Monday, October 24, 2011
What a day
I found out this morning that my coworker just lost her baby. She was 25 weeks pregnant. I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around this. I mean, I know that a loss can technically occur any time, even at full term, but this just seems so cruel of the universe! It isn't supposed to happen to nice people who have been through everything because all they want is to have a baby! And I'm having a hard time reconciling that I was just starting to relax a bit, and now I feel like I have to keep my guard up again. Life is so unfair sometimes. I'm hoping the autopsy will reveal some reason -- she had all the tests in the world done (amnio, etc.) and everything looked great. It just boggles the mind to imagine how something like this can happen, and why the universe would make it happen. I'm also just trying to remind myself that just because I know about this terrible (and extremely rare!) event, that doesn't mean that anything terrible is likely to happen to me. If you have any to spare, I could certainly use some good vibes/prayers right now, and my coworker could use them even more.
Really? The Claim: Holidays Can Affect When Expectant Mothers Deliver
Maybe we can try to have an Earth Day baby?
THE FACTS
Researchers have long suspected that holidays and culturally meaningful events can play a role in medical outcomes. Some believe that terminally ill patients, for example, can hang on to life for religious events, birthdays and symbolically important occasions, though decades of study of the question have yielded mixed results.
It has been unclear whether a similar holiday-postponement effect could be seen in pregnant women. In a study published this month, however, researchers at the Yale School of Public Health reviewed millions of birth certificates and found a 5.3 percent dip in spontaneous births on Halloween, suggesting that a mother’s mental state may play a role in when she goes into labor. The researchers also noted a 16.9 percent drop in Caesarean births on Halloween, perhaps indicating that many women avoid scheduling the procedure then.
The scientists looked at all births in the United States over an 11-year period that occurred within one week on either side of Halloween, adjusting for variables like day of the week. The 1.8 million births revealed a clear reluctance to start labor around the festival of the dead.
But would a more symbolically positive holiday have the reverse effect?
To find out, the researchers studied 1.7 million births that occurred within a week of Valentine’s Day over the same 11 years. They found a 3.6 percent spike in spontaneous births on Valentine’s and a 12.1 percent rise in Caesareans.
THE BOTTOM LINE
New research suggests that women may be able to control the timing of spontaneous births around certain holidays.
Really? The Claim: Holidays Can Affect When Expectant Mothers Deliver
By ANAHAD O'CONNORChristoph Niemann
THE FACTS
Researchers have long suspected that holidays and culturally meaningful events can play a role in medical outcomes. Some believe that terminally ill patients, for example, can hang on to life for religious events, birthdays and symbolically important occasions, though decades of study of the question have yielded mixed results.
It has been unclear whether a similar holiday-postponement effect could be seen in pregnant women. In a study published this month, however, researchers at the Yale School of Public Health reviewed millions of birth certificates and found a 5.3 percent dip in spontaneous births on Halloween, suggesting that a mother’s mental state may play a role in when she goes into labor. The researchers also noted a 16.9 percent drop in Caesarean births on Halloween, perhaps indicating that many women avoid scheduling the procedure then.
The scientists looked at all births in the United States over an 11-year period that occurred within one week on either side of Halloween, adjusting for variables like day of the week. The 1.8 million births revealed a clear reluctance to start labor around the festival of the dead.
But would a more symbolically positive holiday have the reverse effect?
To find out, the researchers studied 1.7 million births that occurred within a week of Valentine’s Day over the same 11 years. They found a 3.6 percent spike in spontaneous births on Valentine’s and a 12.1 percent rise in Caesareans.
THE BOTTOM LINE
New research suggests that women may be able to control the timing of spontaneous births around certain holidays.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Many firsts!
This has been a weekend of firsts for us!
1. Friday night we ventured into Babies R Us for the first time. Scary! Did you know they make special $7 plastic cups to rinse your baby off in the bath? I can only imagine what other "necessities" are in store for us!
2. Yesterday we got our first baby present for this little one!
Thanks to Emily, Jason, Claire and Ella!
1. Friday night we ventured into Babies R Us for the first time. Scary! Did you know they make special $7 plastic cups to rinse your baby off in the bath? I can only imagine what other "necessities" are in store for us!
2. Yesterday we got our first baby present for this little one!
Thanks to Emily, Jason, Claire and Ella!
3. Last night we also ordered our first baby item: a stroller! It should come in the mail on Wednesday. Exciting!
4. Today I started organizing a registry on Amazon.com! We're thinking we'll do the big stuff there (since it's much cheaper than in stores) and the little stuff at Target. This is starting to feel more and more real...
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
due date statistics
This website is pretty interesting: http://www.dogfish.org/chris/fun/delivery.html
It shows a distribution of when babies are born relative to their due date:
And this show the cumulative rates:
Mike's response to the first graph was, "Wow, a fairly Gaussian distribution!" And to the second was, "Interestingly though, 50% of the babies are delivered by sometime in week 39, not 40."
This is fascinating stuff for us statistics nerds! :)
It shows a distribution of when babies are born relative to their due date:
And this show the cumulative rates:
Mike's response to the first graph was, "Wow, a fairly Gaussian distribution!" And to the second was, "Interestingly though, 50% of the babies are delivered by sometime in week 39, not 40."
This is fascinating stuff for us statistics nerds! :)
Monday, October 17, 2011
Good news!
We had our 12-week appointment today (a little late, since we're actually 12w5d), and we got lots of reassurance that everything is going well. That is, we got our reassurance after we had a terrifying few minutes of my doctor being unable to find the heartbeat with her little doppler machine!!! Thankfully she was immediately able to wheel in her little portable ultrasound machine, and we immediately saw why she was having difficulty with the doppler: our little bean was dancing and flipping like crazy! I think we're going to have our hands full with this little one. :)
So, normally we would only get two ultrasounds (one at 8 weeks and one at 20 weeks), but today we got another "bonus" to make up for the nerve-wracking few minutes of (seemingly) no heartbeat. And the upside was that we got to see our little one dancing, and everything looked perfectly formed according to my doctor. Yay!
I realized today that I've been buying myself little rewards after each milestone appointment. After we got past 8-9 weeks, I bought a journal and some magazines. After we heard the heartbeat last time I bought myself a bellaband. Today I just ordered a copy of Baby Bargains so we can start thinking about registering!
Now that it's slowly starting to sink in that we're actually having a baby, I'm realizing just how much work we have ahead of us: registering, choosing a daycare, deciding on cloth vs. disposable, etc. Whew! So we're just taking it one step at a time (while armed with multiple lists that I've already created!). First up: telling my boss after my annual review tomorrow. Wish me luck!
So, normally we would only get two ultrasounds (one at 8 weeks and one at 20 weeks), but today we got another "bonus" to make up for the nerve-wracking few minutes of (seemingly) no heartbeat. And the upside was that we got to see our little one dancing, and everything looked perfectly formed according to my doctor. Yay!
I realized today that I've been buying myself little rewards after each milestone appointment. After we got past 8-9 weeks, I bought a journal and some magazines. After we heard the heartbeat last time I bought myself a bellaband. Today I just ordered a copy of Baby Bargains so we can start thinking about registering!
Now that it's slowly starting to sink in that we're actually having a baby, I'm realizing just how much work we have ahead of us: registering, choosing a daycare, deciding on cloth vs. disposable, etc. Whew! So we're just taking it one step at a time (while armed with multiple lists that I've already created!). First up: telling my boss after my annual review tomorrow. Wish me luck!
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