Wait doctor, could you save that?

Okay, interesting topic, umbilical cord stem cell/blood banks.

Why would anyone want to save it?

If your baby is healthy, you don’t need it.  However, if the blood system has been ravished by disease or by treatments such as radiation or chemotherapy, new stem cells are necessary to rebuild the body’s blood and immune systems. Preserved cord blood stem cells represent a significant new method of rebuilding a person’s blood system. Someday, the umbilical cord stem cells you preserve could be used to give life to someone close to you. Not only are the cord blood stem cells a perfect match for the donor, they could also provide life saving benefits for siblings and other family members

What diseases can it help?

There is a LOOOOONG list, but here are a few:

Leukemia

Stem Cell Disorders

Non-Hodgkin’s

Lymphoma
Hodgkin’s Disease

Inherited Platelet Abnormalities

Inherited Metabolic Disorders

Inherited Immune System Disorders

Plasma Cell Disorders

How much does it cost?

There are a bunch of different fees, but basically it is around $1000 for the storage, with $100 per year for maintenance.

Am I gonna do it?

So once I rented a convertible, parked it, left it for a total of 8 minutes, came back, and it was knifed.  Someone had tried to cut into it to get the goods inside (which was nothing but beach towels).  Had I paid the $18.99 for the  one day I rented it, I could have turned it in, said sorry about your car, and left.  I didn’t, and I went through months of hassles and fees and going back and forth with my insurance company.

Now when I rent, I get the insurance, and I have turned in cars damaged (not that I am trying), and they just say, okay, thank you very much.

Now, this is someone else’s car.  Insuring my kid?  Heck yea! In a heart beat.  I have several friends that got lymphoma while they were in their 20s, and a friend of mine’s younger brother just passed from Leukemia.  I could never look my kid in the eye and say, sorry honey, I wanted to go on that vacation instead, so now you might not live.

Not even a question.

Coolest Pregnancy Test Ever!

Yes, I know it is a little strange to get excited about a pregnancy test, but I am a geek at heart and can’t help being amazed my technology.

So, normal pregnancy test:  pee on the strip and wait for the chemicals in your body to activate the colors, double lines, happy face, whatever.

The PTeq Pregnancy test looks like works like a USB key.

You pee on one end (the end that goes into the computer is protected with a little plastic cap so as not to be doused by liqued), stick the other into the computer, and the power will then start the electrospray ionization process.

You then get a very cool display on your computer.  According to ThinkGeek, “the mass spectrometry software on the device comes with several sequenced hormones, including hCG (human Chorionic Gonadotropin), hCG-H (hyperglycosylated hCG – for detection before your first missed period), and LH (luteinizing hormone – for detection of your most fertile days).”

• No batteries required – draws power from USB
• USB 2.0 compatible
• Plug and play, easy operation
• Operating Systems: Win 98, ME, 2000, XP, Vista, Linux 2.4 or higher, Mac OS 8.6 or higher
• 20 test strips included
• 99% accuracy*

Window to the Womb

Royal Phillips Electronics has come out with an amazing new ultrasound where prospective parents can experience the wonder of a view inside the womb! See here!

It doesn’t work much differently than a regular ultrasound, except that the technology reading the black and white images turns it into a 3-d image for you to better “see” your baby. Think old type Disney cartoons as the old black and white ultrasound, and then 3d/4d baby scan is like, Pixar. Just a bit cooler.

Why 4d and not just 3d? Are we really dealing with the 4th Dimension here? Of course not 3-d will render a 3-d image, while 4-d will render a moving 3d image. You can see your baby yawn, squirm, make a face at the annoying ultrasound noise, or just sleep peacefully.

In an article from the Washington post:

Last year, Philips researchers began modeling ultrasound visits after a spa-like experience, complete with ambient lighting and new technologies intended to reduce stress. Images are streamed onto a big, bubble-like screen. With large, clearer images, Rettenbacher says, doctors may be able to “diagnose abnormalities a lot earlier than [they can] today

If you are gonna get just one, it makes more sense to wait a bit until your 26th-34th week. However, if you are going to do it multiple times, anytime during your second trimester would work

So how do you get one? From my cursory research, it seems like it is very popular in the UK, and of course not so popular yet in the United States (why are we always so technologically behind?) Just google 4d baby scan and your state and a bunch of clinics should pop up!

