I craved different foods throughout my pregnancy. In the first couple of months it was carbohydrates. Later in the pregnancy it was Oranges, Watermelons & Strawberries.
Things I could not stand the smell of or even the thought of eating were - green vegies, red meat, sweets and alcohol.
It was weird though because one week I would crave a certain food like potato wedges then the next day the thought of it would make me sick!!
I understand that IVF gives infertile couples the opportunity to have a child- which is wonderful BUT will it go too far? Is our society going the way depicted in Brave New World (novel by Aldous Huxley) or Gattaca (movie)? will we use the IVF process to say choose the gender of our child and choose the genetics of our child (eye colour, intellegence etc).
This does sound like Science fiction however I read this article that shows that we are starting to choose our children’s gender and characteristics - http://www.parenthood.com/articles.html?article_id=9609
Quite scary! science can go as far as the human imagination SO who draws the moral & ethical line?
Some naturists may even hold the opinion that IVF should not be used - that if a couple cannot conceive naturally, as intended, then babies should not be made in clinical environments. Continuing from this opinion is the ethical debate about what happens to the embryos that don’t get implanted and don’t get that chance of life?….then the stem cell research- scientific testing on these discarded embryos?
mmmm - food for thought…..
I believe that IVF is great for a couple who can’t conceive naturally but I don’t agree with choosing your future genes and definitely don’t agree with Stem Cell research.
And for those people that will say I am a hypocrite due to the USE of the embryo… well I say to you that through IVF we create an embryo for the purpose of giving life to that embryo….with stem cell research we are using embryos (or creating embryos) for the use of research not life..
If you are not sure which Ob to use I had Arifa Khan as my Obstretician and highly recommend her.
I went to the SAN (Sydney Adventist Hospital) in Wahroonga - they were fantastic!
This is the biggest decision of the prgnancy - your health care provider - what do you want?
I did have private health insurance however I lived close to a public hospital with a good reputation for maternity so was not sure whether to go through the public system or private system…
I did my research and in a nutshell the difference is that in the public system you get the obstretician and midwife on at the time of you going to your apointments and at the time of delivery. Accomodation is in dormitory type rooms with other mothers so chances are you will be sharing a room…
In the private system you choose your own obstetrician who sees you throughout your whole pregnancy and labour/ delivery - you also get your own room at hospital and stay for a minimum of 5 days.
Under the public system Medicare picks up the bill for everything and the cost to you is minimal. In the Private system the out of pocket expenses were on average $3,000 (that is with a normal delivery) depending on your Obstetrician costs and health fund rebates etc…
After much deliberation we decided that as it was my first pregnancy it was safer to go down the private health route. So I got about looking for a local Obstetrician and Hospital.
Well the first bit was fun and easy…. now that I AM pregnant what do I do??
If you read the books you have to eat right, start exercising, find a doctor etc etc etc. Nah! all too hard I think I will just let my body do what it was built to do!
I can say though that these resources listed below were invaluable to me:
Up the Duff by Kaz Cooke - excellent for down to earth practical advice no medical lingo and easy to read….
The Pregnancy Bible by Joanne Stone and Keith Eddleman - medical information text book style but fantastic for medical information on what is happening to you and the development of baby.
Baby Love by Robin Barker - fantastic guide for when baby is born. This book differs from the nipple, sleep and routine nazi books out there and gives you a guide then makes you feel OK for doing it your way (the philosophy was mother knows best, follow your instincts and it will be OK)
birth.com.au - weekly emails on how you are progressing in the pregnancy.
Last but not least, My Husband - a great support for cooking & cleaning when I had terrible all day sickness and now helping with the 3 am feeds etc 
My advice is that when you are looking for books, if you don’t agree with the tone and the philosophy of the book then Don’t Buy It even if it was recommended by aunt Bessie. It may not be suitable for you and your individual beliefs…
Well I was a lucky one..
I did not realise until antenatal classes, and in meeting other pregnant couples, just how lucky I was to have conceived so quickly - conceiving is just something that I, as a woman took for granted that would just happen as fantasied in childhood and young adulthood - “I was always going to grow up and have my own baby to cuddle”. And us women do spend a lot of time and money on trying not to get pregnant!
Little did I know that conceiving is actually scientifically very difficult, female fertility is unpredictable, male fertility is also unpredictable, the timing has to be perfect, the egg and sperm need to be healthy, the egg once fertilised needs to embed in a nice spot in the womb, the womb has to hold on to the egg and then build the lifeline…Basically the process is so delicate that there is a lot of room for error.
What brought this home to me was that in my antenatal class there were 15 couples of the 15 couples, 5 couples (1/3) had fallen pregnant through IVF http://www.ivf.com.au/index.php . Now I found this number quite significant and I can’t imagine how upsetting it would be to not conceive naturally….Please feel free to comment on your story should you have experienced the IVF process…
So my advice on conceiving is to have a lot of sex all he time, eat healthily, stop intoxicating your body with your choice of poison and be happy…
Well here goes …..
After two months of trying to fall pregnant I woke one morning feeling really nauseous and on the train to work I could smell everything and everyone around me which made me feel physically sick!! I was sitting next to a smoker and the smell of the stale smoke was making me wretch.. firstly, I tried to mask the smell by doucing myself in perfume.. that did not work! so I had to get up and move. I wondered… what is going on! I must be ill ! this happened all week and I thought I just had a virus I didn’t think that I would fall pregnant so quickly - little did I know that yes I was being invaded by a foreign body…
After a week of feeling sick and not myself, the tell tale sign for me were my boobs! they doubled in size immediately so I bought a pregnancy test from the chemist, slept the night in excited anticipation, woke in the morning and did the test….straight away there were two lines! before my husband could say from the bedroom “do you know yet” straight away I said “YES” and with a big smirk on my face told Mike that we were pregnant
I was thrilled
