Pregnancy

Routine Obstetric Care - Please Review Before Each Appointment

Over The Counter Medicine Recommendations

Pregnancy Do's

• Take a prenatal vitamin and eat a healthy diet. Anything that has prenatal written on it will have at least the minimum amount of folic acid required for pregnancy.
• Start Choline 1000mg daily once you feel well enough to take a big, smelly, bad-tasting pill. It decreases the rate of development of ADHD in your child. You'll have to buy it online or over-the-counter.
• Continue to enjoy all artificial sweeteners except Sweet ‘N Low (a.k.a. saccharin). Although no harm to developing babies has been proven, Sweet ‘N Low crosses the placenta, so we prefer the use of the many other artificial sweeteners that do not cross the placenta and do not enter fetal circulation.
• Start over-the-counter medications for nausea in pregnancy before vomiting develops. Taking a prenatal vitamin once a day, ginger capsules twice a day, vitamin B6 25mg every 8 hours, and doxilamine 25mg before bed can prevent the progression to the very serious pregnancy complication of hyperemesis gravidarum.
• Continue to exercise unless your doctor tells you otherwise. The only restriction for exercise is that you don’t perform an exercise that could increase your risk of abdominal trauma (i.e. tennis, contact sports).
• Continue to enjoy sexual intercourse as you desire throughout your pregnancy.
• Continue to undergo routine dental care. Procedures may be performed with local anesthetics and X-rays are safe as long as your abdomen is shielded.
• Wear your seatbelt. It is safer for you to have a seatbelt injury than any other injury possible during a car accident that could occur when not wearing your seatbelt.
• Get your flu vaccine if it is flu season and get your Tdap vaccine in your third trimester.
• Continue to enjoy manicures, pedicures, and massages. Please let us know if you need a doctor’s note to have your massage.
• Continue to use or have hair color/dye if you so desire.
• Do your kick counts after 28 weeks if your baby is not moving like he/she normally does for that time of day. Go to a quiet room, lay on your left side, and only pay attention to baby. If you do not get 10 movements (even little wiggles or hiccups count) in 2 hours, please call our office.
• Know the signs of labor and call our office at any hour if they occur.
  • Gush of fluid or a slow, steady trickle of clear fluid down your leg. If you are unsure you can clean up, put on a fresh pad, and check it in an hour. If the pad appears to be wet like an ice cube melted on it (absorbed in the pad, not discharge on the surface) your water may have broken.
  • Painful contractions every 10 minutes for an hour when you are earlier than 37 weeks.
  • Painful contractions every 5 minutes for an hour when you are 37 weeks or more along.
  • Bleeding like a period.
• Nausea and Vomitting Info:
  • Eat before, or as soon as, you feel hungry to avoid an empty stomach, which can aggravate nausea. A snack before getting out of bed in the morning and snacks during the night may also be helpful (eg, crackers with peanut butter or cheese taken prior to getting up for nighttime bathroom trips). Foods with protein are more likely to prevent nausea compared with carbohydrates alone.
  • Don't skip meals.
  • Consume meals and snacks slowly and in small amounts every one to two hours to avoid gastric distention, which can aggravate nausea in some patients. Rinsing the mouth with water, brushing teeth, or sucking on peppermint candies may reduce postprandial nausea.
  • Consume fluids at least 30 minutes before or after solid flood to minimize the sensation of stomach fullness. Choose fluids that are cold and clear. Popsicles and diet ginger ale are often well tolerated. Consume fluids in small amounts; using a straw or very small cup sometimes helps. Small volumes of electrolyte-replacement sports drinks, if tolerated, can be used to replace both fluids and electrolytes.
  • Medical marijuana is not safer than recreational marijuana and there are no indications for its use in pregnancy. You may not receive this information from cannabis dispensary employees, some of whom have been found to endorse its use for pregnant people.
  • Although cannabis has been used to mitigate nausea and vomiting in nonpregnant individuals, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and public health authorities advise pregnant individuals and those considering becoming pregnant to avoid using it or other cannabinoids because of fetal safety concerns.
  • If you aren't able to keep anything down including water for >18 hours, please visit https://www.morningsicknessclinic.com/appointments-new-patients to get an appointment with the Morning Sickness and HG Clinic of Birmingham.

Pregnancy Don't's

• DON'T schedule flights or travel greater than 2 hours from the hospital after 36 weeks.
• DON'T take medications, even if they are over-the-counter medications, that include tetracyclines, Lisinopril, Paxil, Accutane, ibuprofen, naproxen, or weight-loss medications.
• DON'T eat raw or rare-cooked meat, hot dogs or sausages that may contain animal liver. DON'T eat shark, swordfish, king mackerel, or tilefish. LIMIT white (albacore) tuna intake to 6 ounces a week. DON'T eat refrigerated smoked seafood. All other cooked seafood and fish are safe to eat in pregnancy but be sure to check advisories about fish caught in local waters.
• DON'T have more than 200mg of caffeine a day.
• DON'T sleep on your back in the 2nd half of pregnancy. If you wake up on your back, don’t worry, you haven’t hurt your baby, but try to sleep on your side as much as possible.
• DON'T expose yourself to extreme temperatures (greater than 102 degrees) in the first trimester (up to 14 weeks of pregnancy). Examples of things to avoid include heating pads, hot tubs, and saunas. All other bodies of water like lakes, pools, and the ocean are safe.
• DON'T eat the following foods because they increase your risk of getting listeriosis:
  • unpasteurized milk
  • hot dogs and cold cuts that haven’t been heated to steaming hot just before eating them
  • refrigerated pate, refrigerated meat spreads, and refrigerated smoked seafood
  • undercooked seafood, eggs, and meats

Birthing Preferences

• (205) 877-2121
• 2006 Brookwood Plaza Suite 310
  Birmingham, AL 35209