Sleep like a baby for pregnancy

If pregnancy complaints arekeeping you awake at night, hereare some safe solutions forback pain, leg cramps and more.

if you haven’t already heard it, eventually someone is going to tell you to sleep all you can now because you won’t be getting any rest after your baby is born. Easier said than done, right? Telling someone to“just go to sleep” is like telling someone to “just” pull a red wood tree out of the ground with his or her bare hands:It simply can’t be done. Sleep is what restores all those important connections in the brain that allow your mindand body to function at their best—something that’s doubly important when there’s a baby on board. But thanks to muscle pains, pee breaks, heartburn, hot flashes andmore, pregnant women often face big sleep challenges.

We know you don’t want to take any medications if youcan possibly avoid it. So to help, here are some ways tomake getting the rest you need a little easier.

Lie on your left side Sleeping on your side relieves stresson your back, which may be aching right about nowthanks to your growing belly. But it’s also better for yourdeveloping baby than lying flat on your back: When youdo that, the weight of your uterus compresses the bloodvessels that feed the placenta. Additionally, lying on yourleft side is better than lying on your right side because itallows more blood to flow to the uterus.

Use pillows as props If trouble breathing is keepingyou awake, use pillows to elevate your upper body. Thiswill allow your uterus to drop down, away from your diaphragm,making it easier for your lungs to inflate.Banish the bum If heartburn is a sleep stealer, elevate thehead of your bed (not just your head) by putting blocksunder the legs.

Mellow out with milk Have a small glass of warm lowfatmilk, but not after 6 p.m. (In fact, you should limit allliquids in the evening to avoid having to get up and outof bed and pee in the middle of the night.) The lactose inthe milk is a sugar; this stimulates the release of insulin,which in turn helps milk’s calming proteins like tryptophanto enter your brain.

Keep your cool The pregnant body runs hot, so if youwant to avoid waking up in a sweat, open the bedroomwindow, run a fan or ratchet up the air conditioner.

Calm cramps and kicks Many pregnant womens sleep isdisrupted by leg cramps or restless leg syndrome, whichoccurs when your leg reflexively spasms in a kickingmotion. Applying a heating pad to the area can help, ascan getting 800 micrograms of folate or folic acid a day;you can get your daily dose with a supplement or foods,such as fortified cereals and grains, spinach and lentils.

Consider safe meds Quieting pain so that you can getthe sleep you need is better for your mind and body than“toughing it out” in order to avoid taking medicine whenexpecting. Tylenol is safe to take if pain is keeping youawake. Benadryl, an antihistamine that makes manypeople sleepy, is also considered safe during pregnancy.You can also ask your doctor about taking the over-thecountermedication Unisom, which has been shown tohelp promote sleep during pregnancy. Just don’t use it formore than one week.

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Long-term risks to moms and babies

In many pregnancies affected by GDM, the baby absorbs the mother’sglucose and grows bigger than he or she should, and a Cesareansection is often necessary. In others, the baby is underdeveloped and has a low birth weight. Babies born to mothers with GDM may also have problems with breathing, low glucose levels or jaundice. After delivery, the mom’s blood sugar levels typically revert to normal, but according to a study of nearly 10,000 mother-child pairs, this may not be the end of the story for either mom or baby.


Researchers at Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland, Ore., and Hawaii found that the higher a mother’s blood sugar was during pregnancy, the more likely her baby would be over weight by age 7. “Quite a few studies have shown that if you’re overweightat ages 5 to 7, you’re much more likely to be overweight asan adult,” says endocrinologist Teresa Hillier, M.D., the study’s lead author. Hillier found an increased risk of childhood obesity even among GDM babies who weren’t large at birth. “To me, that suggest ssomething has been metabolically changed that allows the baby tomore easily store fat,” she says.

Among women diagnosed with GDM, 50 percent will develop typeII diabetes within five to eight years, and 70 percent to 85 percent will develop the disease during their lifetimes, says Boyd E. Metzger, M.D.,a professor of medicine and endocrinology at Northwestern UniversityFeinberg School of Medicine in Chicago (see “Life After GestationalDiabetes,” pg. 37). The National Diabetes Education Program and theAmerican College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recently joined together to state that women who have GDM (as well as their children)should be followed closely after childbirth to monitor—andminimize—their risk of developing diabetes.

