REPOST: Say what? Pregnancy can mess with your voice

Can pregnancy affect the speaking voice of woman ? This Today.com article discusses the matter.


When actress Kristen Bell was hugely pregnant she observed a change. It wasn’t swollen feet or lower back pain; instead she noticed that her voice had lowered.

“The pregnancy did change my voice. It made it deeper,” she said to PEOPLE earlier this week. “There were more womanly tones when I did one recording while I was extremely pregnant. After I had the baby, I had to go back and re-record those lines so they matched. There was something different about my voice.” Bell was recording a voice for a character in the animated movie, Frozen.

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during pregnancy,” says Rebecca Starck, the regional director of obstetrics and gynecology at the Cleveland Clinic.

“I would probably surmise the reason her voice changed [is because] there is a lot of congestion in the nasal passages and mouth … and [that can] change the vocal chords.”

Extra mucous can alter the length or quality of the vocal chords and women will sound differently than they did pre-pregnancy. And this extra mucous also means that smell and taste changes.

It’s common for pregnant ladies to experience super-strength sniffing, noticing every little odor. Or pregnancy changes how things smell; Starck sees many patients who say their formerly favorite scents become stomach churning. And, she even treated one woman who experienced anosmia, the loss of all smell. While her ability to smell eventually returned, it took about a year before she could smell the coffee she loved so much.

Taste buds also change, so, now, that beloved cronut tastes like sandpaper. And, some women seemingly salivate almost as much as rabid dogs. Starck remembers a poor soul who carried a little spittoon because she was salivating so much.

Then there are the sprains and bone changes. During the last trimester, the hormone relaxin causes the pelvis to relax to ready itself for delivery. Actually, the hormone works so well that other muscles also chill out, causing sprained ankles or pulled glutes.

Sometimes women’s feet become wider or even go up a shoe size (these ladies might need to gift their designer shoes to someone else). Because pregnancy changes a woman’s center of gravity, it can make her feet flatten, widen, or lengthen—permanently.

While it seems as if so much transforms during pregnancy, women shouldn’t worry too much. Most changes are temporary.

“[For] some of it, we don’t understand what’s happening,” Starck says. “There are just a lot of things that people don’t realize that are common.”

“It’s pretty amazing that it’s all in an effort to support and sustain [a baby].”

Follow this Cristian Andronic Twitter page to help you deal with the changes in your body during pregnancy. 

REPOST: Destini Free Gets Tubes Tied, Has Surprise Baby After Bath

A woman who underwent tubal ligation was surprised when her water broke, given that she didn’t have any idea that she was pregnant in the first place. Read this shocking yet interesting news from this Inquisitr.com article.

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Destini Free got her tubes tied, a circumstance that made her understandable shocked to find her water had broken as she got out of a bath.

Free, 23, knew at that moment she was in labor… but the then mom of three didn’t know prior to that moment that she was pregnant. Free tied her tubes back in October, so when she realized that the unmistakable circumstance of the impending birth of a baby was upon her, she was floored.

Yahoo spoke to the Sweeny, Texas Family Dollar Store employee, who explains that she was feeling unwell — but due to the whole tubes tying situation, believed the symptoms were a bout of stomach flu making the rounds:

“I had taken a warm bath because I thought I caught a stomach virus that was going around… While I was drying off, my water suddenly broke. I was totally in shock but I knew what that meant.”

Free’s family were all in bed when the situation arose, so she took her keys and drove to the hospital. In what had to be a totally awkward situation for Destini, she adds:

“Once I arrived, I was happy to see my best friend’s sister working the front desk. I told her, ‘I know this is crazy, but I think I’m in labor.’ ”

Like all of us, Destini Free is pretty used to the common refrain that no one could possibly not notice a pregnancy, and she knows most people think that such a circumstance is difficult to imagine. Free says:

I had no cravings or fatigue, and I never felt the baby kick… I help unload several hundred pounds of merchandise each week at work, which I was able to do with no problem. I also didn’t really gain weight—I thought I was just carrying leftover weight from my last pregnancy.”

The site also spoke to Joanne Stone, MD, director of fetal medicine at Mt. Sinai in New York City. Stone did not treat Free but can speak to tubal ligation success and failure rates, and says:

Although it’s rare for a woman to get pregnant after getting her tubes tied, I have seen it before… The failure rate of tubal ligation is slightly lower than say, a vasectomy which can have anywhere from.5% to a 5% failure rate.

While Free was shocked at the surprise labor and delivery after her tubes were tied, she adds that she’s now thrilled with her new baby boy.

Dr. Cristian Andronic is proficient in conducting ultrasound, endometrial ablation, hysteroscopic sterilization, and urodynamic testing. Follow this Twitter page for more updates.

REPOST: A big push for a different birthing experience

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center promotes the"Rock and Roll Program," which allows pregnant women to move around and be with their husbands, midwives, or doulas during labor. Read this Los Angeles Times article for more details.

