Tips for Safe Traveling during Pregnancy

Traveling during pregnancy is quite safe, but certain precautions should be taken to avoid any mishaps. In fact, it is a perfectly good idea to take a holiday during pregnancy and it is the best way to relax your mind and body before the happy occasion. However, the happy holiday can be a bit dampened if you keep experiencing cramps and morning sickness. It is always advisable to go anywhere calm and soothing like a beach, rather than hilly area during pregnancy. Follow your doctor’s instruction and take the prescribed medication and things should be just fine.

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  Upset Stomach: It is one of the most common problems during any traveling, because often the body takes time to adjust to the new kind of food in another part if the country. For the pregnant woman, this can be quite a bother, combined with morning sickness. The best remedy to this problem is to eat healthy and order meals with less oil and spices. Drink bottled water and avoid ice as you may be clueless regarding the purity of water used in making ice. Always carry a small pouch of soap in your hand, because if you are traveling from one city to another in a car, with no proper accommodation nearby and you need to take a snack, you will need to wash your hands.



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  Avoid Heat and Dehydration: Your body needs plenty of fluids at this stage so always keep drinking water at regular intervals, and carry bottled water when you step outside. Also if it is very hot outside, then always wear clothes made from natural fiber like cotton and take special care to protect your eyes. Humidity will only add to the discomfort, and may aggravate any other problems you might be having during this period. Even air-conditioning can be very dehydrating, so even if you are staying indoors, be sure to drink lots of water. It is best if you keep a daily record of the intake of fluids.



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  Emergency Kit: Carry an emergency kit along with the prescribed medication. Pack in an ORS pack and some mineral supplements. Nausea usually occurs during the first trimester of pregnancy, so if you have already passed that stage, it may be your body is going through some additional stress and you may have to consult the local doctor. So it is always essential to carry your medical papers even if you are on a holiday. Normally traveling should be avoided in the first and third trimester, so try to schedule your traveling plans in the second semester, when you body has grown more accustomed to the internal changes, and the delivery is still a few days away.

Most usual symptoms of early pregnancy

Am I pregnant?" is probably the most common health question women ask these days. The signs of early pregnancy are easy to recognize, particularly if this is not your first pregnancy. No matter how many times you get pregnant, the signs and symptoms of early pregnancy are always the same.

However, this does not mean that you will experience every pregnancy in the very same way.
Also, remember that some of the earliest signs of pregnancy may be subtle but not obvious.

Here are the ten signs of early pregnancy and its symptoms-

Missed Period

Perhaps the most obvious early symptom of pregnancy is when you've missed your period. This possible sign of pregnancy often leads women to search for more details about the other pregnancy symptoms. Doctors are of the opinion that some pregnant women might only experience a much lighter period compared to their usual.

Breast Tenderness

One of the very noticeable early signs of pregnancy is tender, swollen, somewhat sore breasts. You may notice this sign at bedtime when you are trying to get comfortable and sleep, when exercising or showering, or also when getting dressed.
When you become pregnant, your body begins preparing your breasts for producing milk and breastfeeding. Also the hormones start increasing. Some women notice their nipples darken in color.

Fatigue and Exhaustion

You might start going to bed sooner, or find it harder than usual to get out of bed in the morning. If you are working, by afternoon you may feel like lying down. A simple activity like shopping may leave you feeling wiped out and lightheaded.
If you know you are pregnant, try to take frequent rests/naps of 15 minutes to a half-hour whenever possible during the day.

Frequent Urination

An early symptom of pregnancy that others may observe you experiencing is frequent trips to the restroom. One cause of this pregnancy symptom is that the swelling uterus can put pressure on your bladder.
Also, pregnancy causes extra body fluids to be processed by your kidneys and bladder. This symptom might remain consistent during the nine months of pregnancy.

Nausea and vomiting

This symptom may often be prevented by eating smaller, more frequent snack size meals. Many women say saltine crackers and milk seem to be helpful. It tends to level off once you are into your second trimester and your body adjusts to all the different changes it is going through.

