a small amount of coconut oil and take a probiotic. Talk to your doctor if this becomes an ongoing problem. Frequent urination– this is something you will have to accept as part of the pregnancy. In the beginning of pregnancy, it is hormones causing this issue, in time it will be the pressure of the baby. Your uterus is a pear size when not pregnant but quickly grows to the size of a watermelon. That’s a lot of pressure on the bladder. Be sure to get to know where all the bathrooms (in any place) are before you must go. Don’t try to avoid drinking water when you are thirsty, even at night. Dehydration can bring on bigger problems. Be sure to limit caffeine, alcohol, smoking and artificial sweeteners as these will make you need to go more often. Any restrictive clothing around your lower abdomen should be avoided. Those stretchy panties and loose skirts/pants can be your best friend. Emotional turmoil-with those crazy hormones comes the emotional roller coaster of pregnancy. Like the changes you feel around the time of your period. Happy, sad, angry, anxious, regret, ambivalence is just a few of the many shades of feelings you’ll experience. You won’t always feel this “off”, but it may seem extreme at times. Usually the first and last trimesters are the most awkward. Working through any family-relationship issues, career concerns and other stressful aspects of life at this time should quell some of the intensity. If you like to write, this is a wonderful passage of life to express yourself in a journal (or art). Maybe someday you’ll blog about it too! Take great care to find an exceptional prenatal yoga or exercise class, those connections with other moms will help ease the transition. As with anything, sharing with people in the same boat can give clarity, BUT sharing online is not the same! Get out and meet other mothers to be. If you find yourself in a constant state of fight or flight, please talk to your caregiver ASAP. This list is the most popular of first trimester woes but doesn’t mean you won’t experience something else equally annoying to you. Pregnancy can be unique to the individual health issues your body is already working on before conception. Keep your eye on the prize and throw in some humor
An Essure Nightmare
Permanent Birth Control: Warning**Content May be Scary and Graphic to Some People** Let me start at the beginning; In 2008 I had a permanent birth control, called Essure, put into my Fallopian tubes. I was 40 and knew I was done with children. Since I lead a healthy lifestyle, I didn’t see any downside to this-knowing my body could handle it. They are simple t-shaped springs used to create scar tissue and block any sperm from getting to the egg. Boy, was I wrong? From this point on, my body changed completely. Unbeknownst to me the implants are made of nickel and my body was rejecting them. I kept having strange side effects that were not disclosed before surgery. Maybe an allergy to nickel? By 2010, I was fully loaded with autoimmune diseases and Lyme disease (or is it?), so I had the implants partially removed, since doc couldn’t get it all out. Many western and naturopathic physicians were stumped by my symptoms. Only a few mentioned that Essure could be causing these problems. These symptoms were not all female related: Thyroid, exhaustion, psoriasis, yeast, pain, change in menstruation, reduced libido, dry uncomfortable skin, anxiety-panic attacks, joint pain, questionable Pap smears etc. Since I was so young and healthy before the Essure, this came as a big surprise. I dealt with these symptoms while searching for clues on both sides of the medical world for eight more years. Fall of 2017 my gynecologist told me I had a fibroid. I wasn’t worried as I knew many women have them and they go away with menopause, after all I was 49 at the time and assumed it would be soon enough. So, I took some herbal remedies, progesterone and kept my follow up appointments. I never had serious bleeding issues and pain was manageable. Nothing to do but wait to see how this plays out. By spring 2018 I had 2 large fibroids and my uterus was 13cm (9cm is normal). In June they found another and by July another. They were growing in leaps and bounds. I also looked pregnant and felt heavy, like carrying multiple children, not to mention the 20-pound weight gain in less than a year. That June I started bleeding, assuming this was a menstrual period I ignored it. Ten days later I was bleeding more not less, a call to my gynecologist and she says to increase progesterone…so I did. My family and I had a trip to the beach planned a few days later and I was worried I’d be heavily bleeding the entire time. So, doc did an ultrasound to reassure me but found I would indeed be bleeding for a long while as my endometrial lining was very thick. The hotel wouldn’t let us postpone the trip, so we took our chances. Heavy bleeding while at the beach was no picnic and a real challenge as a mom. It was difficult to tend to my needs while keeping up the façade for the sake of my children. Stopping at the lady’s room a hundred times per day was worrying everyone. My husband tried to distract them while I kept trudging the mile walk back and forth from the ocean (the Jersey shore has a lot of sand). He was probably the one who suffered the most mental anguish that week. Sometimes I couldn’t leave the bathroom for an hour or so and he’d be concerned that I passed out in there. The blood clots were as big as my fist and the bleeding was relentless. Another call to doc and again she said, “increase your progesterone.” At this point I’m not sure where to draw the line at “bleeding to death,” but I still (sort of) trust my gynecologist – so I obey. I was also talking to my Naturopathic doctor and midwife while on vacation. They gave me lots of tips with herbal and homeopathic remedies but did suggest that I should be seen by a doctor. Six days at the beach felt like a lifetime in hell. I could feel my iron slipping away. Finally, at home and I realized I was wobbly on my feet, couldn’t sleep and found out what restless leg syndrome was- so we went to ER. My hemoglobin was 8 (I thought it would be a 5) and I received much needed blood transfusions for severe anemia. Incidentally, a 12-15 hemoglobin is normal and 11 days earlier it was 13. Profusely bleeding for 11 days made drastic changes to my body and it doesn’t recover that quickly. I fired my gynecologist for not taking my symptoms serious enough. Clearly, I could’ve been put on medication much sooner to stop the bleeding and avoid 8 more months of anemia. It took 8 weeks to get healthy enough to have my uterus removed. This was not a matter taken lightly but the benefits outweighed the risks. My womb grew 7 healthy babies over 18 years, and I delivered some of them at home in a pool, so surgery was not even something on my radar for healthcare. If anything, I avoided mainstream western medicine when possible, but this was beyond my natural capabilities. Many doctor appointments, second & third opinions, various medications and a multitude of side effects all for something that could have been avoided. My surgery was scheduled on my husband’s birthday and I missed the first few days of my kids starting middle and high school, but the deed was finally done. More mom guilt. My uterus was 20cm (should be 9cm) with 4 large fibroids. This necessitated the need for the midline incision from belly button through pubic bone. Once opened, gynecologist took uterus, 1 ovary and a Fallopian tube. It came as a big surprise that I was missing my other Fallopian tube. Obviously, my Essure surgeon clearly forgot to tell me something. From start to finish, this surgery should’ve been 1.5 hours but mine was 4 hours due to the