In addition, a 2012 study published in the journal Circulation found that having had GDM boosted a 50-year-old woman’s 10-yearheart disease risk by 26 percent. Researchers suggest that women with GDM might need to have their blood pressure as well as their blood sugar checked more regularly as they get older.

Diet and exercise can help

A GDM diagnosis can serve as an early warning,motivating at-risk women to make permanentlifestyle changes. “Even if treatment only delays diabetes by 10 or 15 years, that’s huge,”Metzger says.Hillier found the risks to children were reduced when women with GDM were treated with diet changes, such as eating fewer sweetsand starchy foods, smaller, more frequent mealsand more fruits and vegetables; increased exercise;and, if that was insufficient, by adding medication,typically insulin. When women remained untreated, their baby’s risk of being overweight or obese at ages 5 to 7 was nearly twice as high.“But the children of women who were treatedfor GDM had no greater risk of obesity or being overweight compared with children of motherswho had normal blood sugar during pregnancy,”Hillier says. “This suggests that treating moms during pregnancy gives their babies a fightingchance for a normal metabolism.”Like Paetsch, Jennie Wolter, 32, wasshocked by a GDM diagnosis because she, too,had no obvious risk factors. “But I came to termswith it when I was assured by my health careproviders that I could manage the risks and havea healthy baby,” says Wolter, the community relations manager for a nonprofit organization inSacramento, Calif. In addition to changing her diet with the help of her midwife, a nutritionist,a nurse and a supervising OB, Wolter also creditsexercise with helping her avoid having to takeinsulin. “My team told me that blood sugar couldbe well controlled by getting some exercise aftereach meal,” she says. When Wolter delivered her8-pound, 6-ounce baby vaginally, she was only 15pounds over her prepregnancy weight—with hercaregivers’ blessing.Paetsch did need to take insulin during herpregnancy, and she credits her diet and exercisechanges for feeling better physically at that pointthan she had in a long time, for weighing about10 to 12 pounds less today than when she became pregnant and for teaching her a healthier wayto live, long-term. “Monitoring my diet was ahuge pain at the time, but I learned a lot abouthow much self-restraint I could actually have,”she says. She also learned she could fit in smallamounts of exercise throughout the day and haveit count, the way experts say it will. “GDM feltlike such a devastating diagnosis at the time,”Paetsch says, “but it was actually a bit of a blessingin disguise.”Suzanne Schlosberg is a health and fitness writerin Bend, Ore.

What parents need to know about building a brainy baby?

What’s the best way to boost your baby’s brain power?Here’s what the latest research says:

Max out cuddle time Terrie E. Inder, M.D., a neonatalneurologist at Washington University in St. Louis,studied premature babies and the amount of negativestress they incurred (mostly due to medical procedureslike shots, changing of feeding tubes, etc.). Babies withthe highest number of stressors showed the most negativechanges in frontal and temporal lobes, the portionsof the brain associated with emotional stability, planningand language. Holding and soothing a baby, though,mitigated some of the effects of stress. “The less stressand the more soothing, positive experiences—the morea parent can hold and comfort a baby—the better for thebaby’s brain development,” says Inder.

Breastfeed A Danish study published in the Journalof the American Medical Association in 2002 found thatIQ measured some 15-plus years after breastfeedingceased was strongly correlated with the duration ofbreastfeeding: The biggest gains in IQ were seen whenbabies were breastfed for up to 9 months. “We knowit’s best for brain development to breastfeed a babyexclusively for the first four to six months. After that,it’s age-appropriate foods plus breast milk until age1,” says Michael Georgieff, M.D., professor of pediatricsand a neonatal nutrition researcher at the Universityof Minnesota in Minneapolis. The second best thingto breast milk, though, may be formula with DHA andcholine. Both of these nutrients are important for braindevelopment, says Georgieff. More studies are needed,however, to understand if this addition to formula providesany long-term benefits.

Focus on the relationship A crucial foundationof intelligence is the relationship an infant has withthe people around him, says Amy Hunter, L.I.C.S.W.,assistant professor at Georgetown University Centerfor Child and Human Development in Washington, D.C.If your baby babbles or blinks at you, do it back. You’reencouraging trust, confidence and communication. Also,narrate: “Mommy is peeling a banana. The banana isyellow. I’m cutting it into pieces with a knife so you caneat it for lunch.” “It may feel ridiculous at first, but you’retalking about an experience, what’s happening next andpredicting and explaining. This helps your baby developlanguage skills and make other valuable brain connections,”says Hunter, — victoria clayton