h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Thanks I am reading th ivillage Due in March messageboard and there are so many women on there that have had miscarriages - I'm just paranoid.

Oh, and did I say I wasn't actually throwing up? Well now I am Feeling a bit sorry for myself if truth be told.

Throwing up is good. No, wait. Obviously, throwing up is miserable as heck. But it shows all the hormones are working at proper strength and the little bean is firmly stuck in there. My sister was never even vaguely nauseous, not once, and spent from week 5 (when she found out) to week 20 panicking that she wasn't really pregnant. At week 20 wee niece was kicking her vigorously in the bladder every ten minutes. Which helped. Hah. Her midwife also told her that the incidence of miscarriage is actually going DOWN year by year, but far more women are prepared to talk about it now, so it seems paradoxically more common.

I'm sorry you feel rotten. Try to remember it's a good sign, in case that makes the inside of your head (if not the inside of your tummy) feel any better. And do you have any ginger tea to hand?

I do, fortunately it is one thing that tastes ok in both directions...

I also wonder if a lot of the women on the ivillage board this early (weeks 4-6) are ones who were already using the site for support after something had gone wrong before - so there is likely to be a higher number of people there that have had problems in the past. Still, a couple have said hello after their +ve test and have already said goodbye. It is so frightening!

I know it is a good sign that I'm being sick, but really, ugh.

I don't have any advise to offer. Just lurking so I'll know what's up with you and Sol.

Gaviscon? And there was me thinking grimly I wasn't to be taking anything for the duration. Right *rubs hands together*

The website I'be been looking at: http://www.babycentre.co.uk/
recommends swimming as one of its three things to do for exercise (Walking and yoga are the others) so it must be industrially chlorinated swimming pools or something. I was going to go back next week too as I think The Pea deserves a mother who doesn't collapse while walking up the stairs in the 9th month. Or perhaps the third. Still, I shall be taking your advice Ag and ringing the people up first.

They've also got some good advice about flying and the wearing of support stockings while doing so.

Kelli (and Sol),

I know that you're avid for news about the wonderful events coming soon, but *please* take some of the things you're reading on the commercial sites with liberal grains of salt! A lot of those sites, while their hearts are in the right place, are also appealing to the dramatic, in a bid to increase their readership. Good news (or at least the less-sensational) seems to get pushed to the back of the line, these days.

It would be more reliable and less nerve-wracking to read the non-profit organization or the NHS information offered, first. At least, you might get a less "ratings-oriented" viewpoint. Then, by all means, check out iVillage...

Just my ...



SC

I've mostly been reading the message boards on iVillage rather than the articles - those are real people who aren't trying to sell me anything and their focus is the same as mine. I'm stunned by just how many of them (seems like everyone posting there!) have had miscarriages. The only other things I've read that have really freaked me out have been on h2g2 - the alcohol in pregnancy entry, particularly the attached discussions where you get the impression that one glass of wine before you even knew you were pregnant will result in some syndrome or other, and the discussion in the PR thread about swimming pools!

Sol - if you are planning to go to antenatal classes, and like the sound of the NCT ones (you have to pay for them but lots of people have said that they are much better than the hospital ones) then I have been told to get my name down for them right away as they fill up really quickly apparently. Dr and two friends all said to drop them a line right away. http://www.nct.org.uk/

I doubt that this will make either of you feel any better (congrats, Sol! ) but I saw this and thought of you: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5168882.stm

Thanks J'au!

Mine is kind of low level nausea all the time with, it seems, throwing up if my blood sugar gets too low - yesterday's episode occurred just before lunchtime about three hours after I had last eaten anything. I felt *much* better when I'd had lunch ( I really fancied chips, although I ate a salad) and then stared feeling off again at about 4.30. Today I am constantly munching on peas from my garden and that seems to be staving it off for now...

I don't know how this fits with the article though! I don't have enough sugar in the system so I empty my stomach?! Ho hum

See, this is why I did my degree in physics rather than biology Bodies are weird.

A friend of mine is due in December and she's had the kind of sickness you describe, I think, so you're not alone (although I don't know what her response to low blood sugar is).

When I was pregnant with #2, I had specific instructions from my perinatologist to consume 1 glass of wine. The circumstances were that the baby needed to have a blood transfusion in utero at 21 weeks. There was much tension all around as the minimum age at which they can do this procedure is 20 weeks. Anyhow, after all was successfully completed, the told us to go out to dinner on the way home and be sure to have a glass of wine... both Mr M and me!

She had 3 more transfusions done before delivery and turned out just fine. The reason for them was for a blood incompatablility similar to the rh factor you hear about.

