Is it advisable to induce labor Using Red Raspberry Leaf Tea

Towards the end of pregnancy, I think all of us would like the child to decide to make his or her debut. At that point in time, we can no longer even see our feet, we have to bend backwards when we try to walk and sleep is almost impossible between our big bellies and the lively kicking match in our womb.

Over the generations, there have been a number of ways of trying to bring Junior out quickly. Some work, some don't and some are downright dangerous. It is a difficult subject and a decision that should not be made lightly.

About once a year, a news story will show up on our local television station about a special salad this or that restaurant offers its pregnant guests. The dressing is usually made with balsamic vinegar, and it is rumored to start labor. That may or may not be true, though you should be aware that balsamic vinegar does usually contain some lead.

Blue cohosh is another method used in the past. This does work, but it has too high a price tag in many cases. It can cause both the mother's and the child's blood pressure to rise dramatically. Women and children have died from this, usually from a heart attack.

My mother told my husband to drive me down a bumpy road to get the festivities started. This does not work and it's very uncomfortable for all concerned. Neither does walking or jogging.

Another old wive's tale is that taking a laxative will help. Again, not true and very uncomfortable. The sphincter muscle is the same, but the substance only irritates the colon, it doesn't have any affect on the reproductive system.

Raspberry leaves are good for pregnant women, but they can cause uterine contractions. This does not mean that it is likely to start labor. More often, it stops premature birth or a miscarriage. Because it can cause contractions, always check with your doctor before using it (or any other herb).

There is one way to get things rolling, and it's the thing that probably got you in this condition in the first place. Because of the hormones released during intercourse, having sex is a good way to do the job. Your doctor has probably been told by many patients what caused their labor to begin.

Keep in mind that self inducing can be dangerous both for you and for your child. If it's too early, the baby could have serious complications, including low birth weight. If it's an herb, it will cross the placental barrier. Discuss this with your doctor before using anything to make sure it's the right choice in your situation.

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Finding Out You're Pregnant, Taking a Pregnancy Test

Once upon a time, a woman had to be almost finished with the first trimester before she could safely assume she was pregnant. That's a long time, and this could result in birth defects and miscarriages. What she did and what she consumed could have tragic results.

Now, we have a lot of tools to detect pregnancy. At home tests are available, and blood tests can determine to the hour how long you've been gestating. That's necessary because the formation of most of the child's body systems happen in the first three months.

The first thing to know would be the symptoms of a pregnancy. Many women develop morning sickness, though not all do. This can start almost as soon as the baby is implanted, and includes nausea and vomiting, usually when you first wake up. You may also feel some pain in the hips and lower back as your body prepares to carry the child.

If it's your first pregnancy, at about two months of gestation, your nipples will change color, from pinkish to brownish. This change only happens the one time, they will stay the same in subsequent pregnancies.

At home tests are not as strong as those your doctor uses. It may take two or three weeks before there is enough of the hormones to change the test from blue to pink. This is especially true of the older kits, newer versions are a bit stronger. Even your doctor's tests must occur after the baby is implanted, as the hormones being tested for don't start being reproduced until that point.

One reason to see your doctor the moment you suspect that you're pregnant is if you are in a high risk category. Women under twenty and over forty are automatically in that group. If you've had a difficult pregnancy before or you suffer from a serious illness, you also belong in this group.

Once you find out you are expecting a baby, the next question is usually, "Is it a boy or a girl?" Before ultrasound and amniocentesis, you had to wait until the baby was born to find out. Now, if the baby cooperates, you can know fairly soon what the gender is via ultrasound and definitely through amnio. This comes in handy for two reasons; you can know what colors to use for clothing and the nursery and if there is a danger of gender specific birth defects, you can find them. Some of these defects can now be corrected in utero.

If you're pregnant or think you may be, early detection can play a key role in both your health and that of your unborn child. Congratulations!

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A Few Things to watch out for during first Trimester of Pregnancy

Pregnancy hormones begin to be released as soon as the baby attaches to the placenta. You may not be aware of the pregnancy for a few weeks, but things are already beginning to change in your body. Here are a few signs to watch out for:

Cravings and Aversions: Some cravings may be your body's way of letting you know you need more of a key nutrient. Others may be caused by stress and other factors. It's the same with aversions, your body knows what it needs and doesn't need. I remember mine to this day, it took me years to get over some of them.

