Reading Time: 7 minutes Our takeaways: Breasts are constantly changing throughout our lives due to hormone fluctuations. The size of our breasts does not affect the quantity or quality of our milk. Some people may notice nipple discharge during their second trimester. For others, this may not occur until the third trimester or after labor. While our Read more…
Reading Time: 5 minutes Our takeaways: COVID-19 may have a say in your ovulation timing. Ovulation tests can’t guarantee a pregnancy, but they can help you predict what your fertile days are with higher confidence given the uncertainties presented by the bigger environment. Different manufacturers of LH tests have very different recommendations on the best Read more…
Reading Time: 6 minutes Our takeaways: Start thinking about your ideal maternity hospital early because the learning curve is steeper, the medical system is complex and other factors might influence your decisionmaking. The maternity hospital plays at least an equally important role as your practiioner (i.e: obstetrician or midwife) in your overall laboring and Read more…
Reading Time: 8 minutes Our takeaways: FDA revised the pregnancy and breastfeeding labeling format on prescription and biological drugs to replace the old A, B, C, D and X categories but labeling for over-the-counter (OTC) medicines are not affected by this change. While fewer than 10% of medications have enough information to determine fetal Read more…
Reading Time: 6 minutes Our takeaways: The labor and delivery process differs by person and perhaps that’s why the pregnancy literature doesn’t seem to be consistent in defining the stages. A process flow with general reference points (i.e: cervix dilation, contraction frequency, and duration) for each labor and delivery stage would be helpful for Read more…
Reading Time: 4 minutes Our takeaways: Wait until the day of or after a missed period to do pregnancy test(s) to avoid unnecessary stress due to low(er) accuracy. There are two common types of hCG tests: qualitative (i.e: FIRST RESPONSE™) and quantitative (i.e: Clearblue Digital Ultra Early Pregnancy Test). Quantitative pregnancy tests use mIU/ml Read more…
Reading Time: 4 minutes Our takeaways: A pregnancy lifestyle vision board helps parents-to-be envision their lifestyles during pregnancy, foresee changes, and adapt & adjust in advance. It also serves as a collection of the knowledge you’ve learned, the decisions you’ve made, and the guardrails that you will mostly stick to when you actually get Read more…
Reading Time: 3 minutes Our takeaways: Many Asian vegetables are rich in folate/folic acid, which can expand your folate intake food sources or provide alternatives for raw veggie intolerant people. Flowering might impact the folate richness of the same vegetable (i.e: choy sum). If there’s no Asian stores around, you might be able to Read more…
Reading Time: 4 minutes Our takeaways: While folic acid is important, don’t forget about other pregnancy vitamins and minerals such as calcium, choline, iron, omega-3 and vitamin D for healthy baby AND mom! Choline plays a role in your fetus’s brain development. It’s important to get choline from your diet because it is not Read more…
Reading Time: 4 minutes Our takeaways: Pick your dream birthing team members whose philosophies align with yours, and more importantly, whom you can see yourself working with in a physically- and/or emotionally-challenging condition. Expect potential changes in the dream team as the pregnancy and your maternal and fetal health evolve. While forming your birthing Read more…