Dizziness and/ or Fainting

Going up stairs, standing up suddenly after sitting for sometime, or just having to stand in a queue can make you feel lightheaded. As the uterus swells it compresses arteries in your legs. This can drop your blood pressure and make you dizzy or you might faint.
A common early sign of pregnancy is that you may faint when you have gone a while without eating. This happens due to low blood sugar level, because that is your baby's main source of food.

Food Cravings or aversions to foods

Taking a good pre-natal vitamin supplement and a pure fish oil capsule may ease some cravings and help prevent extra weight gain and it is often recommended by the doctor for the health of your baby.
Less well known but equally common pregnancy signs are aversions to certain foods. You may find that some foods you previously enjoyed are no longer appetizing.

Constipation

Food passes more slowly through the intestines due to the increased level of progesterone, leading to constipation during pregnancy.

Raised basal body temperature

If you are charting your basal body temperature (oral temperature taken just after you woke up in the morning) you can notice an increase in it if you are pregnant.

Light bleeding and/or cramping

The most common reason for light bleeding during early pregnancy is implantation. Implantation bleeding occurs when the fertilized egg implants itself in the uterine lining and usually occurs about 10 to 14 days after conception. Bleeding caused by implantation is usually light.

Cramping that is similar to menstrual cramps occurs early during pregnancy and happens when the uterus begins to expand to make room for the embryo to develop into a fetus.

An important point to remember is that while these symptoms are common during pregnancy, sometimes none of these symptoms occurs.

f you experience the signs and symptoms of pregnancy, buy a home pregnancy test and visit your doctor – either to begin prenatal care and confirm your pregnancy.

Tests during Pregnancy

Pregnancy is accompanied by medical check up’s and a lot of tests to be undertaken. Following are the lists of tests to be taken during pregnancy:

Blood Sugar

This test must be taken between 20 -30 weeks. It is absolutely necessary to take this test if one has a family history of Diabetes and High Blood Pressure.

Urine Test

At every visit to the doctor the urine is checked as it is the basic test during pregnancy done for every pregnant woman. Urine is checked to ensure that there is right amount of glucose, white blood corpuscles, proteins, red blood corpuscles and ketones.

Ultrasound

It is a very safe method to check visually the baby and its condition. It tells about the position of the placenta, the sex of the baby, if there is more than one baby or not, the size of the baby and other abnormalities if present. The first one is done within 8 weeks and the second one is usually done between 18-24 weeks of pregnancy

One has to drink a lot of water before going through a ultrasound test during pregnancy and then a waves are passed over the abdomen and then images are obtained.

The Alpha Feto Protein Test

If the baby is not being formed properly, it is shown in this test.

The Doppler Test

It is generally done after 30 weeks have passed. It checks the condition of the baby; whether the baby has received enough nutrients needed and also tells about the heartbeat of the baby.

The Colored Doppler Test,

It uses colors to show the blood flow in the baby. This test is generally not recommended to every pregnant woman. Only women who have complications like high blood pressure, diabetes etc. are recommended to take this test during pregnancy.

Thalassemia

If both , the mother and the father carry thalassemia traits there are 75% chances that the baby too has it. After finding the result positive, counseling is done and various issues related to it are discussed with the parents.

Vaginal Culture

Fluids that are secreted from the vagina are taken for tests during pregnancy to check for sexually transmitted diseases.

G6PD

This is known as Glucose 6 Phosphate Dehydrogenas test. If one has the traits, she can have side effects to many medications.

Therefore, it is recommended to take all the important tests during pregnancy and also ensure that you get all your vaccinations done in time for a healthy and safe pregnancy.

WALKING DURING PREGNANCY

Walking is considered as one of the most simplest, effective and easy exercise to keep ourselves fit and healthy. Not much of the efforts are required to walk for sometime daily. Women at the time of pregnancy as well as after pregnancy should walk daily. It will keep them healthy and fit. Walking during pregnancy helps women to improve their endurance and to recover them from pregnancy effects.

WALKING DURING PREGNANCY TIPS:

Walking is very good for one’s body especially during pregnancy. It can regain your spirits and help you feel fresh. It is one remedy for most of the ailments.