Morning Sickness: While this problem doesn't occur in every pregnancy, it is a common complaint. Nausea and vomiting on arising isn't a pleasant way to start the day. I was told to keep some saltine crackers by my bed and to eat a couple of them before sitting up, and it seemed to help.

Nipple Color: About two months into your first pregnancy, you may notice that your nipples have changed color. This is a permanent change. They will go from a pinkish color to a brownish one. Not all women develop this phenomenon, but most do.

Pelvic Pain: Changes to the bones in the pelvis occur both in the first and the third trimester. The hip bones may need to turn to support the baby, and in the last trimester, all of the joints in that region become looser to allow passage of the baby's head. It's best to mention this pain to your doctor, because there are other causes for it and you'll want to rule them out.

Sore Breasts: In order to feed the child after it is born, your breasts have to change. These changes can be painful, and are often the first indicator that you're pregnant. You may also notice that they are larger. That particular change is not lasting. They will return to their original size after delivery or after weaning the baby.

If you are pregnant or trying to become pregnant, there are a few things you need to do. Make sure you are eating properly, remain hydrated and get adequate rest. You may also want to start taking prenatal vitamins before conception so that your body is prepared. See your doctor regularly throughout the nine months so that any complications that come up can be dealt with before they become serious.

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Hiccups Causes, Home Remedies, and Medical Treatment

Hiccups are one of the most embarrassing problems one can have in public. It's a totally involuntary and hard to explain. The reason we hiccup is not known, though we do know that it is a sort of reflex action. Most people can get the hiccups; including unborn infants in the last trimester of pregnancy.

What happens in a hiccup is a sudden contraction of the diaphragm and the muscles between the ribs. You draw in a breath involuntarily and then the glottis snaps closed with an audible sound.

While we don't know why we hiccup, we do know a few things that can cause them. Most of them are unsurprising: emotional stress, excitement, an overstretched stomach (this can be caused by overeating, drinking carbonated beverages and swallowing air, abrupt changes of temperature (like when drinking a hot beverage), alcohol and smoking can all lead to a bout of the hiccups.

Here's where it gets interesting...is there a cure? It really depends on who you ask. Most of the methods come from one of two ideas. Stimulate the nerve affecting the diaphragm or increasing the carbon dioxide levels in the blood. Here are a few, most of which you've probably heard.

Hold your breath (the one I use most)

Drink water (or other beverage) This one makes me nervous, as it would be easy to chock on it should a hiccup occur during swallowing. It's not fun to cough and hiccup at the same time.

Breathe in a paper bag: If I'm around one and they're particularly annoying I'll use it, but who has one handy when they start?

These next few have been published in various medical journals as potential cures for the hiccups.

Eat a tablespoon of granulated sugar: For some, this may be a good idea. However, if you are diabetic it's not such a good idea. Also, bear in mind the choking issue with the water...

Gargle with Cold Water: I could see it working, but choking hazard once again.

Suck on a Lemon Wedge Soaked in Bitters: I could see this working, but you might want to brush your teeth afterwards to prevent damage to your tooth enamel.

Pull on your tongue: It sounds weird, but next time I have the hiccups, I think I'll try it.

I suspect that in most cases, the best cure for hiccups is time. Bear in mind that usually hiccups are a nuisance problem, but there are times when you might need to see the doctor. One of them is prolonged hiccups.

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How to gain Weight Naturally?

Why do vegetarians live 7 years longer than other people? When people convert to being vegan they continue eating the same bulk of food but they're getting much more nutrition.

There are nutrients such as proteins in animal food but it is so much harder to get out and assimilated into your body than vegetarian proteins. For instance, when you cook the meat and burn it your body can only absorb 2-3% of the protein.

In fact, on a vegetarian diet many people can drop their calorie intake to below 1500 calories a day and still maintain their body weight. This is possible because the calorie intake almost doesn't matter when the calorie are chock full of easily absorbed nutrients.

Actually there is absolutely no true correlation between calories and weight gain. Think about it logically, if you're trying to gain weight you're probably eating a ridiculous amount of calories, and yet ironically your body is probably craving nutrients. Does that sound stupid or what? You're stuffing your body full of food and yet it's still depleted of nutrients. That's not right.

