Women's Health Blog

You are excited to be pregnant and having a baby. You start planning already and wonder if you will have a sweet little girl and a sports-playing boy. And then, the worst thing imaginable happens: you have a miscarriage. Now what? Having a miscarriage is an incredibly difficult experience on women and couples. It is both a physical and emotional experience. It also is incredibly difficult to be pregnant for weeks, or even months, and then, all of a sudden, not pregnant. There are many questions that many women and couples want answers to after suffering a miscarriage: Why did I have a miscarriage? Did I cause this to happen and could I have prevented this? When can I start trying to get pregnant again?

Although it is not widely known, single miscarriages are relatively common, with approximately 20-30% of all pregnancies ending in miscarriage, typically prior to reaching 12 weeks. The incidence of having multiple miscarriages is significantly lower, with just 1% of women having three or more miscarriages. Typically, after suffering a miscarriage a doctor will not do much as far as treatment, unless you are determined to suffer from recurrent miscarriages. Otherwise, it is pretty unlikely you will suffer from another miscarriage so trying to conceive again without additional treatment is recommended.

Despite this type of advice, there are some things you can do following a miscarriage prior to your attempts to conceive again. In doing so, you may end up being able to conceive more quickly and have a better chance at preventing a second miscarriage.

One thing you can do is see your doctor and ask if there are any blood tests that they can take in your situation. Some such tests which may be relevant are thyroid disorders, clotting disorders, or any potential genetic disorders. Another thing you can do is see if your diet and/or lifestyle could use an overhaul of any kind. Keep toxins out of your diet and environment, and be aware of the environment around you.

Making sure to keep your hormones stabilized is also a key in helping conceive and avoid miscarriages. If your periods are not on a regular cycle, getting your hormones normalized may be necessary. You can do such things as improve your diet, exercise regularly, modify your lifestyle as necessary (such as quit smoking and get plenty of sleep), and reduce stress to assist in this endeavor.

You might also want to consider being tested for various genitor-urinary infections. Although many doctors may not consider this discussing preparing for pregnancy or prevention of miscarriages, it has been found that such infections have had an impact on many miscarriages. Nobody wants to ever have to go through a miscarriage. So it is important to remember that your body needs to be in the best condition possible before becoming pregnant so that it can see this amazing life all the way to the birth day.

Disease based Insomnia:

A number of diseases pose problems in getting good sleep. Proper Treatment of the disease restores good sleep. Following are certain very frequently encountered diseases which affect the natural sleep of women:
Acid reflux, Arthritis, Asthma, Back pain, Epilepsy, Fibro-myalgia, Multiple sclerosis and Parkinsonia diseases.

Pregnancy

During Pregnancy and after child birth there are extreme changes in woman’s body due to additional task of child bearing initiated supported by the regular secretions of endocrine hormones. These changes are physical, hormonal and emotional. All of them contribute to insomnia in the woman. Although it is night outside, but the fetus in the uterus is growing day and night. Many times movements of the fetus in the uterus disturb sleep of the woman.

Majority of pregnant women feel fatigue during day time although they get increased sleep, which is not normal. As the pregnancy progresses the refreshing properties of their sleep becomes worse day by day. Presence of Physical uneasiness and increased awakening become a common occurrence. The onset third trimester is very hard to bear with increased sleepless ness.

It has been observed that snoring gets increased when there is pregnancy. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) gets developed with the progress of pregnancy. The alarm signs of OSA become highly felt with gasping, choking noise and pause of breathing. There are many chances for OSA to show up in a woman who has a higher body mass index (BMI) before pregnancy.

Two other sleep disorders that are more common during pregnancy are restless legs syndrome (RLS) and sleep related leg cramps. RLS affects nearly 25 percent of pregnant women. RLS may be related to low iron. So women who must take iron supplements during pregnancy may have a lower risk of RLS. Leg cramps occur in about 40 percent of pregnant women. They tend to go away after delivery.

Menopause

The hormonal and physical changes that occur during and after menopause can affect a woman’s sleep. Sleep disturbances are more common, and sleep quality can decline. Insomnia related to menopause often occurs.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is much more common in postmenopausal women. This increase may be due in part to menopause-related weight gain. But it also appears to be hormone related. Estrogen seems to help protect women against OSA.

Fibromyalgia often develops due to menopause. Eighty percent of people with fibromyalgia are women. It peaks between the ages of 50 and 70 years. Widespread pain related to fibromyalgia can make it hard to sleep well. Restless legs syndrome (RLS) and sleep related leg cramps are more common as women age. But this increase is not linked directly to menopause.

Sleeplessness linked with a disease is discussed below:

Majority of women are having a specific sleep disorder, which goes undiagnosed and untreated:

Insomnia

Insomnia is a disease related to a person’s difficulty in going to sleep or remaining asleep. The person gets up much before enjoying full sleep and lacks freshness. It is a very usual sleep disorder found usually in women due to depression, work related stress or anxiety.

Obstructive sleep apnea

There is discontinuation of breathing occurring when tissue behind throat looses muscular strength causing block of the airway during sleep. It can also be associated with heart failure, hypertension, stroke and diabetes.

