Important Prenatal Tests for all Trimesters

Posted on March 29, 2016April 7, 2016 by admin

We are sure that the good news of the new baby has already brought in some zeal into your relationship. Now it’s time to take the onus of keeping you and your body healthy. For that, you and your partner might have started taking doctor’s appointments and doing your research on what is to be done before the baby gets here.

If this is first time, the primary concern is that you are new to this challenge and you might not be aware about the kind of tests to be taken during your pregnancy. We are here to guide you through all the vital tests and check-ups to keep in mind during this period.

First Trimester

ROUTINE TESTS

1. Initial Blood Tests

A blood sample screening is conducted at your first pre-natal visit to the gynaecologist.

A complete blood count (CBC) to determine if you are suffering from Anaemia.
Hepatitis B – It can put your baby at risk of future liver disease, if it’s not treated.
Rubella (German measles) and Chicken Pox – If you aren’t immune, exposure during pregnancy can cause birth defects.

2. Thalassaemia

Thalassaemia is an inherited blood disorder. The disorder results in excessive destruction of red blood cells, which leads to anaemia.

It’s a must to undergo this test in order to know about your type, whether it’s Alpha or Beta or if you are a carrier or not. In case you are then your partner also needs to be tested. If both partners are carrier there is 75% chance of child being Thalassaemic.

Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) Tests

HIV – the virus that causes AIDS can cross the placenta before or during delivery and infect the fetus.
Syphilis – If unchecked, it can cause miscarriage or stillbirth.
Gonorrhea and Chlamydia – If untreated, both can cause preterm delivery and eye infections in the baby.
Herpes – It can cause complications during delivery.

4. Pap smear – It is a screening procedure to determine cervical cancer.

5. Blood Pressure – During pregnancy, you might have more chances of high blood pressure. In case high blood pressure continues after 20 weeks of pregnancy, there can be complications.

Urine Tests

Glucose Screening – Gestational diabetes – It can increase the potential need for a caesarean section (because it can lead to the baby growing to be very large).
Blood and bacteria – It indicates urinary-tract infection and can lead to a kidney infection or preterm labour.

Ultrasound

An ultrasound is a simple, painless procedure. A wand that uses sound waves will be placed on your belly. It is used to determine the age, rate of growth, position, and heart rate of your baby, and whether you’re carrying multiples or not.

ADDITIONAL TESTS

Cystic Fibrosis (CF) – A genetic test showing that a person inherited one or two defective cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator (CFTR) genes. This testing can be done using blood or a sample from the mother’s womb before birth (chorionic villus sampling or amniocentesis). Two positive sweat tests on different dates.

Second Trimester

Besides the basic urine and blood pressure tests, there are a few additional tests to pay heed to in your second trimester.

Amniocentesis – The test is offered to women who are at the age of 35 or above. Amniotic fluid analysis detects some birth defects and genetic diseases, including some chromosome abnormalities (such as Down Syndrome) and neural tube defects.

2. Cordocentesis – Percutaneous Umbilical Blood Sampling (PUBS) is a procedure that is used to obtain a small sample of the fetus’ blood. It is used to detect chromosome abnormalities indicating Down syndrome and blood disorders such as Anaemia and certain infections.

Third Trimester

1. Group B Streptococcus Screening – This helps to detect bacteria in your bowel, rectum, bladder, vagina, or throat since these can cause serious and potentially fatal infections in new-borns.

2. The Non-stress Test – The non-stress test (NST) measures your baby’s heart rate as it moves around. This test measures foetal heart rate patterns in women who have high-risk pregnancies, including those who have preeclampsia or diabetes.

3. Biophysical Profile – The biophysical profile combines the non-stress test with an ultrasound. The ultrasound component measures four foetal characteristics: breathing movements, muscle tone, body movements, and the amount of amniotic fluid.

This list sums up all the tests you should undergo in each stage of your pregnancy to ensure the health of your baby and yourself.

It’s important to undergo these tests with a prenatal expert/doctor who has experience and who you are comfortable sharing your personal information with.

It’s important to know what kind of tests are performed and what the benefits/threats

We hope this helps you with all the information on what prenatal tests are needed before the baby is born. Make sure you consult your OB/GYNEC before taking any tests.

5 DIY Ideas To Decorate Your Baby’s Room

Posted on March 21, 2016April 7, 2016 by admin

Looking for DIY craft ideas to personalize your baby’s room? Look no further, we have a pool of ideas to help you!

