Pregnant woman: Giving birth, excersice and dit and picture making of pregnant woman

Pregnant woman

A womans body undergoes significant change during pregnancy. It is very important to understand this physiological change in the body to better deal with the actual pregnancy as well as to be prepared in any form of emergency to deal with any problem. It is abundantly clear that a pregnant woman has to effect change in all aspects of her life after conception. This includes change in eating habits to change even in the sexual habits.

One of the most fundamental systemic changes of normal pregnancy is fluid retention, which accounts for almost 8 to 10g of the average maternal weight gain of 11 to 13 kg. this change is central to a series of other physiological adaptations notably increases cardiac output and in renal blood flow. Relative increases in plasma volume have been reported in women taking regular exercise during pregnancy and relative decrease occur in the pregnancy complications of intrauterine growth restrictions and pre eclampsia. Marked increases in the concentration of antinatiuretic hormones, aldosterone and deoxycorticosterone are also observed during pregnancy. As a result of this fluid retention one of the major consequences is that heamoglobin concentration of the woman falls, as does the hematocrit concentration. Hence an increased dietary intake of iron rich foods is mandated during pregnancy. The mean heamolobin concentration falls from 13.3g/dl in a non pregnant state to 10.9g/dl at the 36th week of normal pregnancy. This physiological change in the past was mistaken for the development of pathological anemia and pregnant women have often been given prophylactic haematinics, and oral iron. This drug can cause unpleasant side effects including nausea and constipation. Regnant women are already predisposed to these symptoms, thereby explaining the non compliance with this oral iron treatment. On the other hand there is no doubt that a pregnant women need for iron increases substantially , and this need is compensated by the fact that she absorbs dramatically large proportions of dietary iron from the gut. Many obstetricians now feel that women who are likely to have an adequate dietary intake of iron should be monitored by assessing serial changes in hemoglobin concentration and in mean cell volume. Folic acid supplementation has also been widely advocated in the past to prevent macrocytic anemia. It is currently true that renal clearance of folic acid increases substantially during normal pregnancy and the plasma folate concentrations fall. However there is now evidence that suplementation with folic acid over the time of conception and during the first trimester of pregnancy can reduce the frequency of neural tube defects and women are thus advised to take this vitamin. The cardiovascular changes in a pregnant woman are the follows; increase in heart rate by the 5th week, and a progressive increase of 10 to 15 beats is seen till the third trimester. The stroke volume increases in conjunction to the needs of the fetus , while 10% of women may develop continuos heart murmurs due to increased mammary flow.