There are certain ways, which are recommended for walking during pregnancy:

• One should maintain the right posture when walking. Try to walk straight and try not to lean over someone else when walking. Hold someone’s hand while walking. Relax yourself and walk. This will also help you cure your back pain. Some women also wear a maternity belt when walking. This helps them to maintain their posture.


• Look straight while walking. You should not look here and there while walking. This will help you to avoid walking into someone or something accidentally. It will also help you to cure your problem of backaches.


• Walk at a desired pace. There is no need to run and walk neither walk too slowly. Walking at a normal pace copes with the various exercises you need to do during pregnancy. Do not walk too fast that you lose your breath.


• Always stretch before walking and after walking. As during pregnancy, the muscles tend to stretch preparing the body for the labor pains; therefore, one must stretch oneself before and after walking.

Many hormones are released during pregnancy. They make us feel sore and uncomfortable. Therefore, the chances of getting hurt during pregnancy increases. But if you exercise daily or take a short walk, which is equivalent to exercising, you may get relief.

If you feel bored while walking alone, you can talk to some other friend or relative of yours and can ask them to accompany you for walking during pregnancy. You can also listen to some music while walking which will make you feel comparatively less bored. If two people are walking together, both of them can keep each other motivated. Walking during pregnancy is one of the best methods to keep yourself fit and fine.

Pruning Climbing Roses

This need present no difficulty, although it is true it seems to puzzle many rose growers of some years' standing. But, as a rule, where they err is not in pruning the plants insufficiently, but in pruning them too much. While systematic and regular pruning is good for the dwarf roese climbing varieties, as a rule, are all the better for light pruning. The best blooms of a climbing rose are produced by one-year-old growths and, theoretically, the shoots that have bloomed should be cut out as soon as the flowers are over, so that fresh growths may be encouraged to take their places. This is certainly correct advice,, but some sorts are so accommodating that the removal of the older growths may often be dispensed with. They are found among the wichuraiana varieties. These bloom so freely, even from the side shoots that form on the two- and three-year-old stems, that it is a pity to cut them out as long as there is room for them. Of course, preference is always given to the youngest, and it is unwise to crowd the growths together, or in aiming at getting a superabundance of blossom the grower may find that unhappily he obtains none at all worth having. Thus, while liberties may be taken with the Dorothy Perkins class of rose that would lead to disappointment with other kinds, it should not be forgotten that no rose will bloom well if its growths have not a fair share of sunshine and fresh air. Here are the names of a few that may be neglected for two or three years so far as pruning is concerned and be none the worse for it, and in the garden of the inexperienced grower they may conceivably be all the better:-Dorothy Perkins and its first cousin, if not its sister, Lady Gay, Auguste Barbier, Alberic Barbier, Tausendschon, Minnehaha, Hiawatha, White Dorothy Perkins, Jersey Beauty, Elisa Robinson, Gardenia, Lady Godiva, Joseph Billard, and Edmond Proust.

Climbing roses belonging to the multiflora class, of which Crimson Rambler is a type,- are not to be treated so cavalierly in the matter of pruning. There is a great difference in the quality of the blooms produced by one-year-old growths and those of greater age. The shoots of the previous year's growth yield fine flower bunches direct from the main stem, but all other growths bloom only from comparatively weak side shoots, and their flowers are not to be compared with those from younger stems. It is thus not wise to take liberties with Crimson Rambler and its near relations, or they will retaliate by rewarding the gardener in negative fashion in the matter of blossom. Let me name a few of these near relatives so that the reader may be forewarned, and treat them with the respect that they at any rate seem to think is their due. Some of the most familiar are Aglaia, Blush Rambler, Crimson Rambler, Electra, H61&e, Leuchtstern, Mrs. Flight, Philadelphia Rambler, Psyche, Rubin, and Waltham Rambler. " Cut out the old, train in the new " should be the grower's motto in dealing with these.