The entire calorie counting mess is a propaganda perpetuated by food associations and the diet industry to keep them from focusing on the true issue, which would set them free from their over-priced supplements and protein powders.

Just imagine, if you had the average 3,000 calorie a day diet, but had every meal come from absolutely high density nutrients. So if you want to gain good weight you can do that by raw super foods. Foods with color and "super foods" will pack your muscles full of energy and help them grow with effortless ease. Not to mention the incredible recovery you'll have from workouts before of the incredible boost your immune system will be getting.

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What are Hiccups Causes and Home Remedies?

Hiccups are repeated sharp inhalations of breath caused by involuntary spasms of your diaphragm, the powerful muscle that separates the chest from the abdomen and which increases the volume of the chest when air is breathed in accompanied by involuntary closing of the larynx (upper windpipe). They are caused by irritation of the diaphragm, for example by an overfull stomach or inflammation of the membrane around the heart.

If hiccups reoccur frequently or an attack lasts longer than a day, see your doctor.

Traditional and folk remedies are numerous. Here are some;

• Breathe in deeply and hold your breath while slowly counting to ten, or as long as possible
• Gargle for a couple of minutes with hot or cold water
• Sip several cups of cold water slowly.
• Drink a glass of water slowly, from the side of the glass farthest from you.
• Surprise the sufferer with, for example, a sudden slap on the back or by dropping something cold down the back of the neck. A door key or an ice cube often works.
• Drink a glass of orange juice
• Eat chalk (I know it sounds crazy).
  

Herbal medicine: Sipping peppermint or lemon balm tea may reduce the spasms.

Doctors sometimes recommend inhalation of increased concentrations of carbon dioxide. An easy way is to cover nose and mouth with a paper bag and breathe in and out into it for a couple of minutes. A tranquillizer such as chlorpromazine may also be prescribed to control the symptoms.

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Hemorrhoid Treatment: How to Stop Hemorrhoids Fast

Hemorrhoids is a problem that many of us suffer from. The only thing we can think about while we go through all the pain is to find a way to get rid of it as soon as possible. We all want to ensure that the problem just vanishes and never ever show up again. However, treatment to this problem depends on the severity of the issue. There are very few treatments that would completely eradicate the problem. Most of the treatments only reduce the severity of the problem than eradicating it completely.

The first solution offered to you by your doctor would be to use lotions and creams available in the market for this purpose. Most of these ease you of the discomfort caused by hemorrhoids. They also lubricate the affected area and makes the area numb. These creams and suppositories are generally marketed as Preparation H.

The next option available is that of surgery. When none of the above methods work out, the surgery option is given. A person can opt to surgically remove hemorrhoids if there has been not much difference made by the basic methods of hemorrhoid removal. These surgeries can be very simple and painless. But, there are also surgeries which are painful and complex and take a long time to heal the problem. The simplest surgical method of getting rid of hemorrhoids comprises of injecting the person with an injection that reduces inflammation of skin and the tissue. The other method is to go for the process called 'banding' which can be extremely painful.

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Hemorrhoids Stress-Can stress cause hemorrhoids? How to Manage Stress?

Stress is never a good thing for anyone. It is all the more worse if you are stressed when you are already suffering from Hemorrhoids. Too much of stress increases the size of hemorrhoids making it excruciatingly painful. The best thing you can do to reduce the size of hemorrhoids in such a situation is by reducing the level of stress somehow. You can make use of easy stress reducing techniques such as meditation, doing activities that you enjoy, etc.

Meditation is a great stress buster. All you need to do is forget everything but you and the universe. Simply sit down and close your eyes and forget about everything. Concentrate on you and the universe in which you exist. Breathe deeply. For best results, do it either early in the morning or before you go to sleep. When the stress level decreases, you can begin to feel the hemorrhoids also fading away gradually.

If you tend to sit in the same place while working, then be ready to change this habit. Sitting in the same place for long is an absolute no-no if you have hemorrhoids. To release the stress, you can take small breaks in between and walk and stretch a bit if possible. This is a great stress buster too. The next easy yet fun thing that you can do to get rid of hemorrhoid related stress is by doing activities with your loved ones that you enjoy. This works because when we start enjoying something we tend to forget things that trouble us. Its easy to relieve stress if you have decided what you want to do. So, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and have fun!

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