That is the question many pregnant women consider as they get close to their due date. For some women, it isn’t a question at all. They want it, and the sooner the better. For other women, an unmedicated childbirth experience is a really compelling goal. When I was pregnant with my first child, I thought I would absolutely have the ... Read More »
When Viacord employee Lisa had her first child, getting her baby’s umbilical cord blood stored was an obvious choice: “When I speak with my friends about cord blood banking, I liken it to a safety helmet. None of us wore helmets when we were kids and most of us turned out just fine. Of course today we rarely see a ... Read More »
If you’ve been pregnant, you surely remember how, as you got bigger, it was more and more difficult to find a comfortable position for your seatbelt. I remember feeling squeamish about the pressure right at the base of my abdomen, worrying if the baby would be OK if there was an accident. Apparently, it is a risk. The Tummy Shield ... Read More »
I appreciate you all bearing with me during this little snag in my health. About a week and a half ago, we finally figured out what was wrong, and a week ago, I had a minor procedure to help resolve the problem. The pregnancy continues to go fine, and I have been improving daily. I’m hoping to be back to ... Read More »
OK, this is a little off-topic for me, but I feel like I’ve discovered this amazing secret, and I need to share it with all the other parents who are subjected to the same plethora of germs that plague me and my kids all winter long. I used to get sick three or four times a season, sneezing, coughing, and ... Read More »
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been on a quest to test out a litany of gender prediction techniques, both scientific and unscientific, in preparation for my 18-week ultrasound. We knew that we would try to find out the baby’s gender if we could, and I thought it would be interesting to assess which methods proved accurate and which did ... Read More »
The first trimester of pregnancy is a unique time, especially if, like me, you don’t tell anyone outside of your immediate family that you’re pregnant. You’re keeping a big secret, and it starts to feel like you’re harboring a very small fugitive. Even with all the weight loss between my last pregnancy and this one (I’m more than 40 lbs ... Read More »
Forgive me for what is hopefully the last major interruption in my blogging schedule for a long time. We just got back from a wonderful family vacation in Costa Rica, where we got to spend lots of time in the sunshine with our two girls. It was really a nice break, and much needed for all of us, after a ... Read More »