A Baby Shower Gift That Has Special Meaning

I remember almost every detail of my last pregnancy, down to my prenatal visits with my OB. As I watch my now two year old playing these days, I get nostalgic remembering the days where I would sit in the waiting room at my obstetrician's office, eagerly awaiting my turn. There is nothing, in my book, that compares to hearing the heartbeat at those visits, and getting to see the baby on an ultrasound.
I remember reading the pamphlets that were in my doctor's office about cord blood banking, and talking to my hubby about it. I had previously read and heard about cord blood banking with my other pregnancies as well, but did not give it as much thought at those times. But over the years the news about the potential life-saving benefits of stem cells collected from cord blood has been amazing. These stem cells can treat 70 diseases, including leukemia, anemia, lymphoma, diabetes and cerebral palsy. That is truly remarkable. So with my last pregnancy, we did give this idea some very serious thought. And though ultimately we did not choose to do it, I still have misgivings today about our decision. But unfortunately, finances played a big role in our final decision.
Cyro-
Cell International now offers a wonderful option for those looking for a special gift for parents-to-be... a gift certificate for cord blood banking. I would have so loved getting one when I was pregnant. This is really a gift that could one day be life-saving. It is worth taking a look at the current offers Cyro-Cell has, and read more about the life-saving potentials that cord stem cells may offer.

Fertile Waterfalls Helped Nicole Kidman Get Pregnant?

Yes..according to Nicole Kidman. In an interview Kidman gave to The Australian Women's Weekly for the magazine's 75th anniversary edition, released Wednesday, the actress says:

"Seven babies were conceived out of this film and only one was a boy. There is something up there in the Kununurra water because we all went swimming in the waterfalls, so we can call it the fertility waters now."

Wow. Is that a coincidence or could there be something in the water as Nicole believes? And of the seven pregnancies, six were baby girls and one was a baby boy. Hmm...very interesting for seven women to get pregnant while on the same trip...maybe Nicole is on to something after all.

Avoiding Nuts When Pregnant

Recent research has found that eating nut products during pregnancy raises the odds of having a child with asthma symptoms by nearly 50 percent.

The study, done by Dutch Researchers, was published in The American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. In their study, more than 4,000 pregnant women completed a dietary questionnaire that asked whether they consumed vegetables, fresh fruit, fish, eggs, milk, milk products, nuts and nut products rarely, regularly or daily. Researchers then assessed the children's diets and looked to see who had developed asthma over an eight-year period.

Children whose mothers ate as little as one peanut butter sandwich a day had a far higher risk of asthma, according to the research results.

Daily consumption of nut products increased the odds that a child would have wheezing by 42 percent, shortness of breath by 58 percent and steroid use to ease asthma symptoms by 62 percent, compared to children born to mothers who rarely consumed nuts. Overall, the odds of developing asthma symptoms for a child whose mother ate nuts daily were 47 percent higher, according to the study. Now those are numbers worth paying attention to.

The study seems to suggest that eating nuts or nut products everyday while pregnant is the problem, not moderate consumption of nut products.

But even so, if you are pregnant, and especially if your family has any history of allergies to nuts and nut products, it could be best to avoid nuts completely. Read the complete article about avoiding nuts when pregnant in full, and always check with your doctor about your diet while pregnant.

New Test For Checking On Women's Eggs

I just read about this new test that should be available at fertility clinics very soon. This test is supposed to give women some very important information--how many good eggs they have left.

Plan Ahead, the first test of its kind to test and predict a woman's "ovarian reserve," will be available in fertility clinics in eleven states in the next few weeks. Marketed by Repromedix, it will be available for $350 to women who want a higher-tech insight into family planning than has previously been available.

Basically Plan Ahead will determine how many viable eggs a woman has by following three different hormone levels. The hormone levels are combined with the woman's age and estrogen levels to create a formula for her fertility. Or at least conceive a score for how many eggs are viable for reproduction.

It can't predict whether or not a woman is fertile or how quickly she will get pregnant. It also cannot determine the rate of deterioration of the viable eggs she does have.

All the math and blood tests and money and technology tells a woman one thing: If she's at risk of having a low supply of "good eggs." It is geared towards women in their mid to late thirty's that are having difficulty conceiving and are considering in vitro fertilization.

What do you think? Will this be a helpful test, or just another expensive option for women to consider doing tat are having enough stress trying to conceive?

And some doctors say there is too premature to offer this test to he public. And some medical professionals worry about false reassurances the test results might give some women, or the panic results might send some women into.

Personally, I see no harm in it if a woman wants to give it a try. Life is all about decisions, including when to start a family. So perhaps this will give women more information to take into consideration as they make decisions about work, career and babies. I think women will realize this test is not a guarantee of future pregnancies, nor that it is 100 percent accurate. But it could provide some helpful information that a woman may not have had access to before.

What do you think? Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Would this test and the possible information it provides be worth the cost? Or is it another anxiety laden test women do not need to financially and mentally stress themselves out over?

Read this article in full right here.

Three Things You Can Do To Help Protect Your Fertility

If you are contemplating 'mommyhood' at some point in your future these three tips may help you protect and boost your chances of getting pregnant.


Don't Douche. Douching can wipe out normal, protective bacteria in the vagina, upsetting the natural balance and putting you at risk for bacterial vaginosis, a common but often overlooked vaginal infection. This infectin, if left untreated, has been linked to preterm labor and may be associated with higher risk of miscarriage and infertility.

Don't Smoke. Smoking is just bad for our health, period. But if you do smoke and need some extra motivation to quit, think about your fertility. Cigarette toxins not only damage a woman's eggs, interfering with the fertilization and implantation process, but also cause the ovaries to "age." You do not want your eggs to be 'older' than you are, especially if you are hoping to get pregnant! The good news here is that while smoking can cause permanent damage to your reproductive system, quitting smoking can help bring back some ovarian function.

Limit Alcohol. Too much alcohol can affect fertility in women, according to recent studies. Alcohol changes estrogen levels, which may affect implantation. Even two glasses of wine a day may hurt your chances of becoming pregnant. So if you want to have a 'baby belly' soon, it's best to skip the wine altogether. And research shows that that women who drank any alcohol along with more than a cup of coffee each day were half as likely to conceive as women who abstained from alcohol and drank little or no coffee per day. But drinking a cup of coffee each day in itself does not appear to affect fertility.
So if you are working on getting pregnant-- skip the wine and limit the java to one cup a day.

Read more about fertility at Parents.com