Snoring

Snoring is caused during sleep, when breathing makes vibration of tissue behind throat. Habit based snoring is found in 25 % of women. Regular strong snoring is a warning signal of Obstructive Sleep Apnea.
Restless legs syndrome

RLS pertains to excessive feeling for moving legs. This increases during night or the moment one lies or sits still and is stops after some walking. It is twice more in women as compared to men. Normal sleep gets disturbed.

Sleep related eating disorder

SRED pertains to repeatedly eating some thing or drinking after getting up at night. It occurs in partial awakening state majority of the sufferers are women.

Leg cramps

Leg cramps during sleep is more commonly found in women. There is sudden and intensive feeling of pain of leg.

Nightmares

It is a horrible dream causing a wake up from sleep. A nightmare disorder develops if there are repeated episodes of nightmares causing disturbed emotions. Repeated episodes results in sleep evading. It has also linkage to depression and suicidal tendencies. Nightmares are more frequent in women than in men.

Un-planned Second pregnancy happens quite frequently in young couples and is a cause of tension because the first child is still milk feeding and has not reached an age to self manage any of the nursing functions. The mother is worried how to bring up the two children of small age. Some times the budget of the couple does not permit to have two children within a period of just say 2 years.

Momentary Feelings:

Such a situation is very embarrassing even just to talk of, actual condition is much more complex. The information, which one learns in the next month of missed period makes one difficult to believer or accept. There are very wild thoughts coming in mind what to do of this pregnancy, to carry it through or go for its termination. One parent proposes of carrying through, whereas the second parent insists for termination. For months no decision can be arrived at and the pregnancy proceeds to be delivered.

Coping With the Situation:

First Step: Crying Over the Spilt Milk although it is not worth while, but it helps in realizing and releasing any fear associated with the unplanned pregnancy. It is necessary to make your head clear and think in the right perspective.
.
Step 2: Since your First Pregnancy experiences are fresh in your mind, use it to plan your time based needs and start making your purchases. Since every thing to be purchased is fresh in your mind it can be best made use of.

Step 3: keeping your emotions under check is very important. It relate to your future child and father of the child. If emotions are not dealt with properly, you can lose your husband as well as the future child, because high emotions can lead to stress and living under stress can lead to depression and miscarriage.

Step 4: Forget the chapter of Unplanned Pregnancy. You cannot blame any one just carry through and be more careful for the future. The entire thought process has to be changed.

Step 5: Your unplanned Pregnancy can act as thought provoking affair and with the situation you are in you can organize a support group of members, where similar experiences can be shared among the members. A support group on this topic is great step to cope with the unwanted pregnancy stresses and in fact you can help many families to plan their conception plans and enjoy living with joy and a purpose.

Pregnancy is very tricky it happens, when one does not want and does not happen when one desperately tries to get pregnant. So planning is a bit out of reach most of the times. When the woman after 4 to 5 years period of marriage fails to conceive, it becomes mandatory that medical help available should be sought.

Dial a Help:

Simple to complex methods are available like intrauterine insemination, hormone therapy for both the husband and lady after ultrasound investigation of the lady and sperm count and motility of the sperms, which can be determined by laboratory checkup of the semen sample.

About 20 years ago ‘test tube baby’ was hot news, now it is a reality. If other methods available fail, one can try test tube baby to at least have a baby to leave as your heir. The procedure is called in vitro fertilization, the objective is to get the egg fertilized in the laboratory and then to implant in the uterus. Hormone therapy is given to increase the success rate of pregnancy. The initial procedure has been improved upon and called Assisted Reproductive Technology. This new technology has successfully employed on a large scale.

The Success Button:

There is relatively better success rate in the procedures being practiced. Depending on the individual couple age and other favorable factors, there are evidences of success in the application of procedures.

Obese Mother & Child Health:

There are reports that child born to obese mothers are likely to have major birth defects as compared to child born to mothers having standard weight as per the Age height relation chart. Hence it is necessary that mother’s panning for a pregnancy should shed their excess weight as a pre-pregnancy measure.

Over weight Women have an increased risk during delivery of the child endangering the life of the child or mother.

It is an established fact that pregnancy related to obesity, can have many diseases affecting the health of the woman during the pregnancy period like Diabetes, high blood pressure, increase in blood clot in the vessels, increased viscosity of blood etc. I t is well known fact that obesity in pregnancy can lead to pregnancy related diabetes, high blood pressure, an increased risk of blood clots, a higher risk of infection and a risky Cesarean Operation.

Obese Mothers & Child at Birth Risks:

Child born to obese mothers have a tendency to have a large size causing difficulty in normal delivery often results into their death on birth.

An obese mother gives birth to child with birth defects like ill formed neural tube, spina bifida, various heart defects, cleft in the lip and palate, and defects of brain development. Birth defects are responsible birth of a dead fetus or death of the infant shortly after birth.

Birth Related Diseases:

One of the possible causes of birth defects in obese mothers is undiagnosed diabetes in them.

The Second Next possible reason can be nutritional deficiency during pregnancy like deficiency of folic acid. It is difficult to have a proper ultrasound image of an obese woman and in early pregnancy period fetal abnormality can not be determined.

Pregnancy requires that the pregnant lady should have best Physical and Emotional condition before conception. To achieve this, the lady should take nutritious food, keep the weight under check. Pregnancy counseling should always be availed and be careful about nutrition and weight under check.