Graphic Wall Decals

Make your own wall decals with fabric, a pair of scissors and spray starch. Cut the fabric into whatever shapes you want, and attach them to the walls using the spray as an adhesive — don’t freak out about that fresh paint job; they’re easy to remove! From Positively Splendid

Photo courtesy: Positively Splendid

Picture Frames

This one’s easy and the most personalized idea, we swear. Pick up some picture frames at a craft store and put your favorite artwork, drawings or family photos inside them. Arrange them in a big cluster on one of your baby room walls — they’ll create a sophisticated yet cute look you can switch up as baby’s tastes change and add new photos.

Photo: Baby Room Ideas

Homemade Mobile

Yep, you can even DIY baby’s mobile. All you need is a wooden hoop, wooden stars or cardboard stars (you can pick these up at the craft store), paint, some ribbon and a key ring. Paint the stars, attach strips of ribbon to the key ring and glue them to the wooden hoop, glue the stars to the ribbon, and hang. From LoveLifeBaby.Blogspot.com

Photo: lovebabylife.blogspot.com

Alphabet Wall Art

Make a cute ABC display. Head to the craft store (again) for some assorted sizes of wooden letters and paint them in different colors and designs. Then put them up on baby’s wall in lines. From Jessica-Kindergartenteacher.blogspot.com

Photo: Jessica-kindergartenteacher.blogspot.com

Swatch Portraits

To make these fabric circles, you need embroidery hoops, fabric, scissors and Elmer’s glue. Place the fabric in the embroidery hoop and glue it along the edge. Then hang the hoops on the wall. Super easy! From Aedriel’s Originals

Photo: Aedriel Originals

5 Questions to Ask Before Choosing the Best Stem Cell Bank

Posted on March 21, 2016October 20, 2016 by admin

While you are pregnant, one of the most important tasks for you and your family is to plan and safeguard your baby’s future! This requires a lot of groundwork and planning for the baby-on-the-way. Health conscious and aware parents are considering cord blood stem cell preservation to be an integral part of their baby plan.

What is Umbilical Cord?

The term “cord blood” is used to describe the blood that remains in the umbilical cord and the placenta after the birth of a baby. Up until recently this afterbirth umbilical cord was discarded as medical waste. Cord blood contains stem cells that may be cryopreserved for later use in medical therapies, such as stem cell transplants or clinical trials of new stem cell therapies.

What are cord blood stem cells?

The blood in the umbilical cord and placenta is rich in stem cells. The stem cells in cord blood can grow into the blood and immune system cells, as well as other types of cells.

One of the most important decisions to be taken is – Which is the best umbilical cord blood bank for my baby?

Here are a few questions that you must ask the cord blood bank and choose the best cord blood bank for your baby.

Let’s take it step by step based on the following parameters –

Are there any specific accreditations I should look for when selecting a cord blood bank?

To decide on a cord blood bank, you’ll want to look at a number of factors which will define cell processing and lab practices: Cord blood banks should comply with national accreditation standards developed by national regulatory bodies such as ISO, FDA, GMP, GCP and GLP. Cord blood banks who have attained these gold standards have a systematic, hygienic, temperature controlled and regulated lab for extraction and preservation.

When and how is cord blood collected?

Umbilical cord blood is harvested quickly and painlessly just a few minutes after the birth of the baby— after the cord has been clamped, on both sides, and cut (either before or after the delivery of the placenta). The blood is collected either by drawing the blood from the umbilical cord with a needle and a “gravity bag” to drain and collect the blood.

What questions should parents ask about Collection?

It is necessary to know if the cord blood bank takes care of the collection of cord blood at the time of birth and the cost of shipping the cord blood to the preservation facility is included in the contract/agreement. It is also important to ask about paramedic or collection experts’ availability on weekends and wee hours.

How does the cord blood bank manage shipping at the time of preservation and retrieval?

Most cord blood banks assure free global shipment at the time of retrieval, but it also important to understand the shipping criteria during transportation of the specimen from birthing centre to the cryopreservation facility. You may also want to ask the cord blood bank to guarantee to transport the specimen to the lab and processed within a certain time window. It is mandatory that the cryo-shipping container has a temperature logger.

Is CFU really important, should we as parents care about it?