A glass of wine to unwind … while pregnant?

“Nothing makes people more uncomfortable than a pregnant woman sitting at the bar,” said Brianna Walker, a bartender in Los Angeles. “The other customers can’t take their eyes off her.”

Being an avid wine drinker, I read a fabulous article in the NYT about drinking during pregnancy.  As Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is a danger for mothers who get drunk constantly, most doctors are not even allowed under their insurance to imply that it might be alright to indulge in one glass of wine.

However, many OBGYNs are letting their patients know that as long as they don’t indulge in more than half a glass, they will not be causing their child irreparable harm by enjoying one of the oldest beverages on the planet.  I hope this puts the mind of those who didn’t know they were pregnant when they went to Vegas with girlfriends and did shots and sat in the hot tub for an hour.

Please read the article and peruse the comments I have pasted in from the Berkeley Parents Network.

My husband and I celebrated some very good news with a bottle of Champagne, of which I consumed the vast majority, the very night before I figured out I was 6 weeks pregnant. Surprise! We weren’t trying to conceive. And that wasn’t the only alcohol I’d comsumed over the four weeks since conception. I completely freaked out. I went to my first OBGYN appointment in tears. My doctor very calmly smiled and remarked that a bottle of Champagne is how many babies come to be. Of course, she was talking about the moment of conception, but she knew the specifics of my situation and was utterly unworried. That baby is an awesome four year old boy now, who, despite being a handful, is smart as a whip and normal in every way. Please don’t freak out too much about something you can’t undo.

I am an American who spent her first pregnancy in Paris. My OB was an American, though she had been there for quite a while. In my experience, the ”no-amount-is-safe orthodoxy” you described is particularly American. At restaurants, waiters would be routinely surprised, even shocked, when I would pass on having a glass of wine, even when I was visibly (very visibly!) pregnant. In fact, a few times my OB even directed me to have a glass! During that pregnancy I drank wine fairly often (a couple of glasses a week? My memory is rusty), but I did not drink hard alcohol nor did I drink during the first trimester (but that part is just personal superstition, not based on medical evidence). I’m now pregnant again (in the Bay Area this time) and, although my opinion on the! subject hasn’t changed, I’ve found that I drink less — though it may simply be because we go out to dinner less frequently!

As an American mom who enjoys a glass of wine with dinner — or two … or even three ;^) — as much as any of those bon vivant French femmes out there, here’s my unofficial & personal opinion for which the Berkeley Parents Network cannot be held legally responsible or liable: Hold off until after the first trimester, then go ahead & uncork that lovely merlot & sip in moderation. Since you’ll only be having one small glass with dinner, do consider treating yourself & upgrading to a finer-than-usual vintage. I did do a bit of research on the wine & pregnancy issue. It’s hard to find information on this since doctors, nurses, midwives, & publishers of pregnancy information *have* to stick to the ”no amount is safe during pregnancy” orthodoxy for legal as well as professional reasons. Since nobody knows the exact point at which alcohol consumption crosses the line from harmless to posing a hazard to the baby’s development, it’s better to err on the side of caution & try to avoid negative outcomes & the accompanying potential for lawsuits. However, it really *is* better to avoid alcohol & other potentially harmful environmental factors (paint fumes, dangerous falls, serious illnesses, etc.) during the first trimester, because that’s when the baby’s central nervous system & other vital organs begin developing.

I’m sure you will get lots of comments on this one! Wine has been an important mutual interest for my husband and I for more than 20 years ! (wine groups, vacations to wine regions, collecting, etc.). During my first pregnancy, I had maybe 3-4 SIPS of wine the entire pregnancy. My second pregnancy I had a heart to heart with my OB (tops in the field) and asked whether it would be truly harmful if I occasionally had a 1/2 glass of wine with dinner. My OB said that her insurance wouldn’t allow her to say it was okay, but in fact especially after the first trimester, a little wine with dinner wasn’t going to do any harm. A pediatric MD friend of mine agreed. My European friends say that their doctors allow up to TWO GLASSES per day!! Personally, I was very happy to be able to have a half glass now and then. It certainly added to my quality of life during my pregnancy and while I undertand the dangers of fetal alchohol syndrome – its beyond belief that an occassional glass of wine with food after the first trimester could do harm.

