Chronic high doses (400 mg/day to 800 mg/day) of fluconazole (Diflucan, Pfizer) taken by women during the first trimester of pregnancy may be associated with specific birth defects in infants.The risk does not appear to be associated with the single low dose of fluconazole (150 mg) that is used to treat yeast infection.The safety alert is based on several published case reports of birth defects in infants whose mothers were treated with high doses of fluconazole for serious and life-threatening fungal infections during most or all of the first trimester.As a result of these data, the pregnancy category for fluconazole indications has been changed from category C to category D.Providers should counsel patients if the medicine is used during pregnancy or if a patient becomes pregnant while taking this medicine.
Women with preeclampsia who lost even a small amount of weight before their next pregnancy were less likely to develop preeclampsia again.Preeclampsia is a serious condition that can develop during mid- or late pregnancy affecting the health of both mother and child with risk of seizures or stroke if not controlled. It affects between 5 to 8 percent of all pregnant women.Women might first notice abnormal swelling, headaches and vision changes, but it is clinically characterized by high blood pressure and protein in the urine.Women, who are overweight or obese, are at greater risk for this condition.Preeclampsia Prevention:-(1) Make your “diet” a lifestyle change. During pregnancy, it’s really easy to fall into the trap of eating whatever you want, whenever you want. You’ll have to work at resetting your eating attitude. Start to make healthier choices and make them permanent lifestyle changes.(2) If you’re breastfeeding, focus on being healthy and adding whole grains, fruits and vegetables to your diet. Ditch those empty calories of soda and sweets.(3) Walk, jump, swim, bike, do cartwheels. Whatever gets you moving helps burn calories, increase energy, and keeps you distracted from snacking, watching TV, and other stationary activities.(4) Lack of sleep can curb weight loss. So just do it, sleep when the baby sleeps.(5) Don’t lose weight while pregnant. Weight gain during pregnancy is necessary, just talk to your obstetrician to know how much.
Pregnancy gives an immense joy to would be mother. But with pregnancy comes many health related issues. One of the most common issues is low hemoglobin in the blood during pregnancy. During the pregnancy, in order to cater to the need of the fetus and the mother herself, a lot of hemoglobin is needed by the body. Unfortunately the volume of the blood increases during this time, but it decreases the hemoglobin. A decrease in hemoglobin beyond a certain degree may cause anemia which can result into further complications for the mother and the fetus.In order to supplement hemoglobin, a pregnant woman is advised to take at least 28 to 30 mg of iron through supplements or diet. A pregnant woman must get her blood checked regularly for the hemoglobin count.
If the levels are marginally low, doctors would prescribe iron medicines to shoot up the hemoglobin level to normal. Otherwise also the multivitamins that are generally taken during pregnancy do contain iron. One must also take care that the diet has enough iron rich food such as leafy green vegetables, dry fruits, seafood, lean meats, whole grains and cereals.
Few symptoms that are visible due to low hemoglobin during pregnancy are pale skin, frequent headaches from mild to severe, dizziness and unable to concentrate on any work, fatigue and weakness all the time, rapid and irregular heartbeats, irritability, shortness of breath, a tickly feeling in the palms and feet also a feeling of numbness in the feet and hands, slight chest ache, temperature of the body tends to be lower than normal, and pica, a condition where pregnant woman feels like eating strange things like mud, clay, paint and sometimes ice.
