Some pregnant women have that “special glow,” while others feel downright unattractive. Your body may feel like it’s out of control, but at least you can keep your hair looking nice, right?

The debate about whether or not it’s safe to color your hair when you’re pregnant has been going on for decades. For many years, doctors advised pregnant women against using chemicals on their hair because of the possible effects they might have on the fetus.

When you apply hair dye, only a small amount is absorbed into your system, so very little - if any - would likely reach your baby. Since 2001, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has given the okay for expectant women to dye their hair.

Even so, it’s still recommended that you take precautions when dying your hair:

• Carefully follow the directions that accompany the hair dye product, including doing a patch test for allergic reactions. Do the patch test EVERY TIME.
• Wear gloves when applying hair dye.
• Do not leave the dye on your head any longer than directed.
• Rinse your scalp thoroughly with water after use, and wash your hands with soap and water.
• Do not mix different hair dye products - ever.
• Never dye your eyebrows or eyelashes. The chemicals can harm your eyes or even cause blindness. (The FDA bans the use of hair dye for eyelashes and eyebrows even in beauty salons.)

To be on the safe side, wait until after the first trimester to color your hair. You may even consider using a non-permanent vegetable dye, such as henna, to eliminate the worry. Or, instead of dyes, consider highlights, which contain far fewer chemicals and little contact with the scalp. Keep in mind that even if you use the same hair dye you’ve been using for years, your changing hormones may cause the results may be different when you’re pregnant.

What did you do during your pregnancy to feel attractive?

Read more:

• Coloring your hair during pregnancy
• Can I bleach my hair during pregnancy?

It’s National Alcohol and Other Drug-Related Birth Defects Week and health professionals want women to know what they can do throughout their pregnancy to decrease certain risks.

It’s common knowledge by this point that the consumption of alcohol during pregnancy can result in Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS). But many people aren’t aware that drinking alcohol while being pregnant can result in other developmental challenges described as Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) in children as well.

Babies born with FAS have mental and physical disabilities. These disabilities can range in severity and may include mental retardation. On a side note, there is a disproportionate amount of children who are born with FAS or FASD and end up in foster care or are put up for adoption.

Since health and medical experts have not been able to determine an exact amount of alcohol that is safe to consume during pregnancy, they recommend that women avoid drinking alcohol entirely while pregnant.

Here’s a startling statistic for you: there are more fetal deaths due to car crashes than there are child fatalities due to bike accidents or infant deaths in car crashes in the first year of life.

The question is why?

It seems that many pregnant women don’t buckle up for fear that the pressure from the taut seat belt would harm their baby if they were in a car crash. Studies have shown that although this sounds logical, it’s completely wrong. In car accidents involving pregnant women, 80% of women who didn’t use seat belts lost their babies; yet, only 29% of fetuses whose mothers were wearing seat belts properly were seriously injured or died.

A recent study from the University of Michigan suggests that the proper use of seat belts by pregnant women could prevent over 200 fetal deaths annually and probably prevent numerous brain injuries in the fetuses that survive.

While only 7% of pregnant women are generally involved in car accidents during their pregnancies, you want to be as safe as possible if you’re in the 7 percent! According to safety experts it’s best for pregnant women to buckle up and position the lap belt under the abdomen to best protect the baby.

A new study has indicated that the number of pregnant women with pre-existing diabetes has doubled in seven years. Obviously, this poses a health risk for both mothers and newborns. If the diabetes isn’t controlled, chances of miscarriage and still birth increase as well as the risk of their babies being born with birth defects.

More than 175,000 women were included in the study between 1999 and 2005. The rate of pregnant women with pre-existing diabetes rose from 8 per 1,000 pregnancies to 18 per 1,000. The rate increased the most among 13- to 19-year old expectant mothers. According to the experts, the findings from this study reflect the overall U.S. population.

It’s important to remember that gestational diabetes-which is developed during pregnancy-is different than pre-pregnancy diabetes. And all women with pre-existing diabetes should plan their pregnancies since they’re considered high-risk pregnancies. Diabetes can be monitored and controlled and women with the condition can deliver happy and healthy babies. Seeking medical help and controlling the disease is of utmost importance.

It might just be that babies are what their mothers ate. Kind of. According to a recent British study, there is a link between what a woman eats before she gets pregnant and the gender of the baby she conceives.

The study involved approximately 700 first-time pregnant women in England who did not know the sex of their fetuses. These women reported on their eating habits for the year before their pregnancy.

56% of the women who were among those with the highest-yet still normal-caloric intake had boys versus 45% of women with the lowest caloric intake. And women who had at least one bowl of cereal for breakfast each day were 87% more likely to have boys than those who had cereal/breakfast once a week. On average, the women who had boys ate about 400 more total calories and took in 300 more milligrams of potassium daily than did the women who had girls.

You’re probably thinking, like I was when I heard about the study, doesn’t the dad have the final say in having a boy or girl? The researchers point out that it’s a possibility that certain nutrients make women’s bodies more hospitable to sperm carrying the male chromosome.  Who knew?

More research needs to be done to prove this theory but it’s interesting to say the least. And if a women would like to try for a certain gender, maybe having a few extra bananas and bowls of cereal…or a few less if they’re leaning toward pink…might be worth a shot.