Please do further research, but I wanted to get you thinking.  I like the advice of trying a higher vintage.  If you can only have 6 oz, better make them quality!

Cool Birth Announcements

Consumers are never too young for a little gravanity, particularly when proud parents are buying it for them. Enter 5starbaby.com, which offers personalized birth announcements fashioned after movie advertisement posters.

Each movie poster birth announcement from 5starbaby is tailor-made for the new arrival, complete with all the critical “stats” about the baby’s birth and the names of loved ones as “supporting cast.” Parents are listed as “producers,” the doctor is named as “director” and the hospital is listed as the “filmed in” setting, for example. “Critics’ quotes” can also be included, as can “catering” by the mother and options for virtually any other special people or ideas the parents want listed. “Ratings” given are “B” for boy, “G” for girl or “T” for twins. Movie poster birth announcements are 5-by-8-inch mini posters; pricing begins at USD 2.50 each with envelopes included. 5starbaby.com also offers large poster formats ranging from USD 25 to USD 120 each, and gift certificates are available for baby showers or other occasions.

Buffalo, NY-based 5starbaby.com will ship orders anywhere in the world, but localized versions in other languages are a natural next step. One to bring to proud parents and gift-givers around the globe!

Online Baby Books!

Lilgrams http://littlegrams.com

Baby Chapters http://www.babychapters.com/

Little Chapters http://www.littlechapters.com/

Cell/Mobile Phones Could Cause Harm to your Infant

The Independent reports that a new study has found that using a cell phone 2 or 3 times a day while pregnant is potentially harmful to future child development. The risk level is on par with that of alcohol and tobacco.

They found that mothers who did use the handsets were 54 per cent more likely to have children with behavioural problems and that the likelihood increased with the amount of potential exposure to the radiation. And when the children also later used the phones they were, overall, 80 per cent more likely to suffer from difficulties with behaviour. They were 25 per cent more at risk from emotional problems, 34 per cent more likely to suffer from difficulties relating to their peers, 35 per cent more likely to be hyperactive, and 49 per cent more prone to problems with conduct.

…

They add that there might be other possible explanations that they did not examine – such as that mothers who used the phones frequently might pay less attention to their children – and stress that the results “should be interpreted with caution” and checked by further studies. But they conclude that “if they are real they would have major public health implications”.

Via SmartMobs, by way of Gerrit Visser who found out via Twitter, by way of Arnaud Leene

The Baby’s Crying!

I was reading one of the blogs I always glance at, Lifehacker, and came across a neat trick to stop your baby from crying. It came from an excerpt of a book by Lisa Katayama called Urawaza: Secret Everyday Tips and Tricks from Japan. With no baby yet to test the trick, I cannot account for its veracity, but it sounded pretty neat! Let me know feed back. . .

1. How to make a baby stop crying
Dilemma: Sure, the baby’s cute. But why won’t he stop crying?
Solution: The secret to stop a crying baby lies in making the sound you produce during the mouthfeel stage of wine tasting.
Why this works: When babies are still in the womb, the noises they can hear are limited to those in the 6000-8000mHz range. The sound you make when you slosh the liquid behind your lips during wine tasting takes place at about 7000mHz, reminding the baby of a time when the world around was peaceful and the whirs and stirs inside Mommy’s tummy soothed him back to a sleepy state.

Birth Control and Pregnancy

My husband and I were discussing when I should stop taking birth control before we try to get pregnant so I can get all the hormones out of my body before conception. I realized I wasn’t even sure where I got the idea that I needed to do this, so I tried to do a bit of research.

Apparently, it is a good idea to have a full menstrual cycle before you conceive, but the reason given was to more easily calculate date of conception, not because the baby’s body was going to be riddled with synthetic hormones.

Yahoo Answers (the authority on everything states:

You can get pregnant right away after stopping regular-dose or low-dose hormonal birth control. About half of women get pregnant in the first 3 months after stopping the Pill, and most women get pregnant within 12 months after stopping the Pill. Specific information about how quickly a woman’s fertility returns after stopping use of patches or rings is not available, although experts believe the delay may be similar to or shorter than the Pill.

But what about the baby!?? Mayo Clinic quelled my doubts:

In the past, doctors had concerns that if you conceived immediately after stopping the pill, you had a higher risk of miscarriage. However, these concerns have proved to be largely unfounded.