The answer is simple, it’s a big Yes. At present Colony Forming Units or CFU are considered to be the only and the best measure of whether stem cells are “viable”, or quite frankly if the cells are alive. The Total Nucleated Cell count includes both living and dead cells. In the CFU test, a small portion is watched under controlled conditions to see if cord blood stem cells divide and form colonies. It is a standardized technology to image the cells and count colonies in the image. It is advised by experts to take the CFU test before preservation as the test takes a lot of days for colonies to grow rather than wasting time at that time of retrieval or transplant to perform the test.

We hope this helps you to ask the right questions and thereby make your decisions about preserving your baby’s stem cells with the right bank!

For more information you may check: parentsguidecordblood.org/ and http://www.babycell.in/

Babycell has a panel of cord blood banking and stem cell transplants experts. To address your queries on stem cell banking you may call 1800 209 0309

Eight-year Old receives a Life Saving Stem Cell Treatment

Posted on March 7, 2016April 7, 2016 by admin

This is a story of Veena who was cured of Thalassemia by using umbilical cord stem cells.
Veena was detected with Thalassemia major since her birth. Veena’s parents always wanted her to live a normal life like other children. They visited a lot of doctors and pediatricians. Their lives revolved around appointments, medication and the constant worry of her condition getting worse.

While on the lookout for alternate solutions to her therapy, they came across stem cell banking therapy that had a cure for a myriad of disease, Thalassemia being one of them. This led them to Babycell’s center.

The doctors suggested her family to have another child and bank the new-born child’s cord blood stem cells which will help them cure Veena’s condition. Dr. Vijay Ramanan (Hematologist) was the specialist appointed to take this procedure ahead. The team executed the process smoothly with conscious moves at every step and the operation went as it was anticipated.

Veena’s transplant has been successful and has changed her life forever. She now lives a normal life just like others kids, playful and full of life. The best part about this transplant is that she is now free from all the machines and transfusions she was previously dependent on. She is living a healthy life with no worries, and a future full of surprises and ambitions.

What To Pack For Delivery

Posted on February 19, 2016April 7, 2016 by admin

On the day of your delivery, you have no time to think about what to carry along & the pre-requisites to be packed in the middle of all the excited hustle bustle!

Here’s a compact checklist to your rescue! Keep these items in your bag and you are sorted for your big day!

Weird cravings during pregnancy

Posted on January 21, 2016April 7, 2016 by admin

As a mom-to-be, you must have experienced the crazy pregnancy cravings! You are feeling emotional and some food/beverage items just feel right! But if you are having an extreme craving that does not seem right as it could mean there is some kind of nutritional deficiency. Here is a list of all food items that one usually craves and the science behind it.

Dirt, wall paint, ice

If you are craving for non-food items like chalk, wall paint, dirt and detergent, you might be suffering from ‘pica’. This means you are a little anemic and need to include iron rich foods in your diet.

Chocolate

If you are craving for chocolate then it could mean your body has magnesium deficiency. If you are good at self-control, you could eat sweets in moderation, have just a square or two of dark chocolate at a time. But if you aren’t, you could probably snack on almonds instead.

Pickles

It is very common for all pregnant ladies to crave for pickles at some point or the other. The craving for sour and tarty flavors might mean you want more variety in your daily diet. So go ahead and try out different things to see what makes you happy!

Spicy Food

Yet another common craving among pregnant ladies is spicy food, especially hot curries and red peppers. One of the advantages of spicy foods is makes you sweat, which in turn makes your body to cool-off. You can try adding spices to your meal to combat your craving.

Ice cream

If you are craving it for its creamy, sweet and icy feel then it might just be the weather. But if you are craving it too much, then your body might be in need of calcium. You can eat frozen yogurt instead and ensure there is enough calcium in your daily diet.

Green leafy vegetables

This might be the weirdest craving! But some time you can end up craving for leafy veggies. You would want to eat a giant pile of lettuce, palak, methi, etc. But this is a good craving to have! These are packed with nutrients and are good for your body and your baby!

All these crazy cravings are just a small part of the great journey that is pregnancy. Just remember to have a well-balanced diet and drink a lot of fluids between your meals.

A special message for all you fathers out there! Make her feel loved and never let the cravings take charge of her.

Healthy Diet for a Breastfeeding Mom

Posted on January 21, 2016April 7, 2016 by admin

Being a mother is a beautiful experience, but it comes with a lot of responsibility- not only towards your child, but towards your own health.

Your baby’s health depends on your breast milk and its nutrients. However, every woman’s breast milk is composed differently to suit her child, hence it is important for every woman to pay special attention to her diet. Here are some tips you could use when you are pregnant.

