Pregnancy

Self-care can be challenging for women throughout the lives, not to mention during the busy and emotional experience of pregnancy. Ultimately, self-care is even more important when you’re pregnant because you are growing another human being.

Preeclampsia – a condition that only occurs during pregnancy – can be life-threatening for both mom and baby. Typically leading to high blood pressure that can cause seizures and strokes as well as organ failure, preeclampsia affects about five to eight percent of first-time moms.

While most people recognize that folic acid is important when you’re pregnant, this B vitamin is actually essential for all of us. While it is particularly critical when you are pregnant or trying to get pregnant, folic acid supports growth and development in the body – supporting your overall health.

Suffering through one miscarriage can be devastating. Multiple or recurrent miscarriages, defined as the loss of two or three consecutive pregnancies, can challenge even the strongest and most optimistic women and couples. While the causes of miscarriage are not always clear, challenges such as uterine issues, hormonal imbalances, cervical weakness, and blood-clotting issues or infections can often be addressed. The heartening news is that most women who have a miscarriage will go on to have a healthy pregnancy.

f you’ve struggled with infertility, you know it is not especially fun or funny. However, when one Clinic Sofia patient found herself laughing about certain aspects of her own experience, she sought to create a community to share some of the more humorous aspects to what she and others endure on their path to parenthood. Lisa Tuttle recently founded a nonprofit and website called Farcical Fertility—a place where couples can come to “laugh instead of cry” and share their own experiences or read others’ stories. The site also accepts donations, which will be used to provide fertility grants that will be given to help relieve the financial burden of infertility treatments for couples in need.

The 33rd Annual Midwest Infertility and Adoption Family Building Summit, a daylong event with speakers, information and resources to help those struggling to get pregnant, took place Nov. 17. Clinic Sofia’s Dr. David Clay had the opportunity to participate in a panel discussion, “Infertility 101,” as well as a couple of TV interviews leading up to the event.