Moms-to-be do need to be aware of the amount of caffeine they are drinking. In general, a 12 ounce cup of coffee has your allotted 200 mg of caffeine. However, a Starbucks grande coffee has about 320 mg of caffeine. So, it is important to watch just what cup of coffee you are drinking. It is definitely a good idea to play it safe and try to cut back or limit consumption of caffeine. With caffeine lurking in many different foods and beverages, it is best to look at how much caffeine you are ingesting total in day rather than just drinking in coffee or tea.

Trying to add decaf coffee to your regular cup can help you cut back on your caffeine intake. And to help fight symptoms of withdrawal try to get plenty of sleep and exercise.

BabyBeat Pregnancy Wheel & Planner

Help calculate your due date with the new BabyBeat Pregnancy Wheel and Planner. This handy wheel, also known as a gestation calculator, uses your last menstrual period (LMP) to help calculate your due date. Most physicians still use this at your first prenatal appointment to calculate when your baby will be due.

The BabyBeat pregnancy wheel is perfect for any healthcare professional to use in the office or distribute to patients. Expecting parents can also purchase the wheels to use on their own at home. Our pregnancy wheel and planner offers so much more than other wheels. You can track your growing baby from conception through 40 weeks of pregnancy. You also get the opportunity to keep track of significant dates and prenatal appointment information.

The BabyBeat Pregnancy Wheel and Planner is a great keepsake for expecting parents! Get a FREE pregnancy wheel from BabyBeat. Just add the pregnancy wheel to your shopping cart and enter code “planner” at checkout!

BabyBeat BB350A

A fetal ultrasound Doppler is the most frequent method of monitoring a fetus. There are no known risks to the fetus and it is non-invasive. It is simple and very convenient to use. A fetal Doppler is most commonly used during each health care visit starting at 8 to 12 weeks of pregnancy. The Doppler gives the doctor a reliable range of the baby’s heart rate and helps them to determine any problems with the fetus.

The name Doppler comes from Austrian mathematician and physicist, Christian Doppler. He discovered the Doppler shift principle in 1842. Christian Doppler discovered that sound waves from a moving source would be compressed or expanded, or that the frequency would change. Fetal Doppler technology is based on this principle.

Fetal Dopplers work by sending and receiving ultrasound waves through the mother’s abdomen. When the waves are reflected from moving objects, such as the fetal heart, the frequency changes slightly. This change is then analyzed by the electronics inside the Doppler and converted into a sound that you can hear or a digital display of the heart rate.

We all know that there are pluses and minuses to everything, including postponing those child-bearing years.

Yes, it is true that your chances of getting pregnant at 40 are far lower than just a few years ago. Experts say that after 45 it can be almost impossible to get pregnant using your own eggs. However, on the flip side, many 40+ women DO get pregnant, some on their own and some with the help of fertility treatments. And there can be many benefits on waiting to get pregnant, for both the parents and the child.

What are some of the pros and cons? Of course the big con of waiting is that the longer you wait the harder it is to get pregnant. There is a big difference in egg viability between your early 40s and mid to late 40s. Along with getting harder to get pregnant, it is also harder to stay pregnant. With increased age comes increased chance of miscarriage.

Pregnancy complications also increase the older you get.  Problems such as high blood pressure, gestational diabetes, placental complications and birth complications all rise.

So, is all hope lost? Not at all. There is no better time in history to try to get pregnant as an older mother. There are many new assisted reproductive technologies (ART) out there. In addition to in vitro fertilization (IVF) there are the options of egg donation, using a surrogate and adoption.

Waiting to have children can mean that the parents are more prepared finacially. There is also evidence that older parents, being better educated, are more likely to make wise parenting decisions. Older parents are often more patient and focused on their children. Finally, they are also less likely to put unnecessary pressure on themselves as a parent.

So again, as with everything in life there are pluses and minuses to when someone becomes a parent. And it is definitely a personal decision. There is no one answer for everyone. In my opinion, becoming a parent is a BEAUTIFUL thing – no matter when it occurs or how it occurs.

