Role Of Vitamins and minerals

Vitamins and minerals help your body use the energy provided by foods for both yourself and your baby. They also help repair and maintain cells and tissues.

You can get most of the vitamins and minerals you need from a healthy diet. Because it may be hard to get enough iron, folic acid and calcium from food, many women take a prenatal vitamin every day.
Folic acid is one of the vitamins included in most prenatal vitamins. The Institute of Medicine recommends that women consume 600 micrograms of folic acid every day (from supplements and food sources) once they know they’re pregnant. Most prenatal vitamins contain this amount or up to 1,000 micrograms of folic acid.

What you can do:
Take your prenatal vitamin every day. Take vitamins as directed.
Read the label and talk to your health care provider.
Do not take additional vitamins and minerals unless your health care provider says that you should. Large amounts of vitamins and minerals, especially vitamin A, can be harmful. Do not take more than 5,000 IU (international units) of vitamin A a day. Do not take more than 1,000 micrograms (or 1 milligram) of folic acid without talking to your provider.

Choose a diet that includes a variety of healthy, nutritious foods.
What are some good choices? Fruits, vegetables, whole-grain breads and pastas, milk products, and low-fat protein sources such as lean red meat, beans, tofu, poultry and some fish. (See Food safety for a list of fish that are off-limits for pregnant women.)

If you have trouble digesting lactose (the natural sugar found in milk), lactose-reduced milk products and calcium-fortified orange juice can help you get enough calcium.

Infertility

Infertility is a condition that makes it difficult or impossible for a man or woman to have a child. Both men and women can be infertile.

About 1 in 10 couples in the United States have fertility problems.
You should talk to your health care provider about the possibility of fertility problems:
* If you and your partner don't get pregnant after trying for 12 months.
* If you are a woman over the age of 35 who doesn't get pregnant after trying for 6-10 months. Older women are more likely to have fertility problems than younger women.


Causes
Infertility can be caused by many things, including:

* Problems with ovulation (a woman's ability to produce an egg)
* Problems with sperm in men (amount, quality or both)
* Aging (fertility declines as men and women age)
* Sexually transmitted infections
* Other reproductive infections
* Genetic conditions
* Certain chronic illnesses, such as diabetes or Hodgkin's disease
* Damage to the reproductive organs
* Smoking, drinking and drugs
* Exposure to radiation and certain chemicals, such as pesticides
* Cancer treatment
Often couples have more than one reason for infertility.


Finding a Doctor
Most couples begin by seeing an obstetrician-gynecologist or their family doctor. Because infertility is a highly technical field of medicine, talk with your doctor about whether you should see a specialist.

Advanced medical training is needed to be a specialist. Doctors often study the fields of reproductive endocrinology for women and urology for men. Specialists are more likely than other doctors to offer a variety of treatments, including formation about their risks and benefits. They may be helpful with both nonsurgical and surgical fertility treatments (see below).

Diagnosis and Treatment
For both women and men, the doctor performs a physical examination, takes a medical history and, sometimes, orders specialized tests.When a possible cause of infertility is found, the most common treatments are:

* Giving medications to the woman to help her body release eggs (ovulate).
* Performing surgery on the man or woman to repair part of the reproductive system.
For instance, a woman may have scars in herfallopian tubes. These tubes carry the eggs to the uterus (womb). A man may have a problem that makes it hard for sperm to flow normally. Conditions such as these can often be corrected with surgery.

According to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), most infertility cases (85-90 percent) are treated with drugs or surgery.

More advanced types of infertility treatment include:

* Inserting sperm from the man or a donor into the woman's uterus. This is called artificial insemination or intrauterine insemination (IUI).
* Assisted reproductive technologies (ART). A woman's eggs are surgically removed, combined with sperm in the laboratory, and then returned to her body. In vitro fertilization (IVF) is the most common ART procedure.

Couples sometimes choose to ask another person to donate eggs, spermor an embryo. (Embryo is the word for the human organism from conception until approximately the eighth week.) Others make an agreement with a woman to bear a child for them. These choices involve serious ethical and legal issues and should be made with care.

Spotlight on Exercise.

It used to be that pregnancy offered a good reason to sit down and put your feet up. But times have changed for pregnant women in good health. In January 2002, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) released new recommendations on exercise during pregnancy and the postpartum period that encourage many more women to get up and get fit while pregnant.


What the Guidelines Say
According to ACOG's guidelines, unless there are medical reasons toavoid it, pregnant women can and should try to exercise moderately for at least 30 minutes on most, if not all, days.

Why Exercise Is Good for You?
In the short term, exercise helps all of us feel better physically and emotionally, and the calories burned help prevent excessive weight gain. People who exercise regularly develop stronger muscles, bones and joints. And over time, the benefits of regular exercise are even more impressive: lower risk of premature death, heart disease and other serious illnesses.For pregnant women, exercise has added benefits. It can help prevent gestational diabetes, a form of diabetes that sometimes develops
during pregnancy. For women who already have gestational diabetes, regular exercise and changes in diet can help control the disease.

Before You Start
Before you go out and run a marathon, talk with your health care provider. Not all pregnant women should exercise, especially if they are at risk of preterm labor or suffer from a serious ailment, such as heart or lung disease. So check with your health care provider before you start an exercise program.
Next, decide what type of exercise you will do. Pick things you think you will enjoy. You may want to try several things. For example, brisk walking for 30 minutes or more is an excellent way to get the aerobic benefits of exercise, and you don't need to join a health club or buy any special equipment. You could also run, hike
or dance, if you like. Swimming is another sport that is especially good for pregnant women. The water supports the weight of your growing body and provides resistance that helps bring your heart rate up. You can also look around for aerobics and yoga classes designed for pregnant women. You may find that a variety of activities helps keep you motivated to continue exercising throughout your pregnancy—and beyond.Be careful when choosing a sport. Avoid any activities that put you at high risk for injury, such as horseback riding or downhill skiing. Stay away from sports in which you could get hit in the belly, such as ice hockey, kickboxing or soccer. Especially after the third month, avoid exercises that require you to lie flat on your back. Lying on your back can restrict the flow of blood to the uterus and endanger your baby. Finally, never scuba dive. This sport may lead to dangerous gas bubbles in the baby's circulatory system.When you exercise, pay attention to your body and how you feel.

Don't overdo it—try to build up your level of fitness gradually. If you have any serious problems, such as vaginal bleeding, dizziness, headaches, chest pain, decreased fetal movement or contractions, stop exercising and contact your health care provider immediately.With a little bit of caution, you can achieve or maintain a level of fitness that would shock your grandmother. You'll feel and look better. And yes, you can still put your feet up—after you've come back from your walk.

Calculating your due date

This interactive Due Date Calculator will help you estimate the date your baby will arrive. Pregnancy usually lasts 280 days (40 weeks)from the first day of the woman's last menstrual period.
Well but Every pregnancy is unique, and sometimes babies arrive sooner or later than expected. Always talk to your health care provider about your due date.Once you're pregnant, be sure to have regular checkups by a doctor, certified nurse-midwife or other health care professional during the course of your pregnancy. The goal of prenatal care is to monitor the progress of a pregnancy and to identify potential problems before they become serious for either the mother or the baby.