What Are The Problems That Can Develop During
Pregnancy?
Practically as soon as you find out you are pregnant your
mind wonders over a million problems that can happen to you or
to your baby during pregnancy. Your doctor and other medical
team can help to put your mind at ease with most of what your
mind can think up. There are some problems that may occur that
you will have to deal with. Most of the problems of pregnancy
are manageable with a treatment plan devised by your doctor,
obstetrician or midwife.
Some of the more commonly occurring pregnancy problems are
bad breath of pregnancy, skin discoloration (pregnancy mask),
stretch marks, hot flashes, acne of pregnancy, discomforts of
pregnancy such as back pain and gastric reflux, diabetes of
pregnancy, premature labor, hypertension of pregnancy and birth
defects that affect the baby's growth or threatens the life of
the baby.
Prenatal visits are designed to monitor your health and the
health of your developing baby. The monitoring is done by
weight checks, blood and urine lab work, ultrasound
examinations, blood pressure monitoring, measuring the height
of the uterus, internal examinations and specialized pregnancy
testing to check on your health or your baby's such as stress
tests.
Bad breath can happen as a result of pregnancy hormones or
not having the time or energy to follow good dental health. If
you experience a sudden occurrence of bad breath you should
consider if there have been any changes in lifestyle, diet or
your health that may contribute to bad breath. If this
assessment doesn't reveal the cause of the bad breath a trip to
the dentist may help to reveal the source of the bad breath.
Many women complain of a “metal-taste” in their mouth as a sign
of early pregnancy.
Something that concerns practically every pregnant woman is
the possibility of developing stretch marks. Statistically more
than half of all pregnant women develop some stretch marks
during pregnancy. Stretch marks are also called "striae
gravidarum". They may vary in color but typically start out
light red or pinkish in color if your normal pigment is light
and if your regular skin pigment is dark than the stretch marks
will start out looking lighter than your normal skin color.
Stretch marks fade over time and become silvery in color. Most
stretch marks happen in the last trimester of pregnancy when a
woman gains most of her pregnancy weight. Stretch marks happen
because of rapid weight gain or rapid weight loss. These marks
are not painful and will not harm you. Whether or not you get
stretch marks and how many you get if you get any depends on
how elastic your skin is. Genetic make-up determines how
elastic your skin is. If your mom got stretch marks during
pregnancy you have a good chance of getting stretch marks too
due to heredity.
One thing you can do to affect the stretch mark outcome is
to be conservative about how much pregnancy weight you gain.
Eat nutritious foods in balanced portions. If you overeat at
every meal, snack a lot and drink lots of juice than you will
gain a lot of weight and run a higher risk of getting stretch
marks. The better nourished your body is the better able the
skin will be able to stretch. The better hydrated (the more
water you drink) the better able your skin will stretch.
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