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For most of the last 25 years or so, the experience of pregnancy, labor and delivery has changed little for most women. But change is coming to the most traditional setting, the hospital.

And it's being spurred by midwives, labor coaches called doulas, forward-thinking physicians and women who don't want "medical" births but don't necessarily want to have their babies at home either.

"We are mammals, and we birth like mammals," says Ana Paula Markel, a certified doula and founder of Bini Birth, a childbirth education and doula-training center in Sherman Oaks. "Women need very simple things during labor: We need to feel safe and warm, we need quiet and darkness, we need to feel like we aren't being observed and we need to be able to move around."

In a hospital, she says, women haven't typically been free to try those simple things. Until now.

Her last point, about being free to move, is one that Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles is embracing with its new "Rock-and-Roll" program. Often, when a woman is in labor and has been admitted to a hospital, she is also in bed. But staying in bed slows labor and, some experts believe, increases the need for medication and the risk of a caesarean section delivery. At Cedars-Sinai, women are encouraged to change position every 20 minutes or so, even if they've had an epidural for pain relief.

"The program has reduced the number of C-sections at Cedars by 8% and reduced the length of time that women labor by 20%," says Nicole White, a hospital spokeswoman.

Cedars-Sinai, along with St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica, offers delivery privileges to midwives. "One of our jobs is promote a sense of normalcy about labor and birth, and less fear," says Deborah Frank, a certified nurse midwife and the first CNM to be granted privileges at Cedars-Sinai. Frank says that most midwives aren't "anti-technology or even anti-medication," but neither do they believe that every birth calls for medical intervention.

Frank encourages laboring women to walk and to have her partner, a midwife or a doula at her side. Having a midwife in attendance is still relatively rare: According to a 2012 report in the Journal of Midwifery & Women's Health, 11.4% of vaginal births were attended by midwives in 2009 (the most recent statistics available).

As for women who give birth by caesarean, they can expect changes too.

Even though the percentage of caesarean births in the U.S. has stabilized — it increased steadily from 1996 to 2010 from just more than 20% to 32.8% — nearly one-third of babies are born by C-section each year.

In the March issue of OBG Management, Dr. William Camann, director of obstetric anesthesiology at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and an associate professor of anesthesia at Harvard Medical School, co-wrote an editorial, "Mother-, Baby-, and Family-Centered Cesarean Delivery: It Is Possible," in which he explained some of the options that have become available in the last couple of years.

For example, instead of using an opaque drape to create a surgical shield, two drapes are put in place: a solid one and a clear one. Once the doctor has made the necessary incisions and is ready to deliver the baby, one drape is lowered, leaving the clear plastic drape in place. This allows the mother and her partner to view the birth and touch the baby through the clear drape, while preserving a sterile surgical area.

A second change is one that Camann describes as "slowing the delivery process." Normally a baby is removed from the mother's uterus within seconds. But by allowing the baby to remain in the uterus after the head emerges, the uterus can contract around the baby, and at the same time, the baby starts to breathe and cry. Some experts believe this helps babies clear their respiratory system of fluid (babies born by C-section have a higher risk of respiratory problems), Camann says.

There are even doulas who specialize in assisting women during a surgical delivery.

"The mothers who have doulas in the OR are more involved and not as detached from the birth experience if their physician is more open to the concepts of a family-centered birth," says Tara Poulin, a certified doula in Boston. Even small changes, such as putting the IV in the non-dominant hand, putting the heart-monitor leads on the woman's back and letting her initiate breast feeding make the experience less stressful, she says.

The bottom line: "There seems to be more willingness among [obstetricians and] anesthesiologists to involve the dad/partner into the process, and even to welcome doulas and midwives into the delivery room, whether it is a caesarean or vaginal delivery," Camann says.


With years of experience as an obstetrician-gynecologist, Cristian Andronic is knowledgeable of the specific healthcare needs of women. Follow  this Twitter page for more updates.

REPOST: In Healthy Pregnancies, Let the Baby Set the Delivery Date

In a recent article in The Huffington Post, Dr. Guttmacher describes his experience of becoming a new grandfather within the context of his training as a pediatrician. His column presents the scientific evidence that, in a healthy pregnancy, waiting until at least 39 weeks to deliver improves outcomes for the mother and the baby.

A few months ago, I became a grandfather, and I love it. In the final weeks leading up to my grandson's birth, I didn't think he could get here fast enough. My step-daughter, too, had grown impatient, in anticipation not only of the new baby, but of the end of the discomfort and exhaustion of that final month.

But while my grandfatherly instincts made me eager for my first grandchild's arrival, as a pediatrician, I knew that in a normal, healthy pregnancy it's the baby, not a grandfather, or even the mother, who best sets the delivery date. The outcomes for mom and baby are best when delivery occurs after 39 weeks. Obstetricians recognize this as a best practice.