Although every pregnancy is completely unique and different, there are in face some things that are still considered normal in pregnancy:

• A normal pregnancy lasts about 40 weeks and is grouped into three trimesters. The first trimester is weeks 1-12, the second being weeks 13-28, and the last weeks 29-40.
• Symptoms of early pregnancy include the ceasing of your menstrual periods, soreness and growth of breasts, fatigue, nausea, changes in moods and other symptoms.
• Pregnancy tests measure the hormone human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) in the urine or blood.
• Symptoms later pregnancy can include continued nausea and heartburn, problems with sleeping, swelling of the feet or hands, hemorrhoids, and even mild contractions.
• At the end of 37 weeks, a baby is considered full term and its organs are normally ready to function on their own.
• As the due date approaches, babies normally settle into a head-down position for birth.
• At birth, the average weight of a baby is between 6 pounds 2 ounces and 9 pounds 2 ounces and the average length is 19 to 21 inches long. Most full-term babies fall within these ranges.  To get peace of mind, a baby doppler is  invaluable.

Figures from the National Center for Health Statistics, show that births declined in all but 10 states in 2008 compared with the year before. Overall, 4,247,000 births were recorded in 2008, 68,000 fewer than the year before. In 2009, as more people were seeing the effects of layoffs and economic uncertainty, births decreased even faster.

Historically, birth rates have fluctuated with the economy. Record lows were recorded during two economic crises: the Depression in the 1930s and the Arab oil embargo in the 1970s. From data collected, the birth rate seems to have leveled off since the sharp decrease in 2008/2009, with 13.83 births per 1000.

Researchers have concluded that the stress hormone cortisol is found as early as the seventeenth week of pregnancy. They also measured the amounts of cortisol in the mother’s blood. When levels of cortisol were found to be higher in the mother, they were also higher in the amniotic fluid levels. Normally, cortisol helps the body deal with stress appropriately. However, long term exposure for a fetus is unknown. We know that long term exposure in adults can lead to depression, illness and exhaustion. This then can lead to poor health including high blood pressure, ulcers and heart disease.

Studies have shown that cognitive functioning of the baby can be affected, even later in life. They have shown that babies with higher cortisol exposure levels in utero had lower IQs at 18 months. Others have indicated that this stress may also lead to an increased risk of developing attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

This certainly does not prove that every little amount of stress you have during pregnancy is going to harm your baby. It is recommended to do things that lower your stress level. Try to stay relaxed as much as possible during your pregnancy. This is where BabyBeat can help. The BabyBeat Fetal Dopplers all allow you to listen in to your growing baby while in utero. The peace of mind that is given from hearing your baby’s heartbeat is unmeasureable. The feeling of joy at hearing the thumping of that little heart beat can not be compared. Of course, hearing your baby’s heartbeat is not the only indicator of fetal well-being. You need to continue to make note of fetal movement and other indicators your doctor has you noting. So, if you need a little “stress relief” during your pregnancy, just give BabyBeat a try!

Mother’s day in the US was created by a woman named Anna Jarvis in 1908 as a day to honor one’s mother.  Jarvis wanted to accomplish her mother’s (Ann Jarvis’) dream of making a celebration for all mothers. Anna kept promoting the holiday until President Woodrow Wilson made it an official national holiday in 1914. At first, people observed Mother’s Day by attending church, writing letters to their mothers, and eventually, by sending cards, presents, and flowers. With the increasing gift-giving activity associated with Mother’s Day, Anna Jarvis became enraged. She believed that the day’s sentiment was being sacrificed at the expense of greed and profit. In 1923 she filed a lawsuit to stop a Mother’s Day festival, and was even arrested for disturbing the peace at a convention selling carnations for a war mother’s group. Before her death in 1948, Jarvis is said to have confessed that she regretted ever starting the mother’s day tradition.

Mother’s Day has continued to grow in its commercialism. It is now the most popular holiday to dine out in the United States. And telephone lines record the highest volume on this day.

So maybe this mother’s day is a good time to look beyond the commercial aspect of the holiday – and look again at the roots. To celebrate all mother’s. To thank mother’s for their giving and nurturing. To look at our own mothers and mother-figures in our lives and what ways they have changed and added to our lives. And to give them thanks!