Pregnancy--Your Baby's Growth and Development Within the Womb Written by Larry Denton
Parenting does not start once a child is born. Good parenting starts even before you become pregnant. It begins by caring about what you eat, how much sleep and exercise you get and understanding about stress and responsibilities that come with parenthood. Understanding your baby's development during first trimester (approximately 12 weeks) can give you some appreciation of gentle care your body should receive during this time. Knowing how your baby is developing can also help you deal with your body to best nurture growing life inside you. Understanding importance of proper nutrition, vitamin supplements (particularly folic acid), early and regular prenatal care and healthy exercise, in addition to knowing dangers of caffeine, alcohol and tobacco, can improve your chances of a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby. The most monumental and dramatic development of your baby takes place during first 12 weeks. This is when fertilized egg travels down Fallopian tube to implant in wall of uterus. Once that happens, powerful hormones are produced to sustain your pregnancy while your body continues to treat it like a foreign invader. The lack of hormone production at this stage is cause of some miscarriages. In first week after fertilization, pregnancy usually becomes established and embryo begins to grow and develop. During second week, groups of rapidly growing cells prepare to become specific organs and body systems. During week three, brain and heart begin to develop. Once twelve weeks have passed, limbs and all internal organs are fully formed. It is vitally important that you be extremely cautious about diet, drug usage, alcohol consumption and tobacco use during these first 12 weeks, since that is when most crucial development takes place. At beginning of second trimester, at around sixteen weeks, fetus is about five inches long and weighs approximately 4 ounces. Its heartbeat is strong and its skin is transparent. The body is totally covered in soft, downy hair called lanugo. By twenty weeks, fetus is a foot long and weighs about one-half to one pound. The fetus sucks its thumb and sometimes hiccups. During these middle months of pregnancy expectant mother will probably feel better than she did earlier or that she will later. Morning sickness (nausea) and fatigue usually lessen or disappear entirely. As baby's growth continues, expectant mother's uterus expands into abdominal cavity. Psychological changes in response to their changing appearance occur in most women during this portion of pregnancy. Some expectant mothers enjoy how they look, while others feel unattractive, inconvenienced and restricted. By end of second trimester, around twenty four weeks, fetus has grown to fourteen inches in length and weighs about one and one-half pounds. The eyes are open and fetus has a strong grip.
| | Introduction to VitaminsWritten by Andrea Putting N.D
This article is offered for free use in your ezine, or on your web site, so long as author resource box at end is included, with hyperlinks. Notification of publication would be appreciated.Introduction to Vitamins Vita – for live; Amines – nutrient containing substances Vitamins are organic food substances found only in living organisms. Our source of natural vitamins comes from animals and plants we eat that produce them. There is only a few of B vitamins that can be manufactured within body, with assistance of bacteria and biochemical conversion. Vitamins don’t provide us with any energy and are not building blocks of our body, so therefore we cannot live on them alone, and we cannot live without them. Eating food provides us not only with vitamins we need and energy to function but also to help form tissues of our bodies. One of main uses of vitamins is to function as co-enzymes, assisting metabolic processes to take place. Vitamins don’t function on their own as independent substances. They function in synergy with each other and with other minerals and enzymes. This is why it is so important to have a balanced supply. Vitamins have many varied roles within our bodies. They are essential for growth and vitality, digestion and elimination and helping us to maintain our health and resist diseases of all types. When our diet is insufficient in certain vitamins, it can lead to disorder, which can range from mild to very serious. This depends, of course on how deficient diet is and to which vitamin, or combinations are lacking. It was observations of diseases and ill-health in general that lead to discovery of vitamins. There are two main categories vitamins fall into; Water-soluble and Fat-soluble. The water-soluble vitamins include many of B Vitamins and Vitamin C. These vitamins are essential in diet everyday, as they are not stored within body. Excess of these is excreted fairly quickly. The best supply of these vitamins will come from raw foods, as they are easily destroyed by cooking. These are found mostly in vegetables.
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