Obstetric Services

Advice and risk assessment is provided for patients with Recurrent Pregnancy loss. (More than three consecutive pregnancy losses).

After the procedure

After cervical cerclage, your health care provider will do an ultrasound to check your baby’s well-being. You might experience some spotting, cramps and painful urination for a few days. Parasetamol or TRAMACET is recommended for pain or discomfort.

If you had history-indicated cervical cerclage, you’ll likely be able to go home the next day after the procedure. As a precaution, your health care provider might recommend avoiding sex for at least one week and, afterward, using condoms during sex.

If you had cervical cerclage because your cervix had already begun to open or an ultrasound showed that your cervix is short, you might need to remain in the hospital longer for observation. As a precaution, your health care provider might recommend limiting physical activity and sex until up to week 34 of pregnancy.

Your health care provider might recommend weekly or biweekly visits to examine your cervix until you give birth.

A McDonald cerclage can usually be removed in a health care provider’s office without anesthetic, but sometimes needs to be removed in theatre in a hospital.

After having a transvaginal cervical cerclage removed, you’ll typically be able to resume your usual activities as you wait for labor to begin naturally.

NAUSEA AND MORNING SICKNESS

• Eat dry bread or a dry biscuit before getting up
•  Eat frequent small meals
• Drink a cup of ginger tea
• If vomiting is sever or persists after 4months go and see the doctor.

HEARTBURN

• Eat small frequent meals
• Drink milk 
• Avoid spicy greasy food
• Avoid coffee, alcohol and cigarettes
• Sleep with your shoulder raised

SWELLING

• Swollen hands and feet are very common, especially in the afternoon and in hot weather.
• If the swelling is bad in the morning it is a sign that the woman must go and see her caregiver and have her blood pressure checked.
• Woman should avoid tight clothing and try to rest their feet a couple of times a day.

EXERCISE

• Keep the back straight and bend your knees when bending down or picking something up.
• Get someone to massage your back. A warm cloth or hot water bottle may feel good.
• Get someone to help you do hard work especially lifting heavy things like furniture

VEINS

• Try not to stand for long period of time
• Sit with your feet propped up.
• Regular exercise improves circulation
• Elastic stockings may help – especially if the legs swell (Talk to you doctor of midwife)

LEG CRAMPS

• Towards the end of pregnancy many woman get cramps in the calf muscles of the leg.
• When the cramps happens advice the woman to flex her foot (point the food upwards) and then gently relax it
• Eat lots of food with calcium

CONSTIPATION

• Eat lots of fruit and vegetables
• Try eating some the fruit and vegetables raw
• Eat whole grains – brown rice and whole wheat foods
• Get some exercise
• Avoid sitting for long periods
• Drink lots of water

VAGINAL DISCHARGE

• All pregnant woman experience a discharge/wetness form the vagina during pregnancy
• This discharge is usually clear and has no smell 
• If the discharge becomes white and lumpy or turns yellow or green consult your doctor or midwife

TIREDNESS

• Try to rest a little every day
• Avoid anaemia – which will make a women very tired by eating green vegetables eggs and meat.
• Drink vitamins every day

Take a deep breath

You’ve probably never even heard of such a thing as “round ligament” until now. They are found on either side of your uterus and support the uterus in the abdominal cavity. These short, round, strong ligaments stretch to accommodate the growing uterus. But the stretching makes them sensitive and irritated an a sudden awkward movement may cause them to go into spasm or cramp up, which is what causes the pain.

Pregnancy hormones makes all the ligaments in the body more supple and elastic, and it’s the stretching effect on the round ligaments that causes most of the pain and discomfort. You will probably feel this pain in subsequent pregnancies as well. Round ligament strain is most likely to occur in mid pregnancy and could continue until well in to the third trimester.