This just in:

The number of C-sections performed hit an all-time high of 33.4 percent of all births, according to the 2006 Birth Report released by the Department of Public Health.

A panel of specialists convened by the National Institutes of Health concluded in 2006 that while vaginal delivery may be safer in some ways (with a lower risk of infection), C-sections are safer in other ways (with a lower risk of incontinence later in life). Ultimately, the commission decided it could not find enough evidence to routinely recommend for or against C-sections.

Here are my thoughts on C-sections. Having had one (an emergency one, after 19 hours of labor and 2 hours of pushing), I can’t say I’m their biggest fan. The recovery was very difficult for me, and I envied my mom friends who were up and around when their baby was just three days old, while I needed help getting in and out of bed for three weeks. So when I hear first time pregnant women say they’d prefer to deliver that way, I just don’t get it.

That being said, I myself am a little leery about trying a VBAC (vaginal birth after C-section) come the day I have another child. And as this Boston Globe article attests, that shared feeling could be part of the reason why the frequency of Cesaerians has gone up:

Some of the increase in recent years, [Dr. Fred Frigoletto, chief of obstetrics at Massachusetts General Hospital] said, may be attributable to a change in medical orthodoxy about handling a woman’s pregnancies after she has had a C-section.

It once was popular to deliver subsequent babies by vaginal birth, but by the late 1990s the practice began to fall out of favor because of potential risks.

The biggest of these risks include uterine rupture, which can be life threatening for both mom and baby. It happens less than 1 percent of the time, but still. If you were told there’s a 1 in 100 chance that you and your baby might die, wouldn’t you opt for a little extra pain for a few weeks? Then there’s the stat that says 20 to 40 percent of women who attempt VBAC fail to deliver vaginally and end up with an unplanned C-section anyway, which poses more health risks. So what would you do?

Do I feel like I missed out on the natural birth experience a bit? Sure, although, I still say all births are natural. Was I bummed that several people held my baby before I did? Slightly, but I’ve more than made up for it. Did waiting six weeks to drive totally stink? Absolutely — all those days home with a newborn can cause cabin fever. But I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat for the joy of delivering another healthy baby… and if I can do it scheduled and without labor pain, and with a faster recovery (planned C-sections are less traumatic to the body than emergency ones), then I’d have to be crazy not to. Right?

What are your thoughts on VBACs?

In yet another alarming warning for pregnant women, this excerpt is from this week’s Newsweek:

Just last month researchers warned that drinking more than the equivalent of one “tall” Starbucks coffee a day while pregnant may double the risk of miscarriage. Now there’s another scary-sounding study for moms to be: researchers at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom and the University of Arhus in Denmark report in this week’s issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry that women who experience an extremely stressful event during early pregnancy may significantly increase their risk of giving birth to children who go on to develop schizophrenia.

So if moms-to-be can manage to avoid their lattes long enough to carry their babies full-term, at least there’s a brand new child development issue to pin on them. That means in addition to the ever-growing list of no nos, they are being told how not to feel while they’re expecting, too. But how are women supposed to ensure that a stressful event won’t take place during the nine months of pregnancy? That’s a big block of time for a family member or friend not to come down with a troubling illness. It’s a long time for a local or global tragedy not to move you. Or what if you’re audited, or fall behind on your bills, or get laid off from work? Then what? Perhaps there’s a Preggers Protection Program that’ll allow you to hide away for nine months or so.

Here’s the thing… I know these studies mean well. But with the barrage of alerts being constantly thrown at pregnant women dictating their every move lest they may be harming their children, how can they not feel stressed out? Not to mention guilt-ridden at even the tiniest of health issues their babies develop. After all, it must have been because of something they did, right?

And in case we forget, we’re lucky that society is always there to keep us on our toes. Watch people’s reactions as they stare at a belly-bumped gal holding a Dunkin’ Donuts cup, as if to say, “That had better be decaf!” And it doesn’t stop there. I wish I had a nickel for every perfect stranger who saw my protruding stomach, and asked if I planned to nurse my son. Why are my breasts and what comes out of them suddenly your business?! (But that’s a topic for another post…)

Mostly, when these stories make headlines, they always make me think back to something my wonderful OB/GYN told me while discussing my pregnancy with J.J. for the first time. He said, “Remember, pregnancy is not a disease. Enjoy it, take care of yourself, and use common sense.” Worked for me.

What’s the best piece of advice you received while pregnant? 

It seems like month after month, you’re anxious to see that little stick turn a certain color or show a plus sign, alerting you to the happy news. But if your little miracle is taking longer than expected, a new theory says that acupuncture can help move things along.

If news of this sticks (it was published in the British Medical Journal this week), it can bring hope to many couples who are eager to conceive. The idea is that acupuncture can increase blood flow to the uterus, relax the cervix and inhibit “fight or flight” stress hormones that can make it tougher for an embryo to implant, explains Eric Manheimer, a researcher from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in this article.

So far, the research is promising, complete with a study indicating that women trying in vitro fertilization with acupuncture became pregnant more often than those with in vitro alone. For aspiring moms using various fertility methods, what’s a few more needles?

Would you try acupuncture to help you conceive?