Postpartum depression is also referred to as post natal depression. This is a kind of clinical depression that affects women and in some cases men after a child is born to them. There are 5 to 25% chances that a mother would suffer a post partum depression. Postpartum depression strikes a woman after she has carried a child especially during the first few months. It is a severe form of depression and if it is left unattended, it might grow into a real bother. Sadness, fatigue, insomnia, changes in appetite, reduction in libido, mood swings, anxiety and irritability are common symptoms. Studies suggest that even though 5 to 9% women experience postpartum depression only 3 to 4% seek professional help. Many people misunderstand that postpartum depression is caused by a lack of vitamins but actually it is the hormonal changes experienced by a woman during her pregnancy that needs to be blamed for postpartum depression. While hormonal treatments severely fail to help a mother to recover from postpartum depression there are women who get over this depression with the help of counseling and through group effort.

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Pruritic urticarial papules and plaques of pregnancy also called polymorphic eruption of pregnancy is a common kind of rash experienced by most pregnant women. It is experienced mostly during one’s first pregnancy and that too in the third trimester, more specifically the thirty fifth week onwards. However suffering from pruritic urticarial papules and plaques of pregnancy once does not mean that you are subject to experiencing it over and over again. The rash associated with pruritic urticarial papules and plaques of pregnancy usually begins in the stretch marks of the abdomen. You will know it is a rash of pruritic urticarial papules and plaques of pregnancy because it will not include your belly button unlike other rashes that appear during pregnancy. The rash looks typical – they are small, reddish and forma wheal like structure. Most of the times, the rash does include small vesicles. The rash also spreads very fast – over the thighs, buttocks, breasts and arms and only in a matter of a few days. The rash is also very itchy and that is characteristic of pruritic urticarial papules and plaques of pregnancy. The condition is not harmful to either mother or baby but is very bothersome. It lasts for not more than 6 weeks and recovers pretty spontaneously after first week or second weeks from delivery. The worst of its itching will not last for more than a week.

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Smoking is a growing hazard with every passing day. Many health problems arise from the problem of smoking! Smoking while you are pregnant is bound to affect your baby along with you. At present almost 10% women smoke during their pregnancy in the United States. This is such a plight as studies suggest that if these women were to stop smoking during their pregnancy, the number of still births would have been reduced by 11% and the number of new born deaths would have been reduced by 5%. There are almost 2500 chemicals that constitute cigarette smoke. It is not known for sure, which chemicals in the cigarette smoke harm the unborn baby but both nicotine and carbon monoxide are terrifically harmful for pregnant women expecting babies.

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If the world was a perfect place, every woman who is going to become a mother would have been naturally granted relief from workplace stress, relationship snatches and other anxiety provoking situations. Since however that remains to be a far fetched dream, you will want to make do with our top five pregnancy stress buster tips.

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In most cases the varicella virus causes chicken pox which is known to be a benign, self limited, viral infection. Chicken pox suffered by children is less harmful than that suffered by elderly people but the worst of complications arise when chicken pox affects a pregnant woman as it has chances to damage not only the mother but also the infant inside. Women who have experienced chicken pox before or have been immunized to antibodies stand chances of having these antibodies passed to the infant while pregnant via the placenta. Thus these women who are already immune to chicken pox need not worry about complications for either themselves or their child even if they are around somebody who is suffering from chicken pox.

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