What is Capacitation?

Before fertilization can be accomplished, the sperm must undergo the process of capacitation - the process by which sperm become transformed and thus able to enter the egg cell. Freshly ejaculated spermatozoa are incapable of causing fertilization. Capacitation is accomplished by exposure of the sperm to secretions of the uterus, the fallopian tube, or the […]

Optimizing Your Chances for Becoming Pregnant

Once a couple makes the commitment to start, expand, or complete a family, it often becomes crucial to them to accomplish this goal as soon as possible. In their fervor to achieve pregnancy, many couples diminish their chances by having sex too often. Daily sex may lower sperm counts, reducing the chance of one reaching […]

Heartburn During Pregnancy

Heartburn is a fiery, burning sensation in the chest. The name is a partial misnomer because the condition has nothing to do with the heart but results from a reflux, or regurgitation, of acid stomach juices into the lower esophagus. Heartburn may occur in anyone but is more common during pregnancy. This is due to […]

Birth Control and Planning

If you use a barrier method of contraception, including the diaphragm, the male or female condom, the cervical cap, or contraceptive creams, foams, or film, you can safely become pregnant anytime you stop using it. This is true for an IUD as well.If you take oral contraceptives (”the pill”), many physicians and mid­wives recommend that […]

Eating Disorders During Pregnancy

A variety of factors, including society’s emphasis on thinness, has resulted in an alarming number of people with the eating disorders anorexia and bulimia. These disorders mostly affect young women in the childbearing years. Anorexia is seen in as many as 1 percent of female high school or college students. Bulimia affects from 3 to […]

Nutritional Supplements for Pregnant Women

Nutritional supplements have become a fixed feature of prenatal care in the United States. In its 1990 report, the Institute of Medicine concluded that, except for iron, all nutritional needs of most pregnant women can be met through diet. Since that report, scientists have discovered the importance of folic acid in preventing neural tube defects […]

Need of Folic Acid In Pregnancy

The discovery of the relationship between deficiencies in folic acid, a B vitamin, and neural tube defects (NTDs) was one of the most important breakthroughs ever in preventive health care. Folic acid is particularly important in the earliest weeks of pregnancy, when the neural tube is developing. All women planning pregnancy and, in fact, all […]

Nutrition During Pregnancy

We don’t know all the ways a fetus may be affected by what its mother eats. We do know, from studies of babies born during famine in world war II, that adequate nutrition, or at least an adequate number of daily calories, is important for the fetus to grow to an optimal size. In early […]