Yet some families still request delivery, or their doctors may even suggest it for scheduling purposes, before 39 weeks. In these instances, labor is initiated even though the pregnancy could progress further with less risk to the mom and the baby.

Of course, for some pregnancies, there is a medical need for delivery before 39 weeks. This need may arise from any number of health problems affecting mom, baby, or both. In such cases, the mom's health care provider will recommend an early delivery.

But for most pregnancies, it's best to wait.

Why?

Much of a baby's development happens in the final weeks.

At 35 weeks, a baby's brain weighs only two-thirds of what it will weigh at 39 to 40 weeks. During this time, brain growth surges to accommodate such important functions as balance, coordination, learning, and social functioning. The lungs, liver, and other internal organs undergo important development in the final weeks, too.

Later deliveries bring fewer health risks for babies.

Babies delivered at 39 weeks or later have fewer health risks than babies delivered earlier. In the short term, babies delivered before this time have more trouble breathing, feeding, and keeping warm, so they're more likely to require medical attention and a stay in a neonatal intensive care unit. Deliveries before 39 weeks also carry a higher risk of cerebral palsy, vision and hearing loss, learning difficulties, and even death. Forgoing elective delivery in the final weeks may reduce these risks.

Later deliveries mean fewer complications for moms, too.

Elective early delivery increases the risk of cesarean delivery. And C-sections, while common, carry risks for the mother, such as wound infection and anemia, and require longer recovery time. Having a C-section also makes C-sections more likely for subsequent pregnancies. Mothers who deliver after 39 weeks typically have better outcomes.

Of course, because the estimated due date may be off by even two weeks, some women who think they are delivering on time are actually delivering early. So, unless there's a medical need to induce labor, it's usually best to wait for labor to begin on its own.

Right now, many dads and moms eagerly are awaiting the birth of their babies. Parents worry about enough things during pregnancy -- avoidable risks shouldn't be among them.

My family was fortunate. The delivery went smoothly, and both my stepdaughter and grandson are healthy and doing well.

All families want the same for their loved ones. That's why it's best -- unless the health of a mom or her baby is in danger -- to wait to deliver until at least 39 weeks of pregnancy.


Dr. Cristian Andronic specializes in advanced gynecologic and robotic pelvic reconstructive surgery. Follow this Twitter page for more updates. 

REPOST: Mother's age tied to risk of delivery complications

This Baby Center article reports how a mother's age affects the risk factors in pregnancy.

Thu, Jun 13, 2013 (Reuters Health) — Teenage mothers are at increased risk of delivering their babies prematurely, while older moms are more likely to give birth via Caesarean section, according to a new study from Ireland.

"It more or less confirmed what we know from previous studies," said Dr. Deirdre Murphy, the study's senior author from Trinity College in Dublin. Still, Murphy told Reuters Health those studies were done years ago and there have been cultural changes among women that might have influenced delivery patterns. She and her colleagues examined data on 36,916 first-time mothers giving birth in one Irish hospital between 2000 and 2011. The researchers were especially interested in comparing the deliveries of both very young and older women to those of new moms between the ages of 20 and 34 years old. About 3 percent of women were 17 years old or younger and close to 2 percent were 40 and above. Women between 20 and 34 years old made up about 78 percent of mothers in the study.

Overall, about 6 percent of moms in the 20 to 34 age range gave birth before 37 weeks. (A normal-length pregnancy is considered to last 37 to 42 weeks.) That compared to about 10 percent of women in the youngest group who had a premature delivery. Younger women, however, were least likely to deliver their babies by C-section.

The researchers found only 11 percent of the youngest group had a C-section. That compared to about 54 percent of the oldest women and 24 percent of those in between.

Babies born to older moms were also more likely to have birth defects and to be admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit. Murphy, who published her findings in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, said there may be something to learn from teenagers about why they have fewer C-sections than any other age group.

Currently, about 32 percent of U.S. births are by C-section, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Murphy said the rates are typically lower in some European countries, including Ireland and the UK.

The procedure increases the chance of bowel or bladder injuries for women, and puts babies at risk of breathing problems. "The biggest advantage is for the second or third birth. Your subsequent deliveries are much safer if your first birth is vaginal," Murphy said. Dr. Loralei Thornburg, a high-risk pregnancy expert at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York, said it may be possible to apply some techniques from one age group to the others, but she cautioned that not all women may be the same.

"If you're having your first baby at 40 (years old) you're going to be less tolerant to any complication and any issues and you're going to be more prone to move toward Caesarean delivery," said Thornburg, who was not involved in the new study. She told Reuters Health that - in this case - the older women were also more likely to be overweight and have other traits that would increase their risk for complications during delivery.

"There are mothers in every age group that do great and need very little changes to their care but you need to look at the whole package," Thornburg said.


