Archive for July, 2008

The wonderful experience of conceiving and delivering a baby is the most sought after lifetime aspiration in any woman’s life in your life also the mother-child relationship could turn out to be the best ever one. The moment you come to know that you are pregnant, your happiness will be in leaps and bounds and you will also start gathering all the possible information about pregnancy and childbirth. When it comes to information on pregnancy, there are lots of things that you must take into account and one such information is the use of ultrasound in pregnancies.

What Is an Ultrasound

Ultrasound is a technique used in medical world for various diagnosis purposes and in the pregnancy ultrasound high frequency sound waves will be directed towards your womb to analyze the growing fetus. The frequency of these sound waves will fall under a range of 3.5 to 7 megahertz and once these sound waves reach your womb they will get deflected and return to the device thus projecting an electronic image of the fetus that could be seen on a computer screen.

With the help of such pregnancy ultrasound, you can see your baby’s overall shape and figure including few movements and the images can be made use to assess the condition of your baby and its position for any further medical intervention.

The very advantage of these ultrasound waves is that they will not cause any harm both to the mother and the developing baby and hence using pregnancy ultrasound is really safe and secure. Normally ultrasound waves are high range waves beyond the range of any human hearing and hence they could be directed or focussed on specific areas for better results without damaging any tissues.

Today, besides detecting pregnancy abnormalities, ultrasound is also put to use for exploring inner side of your body with a prime aim of identifying abnormal cysts or other abnormal formations inside your viscera. Due to the capabilities of using ultrasound to scan even a very small area, today doctors are using it for their regular diagnosis to identify complications in abdomen and other areas of your body.

When to Use A Pregnancy Ultrasound

Initially you can use pregnancy ultrasound to know the age of your fetus and with this your doctor or the obstetrician can really see your baby and get a first hand information on your pregnancy and your baby.

Further, with the help of pregnancy ultrasound you can get to know more about your fetus and determine its condition on the lines of its position, any complications, etc., and make use of the information for further analysis and treatment. When you are being monitored with the assistance of a pregnancy ultrasound then you can be assured of a safe pregnancy and childbirth, as any emergencies could be handled appropriately in time.

With advancement in science, today you have better pregnancy ultrasound techniques that could give you a three dimensional picture of your baby and you can even see your baby in its true colors. With a pregnancy ultrasound you can even judge how your baby will look like once is born and it is sure that such techniques can further enhance your already wonderful pregnancy experience.

The perils of smoking and the greater perils of smoking during pregnancy are really indescribable however an earnest effort is made here to make you understand why it is detrimental to your growing baby if you smoke during your pregnancy. Most of the time, your smoking during pregnancy will precipitate as birth defects in your baby when it is born and when you come to know about this, you may possible ask why then pregnant mothers continue to smoke?

The possible answer to your question is that it is due to misinformation and ignorance about the ill effects of nicotine on their unborn babies. However, the number of pregnant mothers who keep smoking during their pregnancy has come down in the last decade due to the percolation of awareness. Further, one more possible reason for such a drastic reduction in the number of pregnant women smoking is due to the overall reduction in number of smokers right from the year 1960 where it was estimated that almost half of the entire population was smoking.

Looking Back in History

In order to understand the real bad effects of smoking during pregnancy better, you have to necessarily take a peek at the history of cigarettes and the effects of nicotine on people in yesteryears. In those days, cigarette smoking was not considered to be harmful at all and this notion even paved way for the then World War I soldiers getting cigarettes in war fields so as to help them get their stress and anxiety relieved.

Until 1960, history has records for you to know that even baseball professionals endorsed cigarette products and only after the year 1960, the real dangers of cigarettes and nicotine products started surfacing making the government and people realize that their decades long habit could spell disaster in many forms. And in the next 30 years, the entire population of the world have understood the ill effects of smoking, but unfortunately smoking still continue to be the major killer in many parts of the world today.

So, the reason for pregnant women who still keep smoking during their pregnancy is mainly due to misinformation and ignorance, as they are not aware of the ill effects of their habit that could spell disaster on their babies. If you could just wind your clock back, in early 50’s you can even see cigarettes being marketed as a healthy weight loss product and when such being the case, of course the wrong one, whom do you think will stop smoking?

However, when the potential dangers of cigarettes were made known, cigarette smoking has already taken a deep root in the culture of people by that time thus making quitting smoking difficult for people including pregnant mothers. Further, as the pangs of cigarette is so addictive that people, despite their knowledge about the ill effects, continued smoking only to contract more diseases and put their babies at greater risks.

Though, today the number of smokers who smoke during their pregnancy is declining the habit is still daunting the medical experts and putting both the pregnant mothers and their babies at high risks.