I must just say a word about the pruning of the Noisette roses, for they need considering separately, and among them are such favorites as William Allen Richardson and Reve d'Or. They are not so adept at producing fresh vigorous shoots from the base of the plant as varieties of the two classes just mentioned, and therefore the older shoots must be treated with greater consideration than usual, since when there are few to replace them we must needs make the best of those we have. As a rule, if, well planted and hard pruned the spring following planting they grow vigorously enough for the first two or three years ; afterwards an opportunity is usually offered to the practiced pruner to give proof of his skill. This he will do by bending down some of the strong growths that have assumed a perpendicular position, by shortening others to within a few inches of the ground, and by seeing that all shoots are spread out as much as possible. Everyone must have noticed that all plants grown against walls (and it is often as wall roses that the Noise varieties are valuable) show most vigor at the top.. If this state of things is allowed to become too pronounced it must ultimately mean that the base of the plant gets bare. Noise roses other than those I have mentioned are found in Celine Forestier, Marechal Niel, Fortune's Yellow, Lamarque (all needing the shelter of a warm wall facing south), Alister Stella Oray, and C. Kuster. So much, then, for pruning the roses that are commonly grown. What I have not made plain I hope the accompanying sketches will do. I am trusting to them to make up for my shortcomings in description. There is really not very much to say in respect of the other classes of roses that are comparatively rarely grown that would interest the average amateur. They nearly all need similar treatment, which is, that you cut out some of the older growths occasionally in late summer when the plants have done flowering, and at the spring pruning, which is practiced in late March, you cut back about half-way each remaining shoot.

Pegging Down Roses

There are exceptions, as may well be imagined, among the wonderful variety that is found in roses at the present day. The first exception is found in those varieties that make vigorous growth even when hard pruned; this would seem to indicate that the orthodox method is not for them. Neither, in fact, is it suitable. If grown in a bed or border away from wall or fence, the proper way to treat them is by means of what is known as " pegging down." This, rendered plain, signifies that instead of being cut back in March, the growths of the previous year are scarcely, if at all, shortened (although if the tips are soft they are cut off), and they are secured to the ground by means of pegs. This is easily accomplished by tying a piece of string to the end of the shoot and tying this to a peg stuck in the soil. This miniature rose arch will be one mass of blossom in summer. Each bud will produce a bloom or bunch of blooms according to its habit. The grower proceeds in autumn to cut out the growths that have flowered, so that fresh shoots may have it all to themselves. They, too, are treated in the same way the following spring; thus in roses of this type there is a constant succession of young growths of great vigor taking the place of those that have given their bloom, and each year's supply is pegged down in March. There is no danger of the supply giving out if the old shoots are regularly cut out when the flowers are over. Such roses as these take up a lot of room, and it is useless to grow them in the same bed with others of ordinary vigor, for the latter will be simply smothered. I know this from unfortunate experience, and as my gardne is of limited extent ' I gave up growing them in a rose bed, and now have them against a 4 or 5 feet high fence. A few sorts that I have found need this treatment are Frau Karl Druschkil Hugh Dickson, Mrs. Stewart Clark and Clio. But one may peg down any rose that makes unduly vigorous growth if one wishes to have plenty of blossom and there is the necessary room at disposal.

Planting Roses

There is probably more varied advice given on the planting of roses than on any item of gardening work; the soil preparation, which is a necessary preliminary and may be considered in connection with it, is the subject of even more contradictory direction. Rather than attempt to weigh the possible disadvantages of one method with the possible advantages of another, it will be more to the point, I think, if I give my own experience and my own methods, for they have for some years given me most satisfactory results. My soil is ordinary gardne loam-that is to say, it is the kind of soil one would expect to find in any fairly well tilled garden. It is neither very heavy nor very light, although of course clay preponderates; otherwise it would scarcely grow roses. The method I adopt is a simple one. I do not trench 3 feet deep, as is often advised. Not for the reason that I underestimate the value of trenching, but for the very human reason that full trenching is hard and heavy work, and that a less elaborate method gives good returns. I like to do my own digging, then I have the satisfaction of knowing that it is well done or, at least, done to my liking. In preparing a bed for rose planting I first of all take out a trench 18 inches deep and 2 feet wide across one end of the ground. The soil at the bottom of the trench is then turned over with a fork. We thus get some 2 feet depth of tilled soil. The top " spit " of the undug soil is then turned into the trench ; the second " spit " is also turned into the trench upon the first " spit." Thus, to use an " Irishism," we have proceeded one step backward, a new trench having been opened. The, soil at the bottom of this is forked over. It may be worth while to mention that in digging over the first " spit " the worker faces the open trench ; in turning over the second " spit " he works sideways to it ; so, too, when forking the soil in the bottom of the trench. There is really nothing more to tell except to say .that the worker " proceeds backwards " until the end of the plot or bed is reached. The last trench is filled with the soil that was taken out in making the first trench. This, by the by, should at once be placed at the end of the ground, so as to save a second removal.