Maintaining a well-balanced diet

Enough nutrition during pregnancy is necessary for your baby to grow and develop. Vomiting and nausea are pretty common during the first few months of pregnancy, and can make this difficult. Try to have a well-balanced diet and take prenatal vitamins to assist with this.

Lactating mothers feel hungrier, which makes sense since your body is working extra to produce milk for your baby. Consuming small meals along with healthy snacks in between is an excellent way to keep your hunger pangs at bay and your energy levels on the higher side.

Stop counting the number of calories!

Mothers who are Breastfeeding require 500 calories more than regular moms. That is 2,000 to 2,500 calories per day.

You should listen to your body and eat what it demands. That is usually all the calories your body actually needs. Counting calories does not help unless you are trying to watch your weight. Too much dieting can decrease the milk supply to the milk ducts. However, if you are well planned and diet sensibly, it should not pose any problems.

Go for slow and steady weight loss

Many new moms discover that the weight they gain is very hard to lose; while others feel that it is easily lost. But the truth about weight loss remains that it depends largely on your body’s metabolism rate, how much physical activity you are getting in a day and the type of food you prefer to eat. Therefore one must always remember to lose the pregnancy weight very gradually. Ideally, take a year to get back to your pre-pregnancy self.

Never try to lose weight by dieting until at least two months after your baby is born. A reduced calorie intake in these first couple of months could leave you feeling a loss of energy and can possibly reduce/ diminish your milk supply.

But if you are way above your average/ideal weight, you could start shedding those extra pounds earlier. Remember to take your doctor’s advice before starting the weight loss process; and remember to drink plenty of water, to always stay hydrated!

Avoid alcohol

In general alcohol should not be consumed while a mother is breastfeeding as it enters the milk and alters its composition. Having a small amount of alcohol will also affect your milk letdown reflex.

Stay hydrated and cut down on your caffeine

16 cups of fluid is required by your body when you are breastfeeding and this includes the fluid from the food you consume. But there’s no need for you to keep track of the amount of water you consume a day. Your urine colour is also an indicator of how well hydrated your body is (light yellow or clear urine is a good sign).

It’s totally fine to have your morning cup of tea/ coffee but remember not to overdo it. Small traces of this caffeine will end up in your breast milk and your baby’s body is not fully equipped to break it down and expel it out.

Pregnancy Nutrient Needs

Posted on January 14, 2016April 7, 2016 by admin

Here’s a simple illustration of what your body needs during pregnancy.

Make the most of these ingredients in your diet for you to enjoy pregnancy with a power back up!

Here’s all the information on why to include these in your daily diet and how it will benefit your baby during pregnancy.

Share your comments if you find this information helpful!

Bumpy Bonding!

Posted on July 13, 2015April 7, 2016 by admin

Pregnancy is the most exciting phase of any woman’s life. It is a journey that takes a woman to a new phase called – Motherhood!

While you are excited about getting to that new stage, your body goes through a complete roller coaster ride – mentally, emotionally & physically! You will be very cautious about things you do! One of them is an attempt to bond with the bump!

Bonding with your bump helps you build a stronger connect with your baby! But in most of the cases mommies-to-be wonder how?

To help you sort this dilemma, here are few ways that you can try:

1. Massage your bump

A soothing way to bond with your baby is to gently massage your belly. This is safe to do after the first three months of pregnancy, and it’s a great way to relax and unwind.

2. Sing soothing songs to your bump

If you are wondering what to talk to your baby, in that case singing out your favourite song would be the best thing to do. This will also help you develop a habit of singing lullaby to your baby for the coming time.

3. Read out positive stories

A baby always believes in the stories heard from his mother. Reading out stories to your bump will lay a foundation of positive thoughts in the baby?s brain.

4. Listen to some music together

A baby can sense music while in the womb. Music is one such thing that can calm and sooth all the senses.

5. Feel the kick

Feeling the baby?s kick is one sensation that should be experienced by both the parents. Together responding to the kicks will not only nurture your bond but builds a two way communication with the baby too.

One last quick tip – To connect better with your bump choose on a name to address your unborn child. Keep a unisex name for the bump and address him with that name. This will help you give your bump a definitive identity and make your bond with it even more special.

Pregnancy Calendar

Posted on July 13, 2015April 20, 2016 by admin

Pregnancy is an exciting phase of life for every woman! After you announce your pregnancy, the first question you’ll probably be asked is, “When are you due?”

To answer that question for you, we bring to you our pregnancy calendar!

Calculate your due date in seconds with this! Try it out now!

Babycell.