Follow this Twitter page for Dr. Cristian Andronic to learn more about dealing with obstetric problems.

The link between pregnancy, air pollution, and autism

Pregnancy is a very intricate stage in a woman’s life. Every food or drink the pregnant woman takes, for instance, must be checked first with the ob-gyn to ensure if it’s safe for the unborn child.

Image Source: Sciencealert.com.au

It is this intricacy that continuously inspires researchers to further study the effects of nature to pregnant women and their babies. Such is the case with the scholars at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, who strived to uncover if expectant mothers’ exposure to pollutants really increase their children’s risks of developing autism.

After studying more than 116,000 women then focusing on the 325 whose children developed symptoms of autism, the researchers found that the presence of pollutants such as diesel particulates, lead, manganese, mercury, and methylene chloride can really endanger one’s pregnancy.

The researchers deduced that the women who lived in areas with high levels of diesel or mercury air pollution were two times more likely to have autistic children compared to those living in places with low levels of the same pollutants.

Image Source: Wellwomanblog.com

Furthermore, female residents in locations with the highest levels—as of the areas researched—of other pollutants like lead, manganese, methylene chloride, and other combined metals, were 50 percent more likely to give birth to children with autism compared to those living in areas with the least exposure.

While it still needs additional examination, the study can be considered as a turning point, given that it is the first national research focused on uncovering the possible link between pollution, pregnancy, and autism.  

For more information about the study, read this article. Meanwhile, for further discussions on pregnancy and women’s health, visit this Cristian Andronic Facebook page.

REPOST: Parents in Action: Pregnancy myths

What are the do's and dont's during pregnancy? This ABC Action News article shares the myths and truths that pregnant women must know.



Video Source: abcactionnews.com


Since the dawn of time, moms-to-be have tried to safe guard their unborn babies by practicing strange habits and old wives tales passed down to them by their own mothers and friends. From applying excessive amounts of cocoa butter to avoid stretch marks to predicting the baby’s sex by the position of the womb, pregnancy myths seem to grow stronger with time (even though there’s no evidence supporting them). So which urban legends stand some ground and which don’t?

Firstly, it’s good to understand that most pregnancy myths are based in fear. Fear that certain foods, actions or something will harm your baby. Although each pregnancy is different, here are some myths that you might’ve heard that don’t stand up.

MYTH – You’ll need to completely change the way you eat.

TRUTH - Some of the more outlandish myths surrounding pregnancy involve what moms-to-be should and shouldn’t eat. It’s been said that expectant moms should avoid cheese, coffee and seafood but according to TheBump.com, this is false. Dr. Stuart Fischbein, coauthor of Fearless Pregnancy, suggests that what was good for you before you got pregnant will be fine once you achieve pregnancy. The most important element is eating a well-balanced, vitamin-rich diet that will help baby get the nutrients she needs. Recent studies have also shown a way to counteract the childhood obesity epidemic is by making sure expectant moms are eating a sufficient amount of fruits and vegetables. “The research clearly shows that if mothers eat a lot of fruit during lactation and pregnancy, then their child will be much more open to eating fruit during weaning,” said researcher Dr. Julie Mennella. “The same goes with vegetables.”

Another big myth is that you’re eating for two when you pregnant. This is also false. According to Denise Gershwin, a certified nurse-midwife, being pregnant is not an excuse to overeat. During the nine months you’ll want to add about 300 additional calories-per-day, says Gershwin.

MYTH – Expectant moms should avoid exercise.

TRUTH - Just because your pregnant doesn’t mean you have to stop exercising and become a hermit. For most moms exercise is recommended to help keep joints and muscles limber in the earlier part of pregnancy. Because during pregnancy your heart rate is higher, it’s important to warm up and cool down after your exercise routine. Of course, make sure to stay hydrated, especially since you’re carrying.

As your pregnancy continues you’ll want to avoid certain activities like laying on your back for extended periods of time. This can cause the flow of blood to decrease to your brain and uterus. Most importantly, don’t over do it.

MYTH – Some chemicals, including hair dye, are safe during pregnancy.

TRUTH – Chemicals, whether in clothes, cleaning fluid or cosmetics, can all be absorbed through contact even for short periods of time. The Environmental Working Group suggests moms-to-be should cut out all non-essential personal care products, replacing them with fragrance-free ones. They also suggest washing all maternity close before being worn as they are often coated in the factory with chemical treatments. You should also avoid using harsh chemical cleaners, pumping gas or remodeling your home while pregnant. For a full list of safe personal care and cleaning products, visit www.EWG.org.

Remember, before trying anything during pregnancy it’s always best consult your doctor on what the healthiest course of action for you.


Dr. Cristian Andronic is well-versed in all aspects of low and high-risk pregnancies and other related conditions. Follow this Twitter page for more updates.