Category: Pregnancy
Study Shows That Babies Can Feel Pain After 35 Weeks In The Womb
Contrary to what many people believe, most babies start feeling pain in 35th week of pregnancy. The general belief is that babies feel pain only after birth. However, a recent study conducted by the University of London, found that response of babies’ brain activity is to pain is different from its response to prick or touch.
Lorenzo Fabrizi, lead researcher of the study, said that babies start distinguishing general touch from pain stimuli at least 2 to 4 weeks before delivery. Researchers found that the brain activity of the baby that was 28 to 35 weeks showed the same response to both touch and pain. However, the response of the baby changed after 35 weeks. Babies that were more than 35 weeks in the womb, responded with higher brain activity to when subjected to pain than to touch.
These findings explain why babies that are born prematurely can feel pain. Also, these findings can help in taking care of preemies and also help in developing treatment for preemies.
Even though many studies have been conducted in the past to study fetal pain, a lot more research needs to be done to understand the reaction of the unborn baby to pain. There are many states which have banned abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Many experts believe that foetuses should not be aborted after 20 weeks as they feel pain. Even though studying the fetal pain response is a complex phenomenon, the study gives rise to the possibility of giving medication to ease fetal pain during abortion.
How Urinary Tract Infection can affect your Pregnancy
What is urinary tract infection?
Urinary tract infection is usually a bladder infection which is accompanied by symptoms like constant urge to urinate and an uneasy and burning sensation when you do it. However, your bladder is not the only organ that is affected by this infection. Your urinary tract infection can extend from the kidney and also affect the urethras.
Why urinary tract infection is common in pregnant women
The risk of urinary tract infection is high in pregnant women from the sixth week of their pregnancy. One of the main reasons why urinary tract infection is high in pregnant women is because of the changes in the urinary tract. The uterus is directly above the bladder and when the uterus grows the increase in size and the weight of the bladder can affect the drainage of urine which can cause infection.
Symptoms of urinary tract infection
- Some of the symptoms of urinary tract infection include:
- Frequent urge to urinate
- Burning sensation when urinating
- Presence of mucus or blood in urine
- Disturbance when sleeping as you may wake up from sleep to urinate
- Discomfort during sexual intercourse
- Strong odor or foul smell from urine
- Pain in the bladder area
- If the infection spreads to the kidney, you can experience back pain, fever and vomiting.
How urinary tract infect your baby
When urinary tract infection is not treated, it can lead to infection in your kidney. Infection in the kidney can cause early labor and affect the weight of the baby. However, if the infection is treated early and properly, it does not affect the kidney and will not harm the baby.
Treating urinary tract infection during pregnancy
If you are suffering from urinary tract infection, you can approach your doctor who will prescribe medicines that will be safe both for you and the baby.
How to prevent urinary tract infection during pregnancy
Some of the steps that you can take to avoid urinary tract infection include drinking at least 8 glasses of water every day, reducing the intake of caffeine and alcohol, urinating frequently, cleaning the genital area after urinating and wearing cotton clothes.