Healthy Pregnancy

As a follow-up to my article on Natural Ways to Increase Your Chances of Getting Pregnant, this article describes what men should and shouldn't do to improve sperm count and quality.

According to Dr. Bernard Robaire, a professor in obstetrics and gynecology at McGill University, men produce about 100 million sperm per day - about 1,000 sperm for every heartbeat. So in the vast majority of cases, improving sperm count and quality is all about providing healthy nutrients to make sperm, and making sure that one's lifestyle choices aren't damaging one's sperm. Put another way, men don't have to do much to increase overall sperm production; the focus should be on providing the right materials to produce healthy sperm, and then keeping those sperm healthy.

If you and your partner have been given clean bills of health but you're struggling to get pregnant, you should know that some simple dietary and lifestyle measures can dramatically increase your chances of getting pregnant.

What follows is a list of the most important steps that you and your partner can take to increase your chances of getting pregnant.

My wife and I haven't agreed on every little thing over the years, but there is one thing that we have always agreed on: the best experiences of our lives so far have been the home births of our two sons.

I still remember both home births as though they occurred a few hours ago.

Margaret's labor with our firstborn was about six hours long. With the help of three midwives, we sweated and huffed and puffed our way through every hour. And I mean we.

About halfway through the labor, I distinctly remember thinking, I'll never say no to this woman again...whatever she asks for from now on, my answer will be yes. I know this is a bit of a funny thought to have had while she was crushing my hands during each wave of contractions, but the point that shouldn't be missed is this: I felt some serious respect and awe for my wife as I witnessed her giving birth to our firstborn.

Before my wife gave birth to our first child, our primary midwife asked us to think about whether we wanted our child to receive a vitamin K shot after he was born or not.

Vitamin K shots are routinely administered to newborn babies because 1.8 out of every 100,000 babies who do not receive vitamin K injections suffer permanent injury or death due to uncontrolled bleeding in the brain that may be the result of having extremely low levels of vitamin K in their systems.

About ten years ago, I devoted several months of my evening hours researching the ins and outs of C-section deliveries. I was stunned to discover that in some cases, C-section deliveries are encouraged because they are more profitable and convenient for doctors to perform, even though C-sections are clearly more dangerous than natural vaginal deliveries that take place in a supportive environment.

During the second half of my wife's first pregnancy, our mothers and aunts told us that we were definitely going to have a baby boy.

How did they know with such certainty?

Because Margaret gained the bulk of her pregnancy weight at the front of her abdomen.

According to widely accepted folklore, if weight gain during pregnancy occurs mainly at the front of the abdomen, one can expect a baby boy. If weight gain occurs more evenly throughout a woman's body and face, it's most likely a girl.

Jealousy. Nowhere is this emotion more evident than in a toddler who suddenly finds a new baby in the house to gobble up mommy's and daddy's attention.

My mother-in-law once told me about walking into a room to see her then-5-year-old son about to smother his infant sister's (my wife) face with a pillow. In the same breath of laughter, she went on to tell of another time when she was nursing her youngest, when suddenly, her baby screamed in pain. My mother-in-law wheeled around to discover that her son had pinched his baby sister on the arm while he was behind his mother's back.

In a study to be published in this month's edition of the journal Pediatrics, researchers from the CDC say that approximately 33 percent of infant deaths can be attributed to premature births. This number is much higher than all previous estimates.

Why the higher number? The authors of this most recent study indicate that at least a dozen causes of newborn death that are not typically classified as deaths due to premature birth are actually due to underdeveloped organs associated with premature status. A prime example of such a scenario is respiratory distress that is caused by underdeveloped lungs in premature babies.

A new study out of the Yale University School of Medicine indicates that exposure to ultrasound waves during routine ultrasound scanning can affect fetal brain development.

Lead researcher Pasko Rakic encourages pregnant women to avoid unnecessary ultrasound scans until more research is done.

According to Rakic, although the specific effects of ultrasound waves on human brain development are not fully understood, the following health conditions are thought to be caused by misplacement of brain cells during embryonic development:

Preface:

One of our newsletter subscribers sent me the following interview that a journalist named Jon Rappoport did with a retired vaccine researcher a few years ago. Many thanks to Jon for giving us permission to share this interview with our subscribers.

- Ben Kim