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Pregnancy and Lactation Weekly Digest

For the Week Ending February 4, 2018.

Watch the new vlog “Joey’s Baby Diaries” sponsored by Pregistry. It is hilarious! You will also learn one or two things about how pregnancy feels!

 

Paid Family Leave in NY

New York State has just instituted what they are calling “The Nation’s Strongest and Most Comprehensive Paid Family Leave Policy,” which went into effect on the first of this year. If you work for a private employer you can take up to eight weeks of leave and receive 50% of your average weekly wage, you can continue your health insurance while on leave, and you are guaranteed the same or a comparable job after your leave ends. Read more here.

This is important for you because if you live in New York, make sure to take advantage of it. If not – advocate for it in your state.

End of an Era at Planned Parenthood

Cecile Richards, who has been the President of Planned Parenthood for over ten years, is stepping down. Her new memoir, Make Trouble: Standing Up, Speaking Out, and Finding the Courage to Lead — My Life Story, will be published in April. Read more here.

This is important for you because Trump’s government is trying to cut funding for Planned Parenthood.

C-section risks

Delivery by cesarean is sometimes medically necessary. But it does raise the risk of certain heath issues, in both the mother and the baby, later on in life. The absolute risks of these issues – subsequent miscarriages or stillbirths for the mother, asthma and obesity for the child – remain low though. Read more here.

This is important for you because if you don’t need to have a C-section, it might be safer not to.

Not-only-gestational diabetes

Having gestational diabetes can raise a woman’s risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, as well as hypertension and cardiovascular disease, later in her life. This conclusion was drawn from a study done in the UK that followed thousands of women for three years after they gave birth. Read more here.

This is important for you because it is difficult to find time to take care of your own health after your baby is born. But it is really important – especially if you had gestational diabetes, stay on top of it.

The most popular article on The Pulse this week was Main Causes of Irregular Periods. Irregular periods can be caused by a number of medical issues, including dysregulated thyroid hormone levels and stress. Read it here.

Diana Gitig
Dr. Diana Gitig has a Ph.D. in cell biology and genetics from Cornell University, and has been writing about issues in biology – from molecular biology to cancer to immunology to neuroscience to nutrition to agriculture - for the past fifteen years. She has three teenaged children.

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