What to do:

• Avoid sudden jerking movement, taking care especially when twisting from the waist.
• When you get out of bed in the morning, be sure to move slowly and to turn your hips and shoulders at the same time as you roll from your side.
• When the pain strikes, turn or lean towards the pain and take a deep breath. This will release the spasm and relieve the pain. Do not hold your breath.

INGREDIENTS

Biologically the ingredients are two X chromosomes for a girl, and a X and a Y chromosome for a boy. These chromosomes are carried by two different types of male sperm and whether you conceive a boy or a girl depends which type wins the race to reach the egg first.

The Y chromosome sperm are smaller and swim faster than the X chromosome sperm, but aren’t as tough. So if you’re dreaming of a bonny boy, make love on the day you ovulate because there’s an egg waiting to be fertilized when the sperms reach the Fallopian tube. If you’re longing for a little baby girl, make love two or three days before your ovulation date the sperm carrying the female chromosome takes longer to reach the Fallopian tubes but they also survive longer.

Timing is important, too, because your baby’s sex is influenced by the PH of the vagina. Male sperm prefer an alkaline and female sperm an acidic environment.

If you’re trying for a boy. love-making should be when the vaginal balance changes to alkaline – on the day you ovulate – because male sperm either slow down or are killed off in an acidic environment.

Doctor Shettler, the man who devised this method, claims that it’s between 75 and 90 % effective.

MAP OUT YOUR PROGRESS

If you’re trying for a baby of particular sex, you must do a little groundwork and know exactly when you ovulate:

• Keep record of you periods for about four months, marking the day you start menstruating as day one.
• On this day begin taking your temperature (using a special ovulation thermometer bought from your pharmacist) before you get up or have anything to eat or drink.
• Prepare your chart by dividing a piece of pre-drawn graph paper into even sections to show the days of your cycle. On the left-hand vertical line, divide the graph into temperature measurement s according tot the readings on your ovulation thermometer.
• Mark your temperature each day using a different coloured pen for each month or cycle. When you ovulate, your temperature should rise slightly and, if you are accurate and your cycle is regular, you’ll see this rise on more or less the same day every month about 14 days before the fist day of you period. (You can also do Home Ovulation Tests on you urine – Purchased from most large Pharmacies)

TELL – TALE SIGNS

Your body also changes when you’re ovulating so look out for the following: swollen, tender breasts, a sharp pain on either side of you stomach about half-way down and increased odourless and colourless vaginal discharge.

HELPFUL HINTS

• Deep penetration ensures that sperm are released as near to the cervix as possible. This is said to favour conceiving a boy because the vaginal secretions here are the most alkaline
• Vaginal secretions become more alkaline, and so more favourable to male sperm when a woman reaches orgasm
• Although wearing tight pants, jogging and taking long, hot baths can reduce your partner’s spemcount, it’s also said to increase your chances of conceiving a girl. Because male sperm are the most vulnerable, they’ll be affected first, leaving the stronger female sperm to fertilise the egg. But be careful – reduced sperm count can also lessen your chances of falling pregnant.
• Douching with vinegar, bicarbonate of soda or anything else will not affect he pH of your vagina. Instead is may be harmful and could lead to vaginal irritation, ruptures or infection.

SELECTION OF A FEMALE FETUS

1. Frequent coitus is performed in the 7-10 days before ovulation
2. The last coitus should be at least 24 hours, and preferably more, before ovulation is expected to occur, and abstinence should then be practised for at least a week.
3. Intercourse should be face-to-face, and the ejaculate should be deposited low in the vagina, preferably just inside the introitus.
4. Intercourse should cease with ejaculation
5. Female orgasm should not occur.

SELECTION OF A MALE FETUS

1. Abstinence should be practised from the end of menstruation until after ovulation has occurred
2. Vaginal penetration should be from the rear, so that ejaculation will occur high in the vaginal vault, and preferably against the cervix. The man should have deep penetration at the moment of ejaculation
3. Intercourse should cease with ejaculation
4. Female orgasm should occur just before ejaculation
5. The procedure should be repeated two or three times the next 24-48hours.