Kelli, I get low blood sugar quite often - well, less often now that I'm aware of it and make sure I don't go for hours and hours without so much as a snack. But it almost always makes me feel thoroughly sick (as well as dizzy and weepy). Incredibly totally stupid move on behalf of the body, but apparantly a normal one. Perhaps body is forcing us to stick to eating something plain and carbohydratey to get blood sugar right back up right now, rather than wasting time and more energy trying to digest fats and proteins.

And of course, when growing a whole new person, plus placenta and umbilical cord and amniotic sack and extra uterine muscle, from scratch, your blood sugar gets far more depleted far more often.

Witty - during all three of her pregnancies my Mum was also told to have a glass of wine or beer every day, during breast-feeding especially. Suggest that in Britain and everyone behaves as if you were suggesting burying the infant up to the neck in coal for a month.

Actually, there apparantly is an Italian saying - for breast-feeding Mums - that "a glass of redwine gives calm mothers and calm babies"

Even though I'm of the wrong gender to experience any ill effects of pregnancy, I very well know the low blood sugar effects. Right on the spot with that description, Ag. Especially on the dizzyness - I could have saved Bob knows how much money in beer over the years by speculating a little more in lowering my blood sugar for almost the same effect

*Congratulates Kelli*

I've been nervous about mentioning the risk of miscarriage after knowing that you both were pregnant - because it seemed so morbid.

I know the misscarriage thing is scary and it seems to be more common these days, but approximatly 1 in 4 pregnancies will end in miscarriage, but many many of these are before the woman has even noticed she is pregnant, the vast majority within the first 12 weeks.

In the past a lot of these women wouldn't have known that they were pregnant - pregnancy tests are a lot more available earlier than they were before.

There's no firm evidence that anything you can do will reduce the risk of miscarriage, most miscarriages are due to a chromosomal abnormablity that's incompatable with life.

The vast majority of women who miscarry will become pregnant again and go on to have a healthy child.

But you're nearly out of the 12 weeks aren't you? And morning sickness is a sign of still being pregnant.

**

For both of you. I've got my fingers crossed and I'm really hoping that it works out for both of you

Thnaks for the cuddle Z -it is still six and a half loooong weeks until I hit week 12 and get a scan where they'll be able to see if there really is a baby in there. Even then you aren't really sure it'll be ok - seems like I know more people of my age that have had something go wrong then had everything gone right. I guess this means I'll be in a permanently anxious state until roughly week 40 - and then for the next 40 years or so....

Ditto.

Pregnancy, I've decided, is for the young and brainless. And those with iron stomachs.

Aaargh. Women's hour is going on about foetal alcohol syndrome and how badly damaged the babies can be if you drink in the first few weeks. Gah! Not that I drank loads before I knew I was pregnant, but I did have a glass or so of wine a couple of times.

They are saying that if you start trying for a baby you should just give up booze totally.

Now I'm really, really worried

>>Pregnancy, I've decided, is for the young and brainless. And those with iron stomachs.<<



Like me first time around. . .

Well it all came out well, and so did the two following. With neither of them did I do anything special during pregnancy - except cutting down on smoking and alcohol. And I forgot to go to pre-natal exercise. Actually I couldn't be bothered.

You why not pretend to be young and brainless and have other interests than listening to all the bad and difficult experiences. If they come for you, that will be the time to tackle them.

What I came to say was. Don't worry, be happy. You'll be fine, both of you. Don't suffer on beforehand.

Pregnancy is not a desease.

No matter how much or how qualified you worry now you cannot change what has happened allready and what will happen biologically. Just as you cannot by will- or musclepower stop your heart pumping blood. Trust your body and biological chemistry. I'm sure they are programmed to do their best - and the pregnancy will run it's course whether you worry or are happy.

I believe that the way you can help your body is to use the proper fuel (food), keep it toptuned (adequate exercise) and send the body and the child good vibes by being happy and having positive thoughts. Actually the way we should live all the time for our own and our fellow humans' sake.

Children have been born for ages and are born every second, and in our part of the world the economics, the state of health, wellfare and technical support is the best.

Enjoy and go on with life as usual, try and find your balance as a woman, citizen and mother. Kiss and cuddle your husbands, respectively, they probably will feel a bit left out while you are pregnant and during the months you are going to breastfeed. They need attention as they can only have the intellectual emotions while you have the physical as well.

And ally all the skills develope when you need them - except for teenagers. .

tartaronne

Bloody women's hour "we don't want to alarm pregnant women, but any drinking before you know you're pregnant will give your child brain damage..." or words to that effect.

I am most worried that I will miscarry, then that I'll do some bad thing and hurt my little bean, then that something really awful will happen late on. J, on the other hand, is most worried about things that are undetectable in scans, like autism.

I guess that translates as me being worried that I won't have a baby at all, and him being worried about having a baby that isn't 'perfect'.