The question of manuring is one of importance to the welfare of the roses. There is no doubt that farmyard manure is the best stuff for digging in the soil when preparing for planting, and it is best placed below the second "spit " that is, immediately upon the forked-up soil at the bottom of the trench. When farmyard manure is not to be obtained readily-and near towns it appears to be difficult to procure the best substitute is basic slag. This may be conveniently applied after spreading it over the surface at the rate of 1/2 lb. to each square yard, and then digging it in dig the bed. In any case, whether farmyard manure is used or not, basic slag is an excellent fertilizer to apply in autumn; it is a slow-acting manure, and the plants will derive benefit from it the following season.

The actual planting presents no difficulties. The chief points to bear in mind are to dig a hole large enough for the roots to be spread out in it, to plant at such a depth that the point where the plant was budded-the junction of stock and scion-is covered with about 1 inch of soil ; first to soak the roots in a pail of water or puddled clay for several minutes, and to cut off all broken and bruised root ends. It is most harmful to leave the plants lying about when waiting their turn to be planted; they should either be placed in water or covered with soil. The root fibers so quickly dry up and perish when exposed to the air even for a short time. Finally, it is necessary to make the soil firm about the roots. It follows from this that planting cannot be done when the ground is wet ; neither is it wise to plant when the ground is dry, as it sometimes is in October. As to the time of planting, early November is the best of all. However, rose planting may be carried out successfully from the middle of October until the end of March or early April, but not later when the plants are from the open ground. Roses from pots may be planted at any time of the year, though preferably not later than May, since the roots are not disturbed and the plant receives no check.

If the removal is carefully carried out one may shift even large roses from one part of one's garden to another without their suffering, providing they are transplanted, say, not later than the first week in November. I have shifted 6 feet high plants of Hugh Dickinson from a bed for which they proved too tall, planting them against a fence without even a shoot shriveling When bought plants are put in, severe pruning is invariably necessary the following spring. Some growers advise covering the rose beds with manure in autumn when planting is finished. Others, and I am among. the number, think a covering of manure in spring preferable. I give a coating of farmyard manure 'as soon as pruning is finished, which is usually about the first week in April. This is forked just beneath the surface. The roses receive no further manure, except occasional dressings of fertilizer during summer.

There are many excellent special fertilizers on the market, as, for instance, Clay's, Guano, Wakeley's Hop Manure (which, by the by, is an excellent substitute for farmyard manure), and others. Tonks' manure is especially beneficial to roses. It is compounded from a prescription formulated by the late Dr. Tonks, and may be purchased already made up. Those who like to mix their own may care to know the ingredients, which are as follow :-Superphosphate of lime, twelve parts; nitrate of potash, ten parts; sulfate of magnesia., two parts; sulfate of iron, one part, and sulfate of lime, eight parts. This is applied in early spring at the rate of one pound to the square yard. Tonks manure is best applied in February. It is scattered on the surface of the bed, and then turned in with a fork.

It may be well to remind rose planters how necessary it is to secure standards and climbers to their stakes or the wall immediately planting is completed. November is notoriously a windy month and, as I know to my cost, many shoots may be broken off if they are not made fast to their supports. It may be said that I do not practice what I preach; but even supposing this to be the case, surely it is no good reason why I should not give others the best advice. It is true that I have neglected always to observe the rules that I now give for the guidance of others; but have I not paid the penalty ? I would parody the old adage and say that, " A tie in time saves nine," but as a matter of fact it does much more, it saves a rose from disfigurement and possible destruction.