Okay, so fine, the fact that I took the pill won’t make my baby grow another head or arm, but then I had another thought . . . what if I KEPT taking the birth control pill because I didn’t know I was pregnant (I was part of that .9% that gets pregnant on the pill?). Would my baby then be warped? Mayo Clinic answered that one too!

If you continued taking your birth control pill because you didn’t realize you were pregnant, don’t be alarmed. Despite years of this accident happening, there’s very little evidence that exposure to the hormones in birth control pills causes birth defects.

Still, the birth control pill is a potent estrogen. Lessons learned from women who took diethylstilbestrol — a synthetic estrogen that was later linked with cancer — to prevent miscarriage in early pregnancy suggest that such exposure should be minimized.

Once you learn that you’re pregnant, stop taking the birth control pill.

In summary, if I get pregnant and keep taking the pill until I realize I am with child, I won’t be dooming my baby to some horrible mutation. If I get pregnant right after getting off the pill, my baby won’t be full of fake hormones, and it will probably take me 3 months to a year to get pregnant after getting off the pill.

Easy peasy.

Now for all those who want to see what they would look like pregnant, you can! Click on the image below and upload a photo to FaceinHole.com.

Avoiding Foods while Pregnant

Raw Meat: Risk of contamination with coliform bacteria, toxoplasmosis, and salmonella.

Deli Meat: Deli meats have been known to be contaminated with Listeria, which can cause miscarriage.  If you are pregnant and you are considering eating deli meats, make certain that you reheat the meat until it is steaming.

Fish with Mercury: Fish that contain high levels of mercury should be avoided.

Smoked Seafood -Also could be contaminated with Listeria. Canned or shelf-safe smoked seafood is ok to eat.

Raw Shellfish:  Raw shellfish pose concern for everybody and they should be avoided altogether during pregnancy.

Raw Eggs: Raw eggs should be avoided because of the potential exposure to salmonella.

Soft Cheeses: Imported soft cheeses may contain bacteria called Listeria.  All soft non-imported cheeses made with pasteurized milk are safe to eat.

Pate: Could contain the bacteria Listeria. Canned pate, or shelf-safe meat spreads can be eaten.

Unwashed Vegetables: Yes, vegetables are safe to eat, so you still need to eat them. However, it is essential to make sure they are washed to avoid potential exposure to toxoplasmosis. Toxoplasmosis may contaminate the soil where the vegetables were grown.

Are people crazy?  Okay before I get to my gripes about this list, where listeria seems to be the dominant danger, lets look at toxoplasmosis.  You can get this just from not cleaning your cutting board, so basically, I am at risk for this regardless of what I eat.  I also can’t eat my cat’s poop.  Dang.

Listeria is just another term for food poisoning.   Do you know how many deli sandiwhiches, sushi, raw shellfish, and unwashed vegetables I have eaten in my life?  I grew up in Hawaii, where sashimi is more common than deviled eggs.  Do you know how many times I have gotten food poisoning?  2.  In my whole life, I have had food poisoning twice.   I have lived over a quarter of a century, ate all over the world from Egypt to Ecuador, and have been fine.

So what these people are telling me, is that I have to avoid getting food poisoning.  Now how many people get this?  The Center for Disease Control says:

In the United States, an estimated 2,500 persons become seriously ill with listeriosis each year. Of these, 500 die. Pregnant women are about 20 times more likely than other healthy adults to get listeriosis. About one-third of listeriosis cases happen during pregnancy.

As I stated before, about 6 million people will get pregnant this year.  1/3 of 2500 cases this year will be in pregnant women.  So what is your chance of getting this disease? .013%.  What are your chances of dying in a car accident? .015%  So, you are more likely to die in an accident than get listeriosis.   Now, you don’t want to  partake in risky behavior.  No driving while blindfolded, and no licking raw chicken.  But do you never get into a car while pregnant?  No, you just make good choices.  Your favorite sushi restaurant where you know they get the fish fresh at the market might not pose as much risk as you think.  You have a craving for your favorite brand of brie cheese?  Yea, statistically you could cause your infant harm, but so do people who breath in the air in Los Angeles.

Just think about it.  Don’t take all those dos and don’ts at face value.  Research people.  This is YOUR life and YOUR BABY’s LIFE.