During a pandemic, children and pregnant women are at high risk of serious complications and even death if they become ill with the flu, according to the March of Dimes. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has developed extensive plans for minimizing the impact of the pandemic flu, and once a vaccine has been developed for the virus causing the pandemic, pregnant women and children from age 6 to 35 months would be given highest priority for receiving it.

For information on how to protect yourself, your unborn child and your young children visit these sites from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

Information for Concerned Parents and Caregivers

Guidance for Prevention and Control of influenza in the Peri- and Postpartum Settings

Photo, Flickr, honey-bee

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Swine Flu Precautions for Nursing, Pregnant

I didn’t breast feed. I’m not blaming it on being high as a hippy for days after my difficult delivery or the absent breast Nazis who never taught me that “latching on” secret or even the breast pump that sucked not one drop of anything from these breasts. I tried a little. And then I just gave up.

Looking back, do I regret it? Of course. Especially when I hear more and more stories of the far-reaching benefits of breast milk for children. I want my son to have the best in this world. He is my life.

Now there is evidence that breastfeeding can be just as beneficial to mothers as well. According to a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine study, touted as one of the largest and longest-running investigations of its kind, women who breast-fed for two years or more had a 23 percent lower risk of heart attack. The same study also showed that women who nursed had a lower risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, with a 15 percent lower risk per year of breast-feeding.

“Is it the lifestyle of nursing mothers or the milk itself?” asks Alison Stuebe, M.D., assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at UNC Chapel Hill who lead the study. “These questions are hard to answer in observational studies. But the protective aspects of breastfeeding are becoming clear.”

Photo, Flickr, honey-bee

Post from: Blisstree

Breastfeeding has Lasting Benefits for Mom

Don't wig out. It's non-fermented pinot noir (a.k.a. grape juice)

Four ounces? Is he kidding? If I had four ounces of wine, I’d want more. And more. And more. As someone who has a hard time stopping after just one glass of wine, did I really want to chance it?

I worked for the March of Dimes during the 12 months I was pregnant. I knew what alcohol consumption during pregnancy could do. I heard the sad stories of children born with fetal alcohol syndrome. And then there is the possibility of increased cognitive or behavior problems spurred by the mother’s alcohol use. What my doctor and other perinatal experts told me at the time is that a little wine or beer on occasion was fine, but some women might take that information as license to down bottles of booze and put their unborn child at risk. So it was just easier to say, ‘Don’t do it.’”

Years ago it was not big deal to have a sip of wine or beer while pregnant. It some cases, I’ve heard that doctors even recommended it to women who were a bit high strung. (That would be me.) But the times, they are a-changing. In countries like England where drinking during pregnancy is largely accepted, some groups are pushing to adopt America’s standard of slapping labels on bottles of alcohol warning of possible alcohol-related birth defects. And some pubs are refusing service to pregnant women who order alcohol.

It’s easy to find arguments on both sides of the issue. As for me, my body seemed to make its own choice. I tried sipping champagne or wine on a handful of occasions, but my paranoia was overwhelming. And so, for that year I was pregnant, I refrained.

But rest assured, the minute my baby was born and the drugs wore off, I celebrated with a toast!

Sources:
The Telegraph
Daily Mail

photo, Flickr, Brett L.

Post from: Blisstree

Toast to a Healthy Pregnancy?

This PSA by the March of Dimes has been airing here in the US for a couple of weeks now. The first time I saw it I literally laughed out loud, because what pregnant woman hasn’t felt like this?

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Future Soccer Player