Quote:
Originally Posted by Makedde
Which would make someone six weeks pregnant, right? I believe when you fall pregnant, you've actually already been pregnant for two weeks. I don't know how they work that out, but I imagine this is right, as I have heard the heart starts beating at six weeks, not four.
|
Yep - at six weeks' gestation is when the heart usually begins to beat. I used to get confused by the `already two weeks pregnant' thing as well, but actually pregnancy in medical terms is counted by your menstrual cycle, because it is from the first day of your period that a new cycle begins, and if you fall pregnant during that cycle, then that's where they count it from. Menstruation and ovulation are clear necessities to be able to become pregnant, and as most women don't know their date of conception, they take it from the first date of the LMP, which is much more accurate. Women ovulate roughly two weeks after the first day of their last menstrual period (or LMP) so they are always two weeks `less' pregnant than the doctor tells them.
Clear as mud, huh? Lol.
Quote:
|
Connect someone to the right machinary, and you can make a heart beat artificially - this is why a person who is brain dead can have a heart beat. A beating heart does not necessarily means something is alive.
|
No, but in the context of a foetus, it absolutely does. Because if you do an ultrasound on a foetus after six weeks and the heart is not beating, it's dead - it's not going to get any further. I had an ultrasound at five weeks and there was nothing there - a little tiny jelly bean called a yolk sac, and that was it. I had another one a week later and there was a little tadpole in that jelly bean (foetal pole) and a heart that was beating at 146 beats per minute. At that point, my foetus was called a `live foetus'. Medically, that's when life starts, and I'm inclined to agree.
Quote:
|
I believe that life (officially) begins at birth, because then the baby has been born, and has a far greater chance of survival than any other time. Being born also means the baby no longer relies on the mothers body to survive - it can survive without the aid of her bodily nutrients.
|
It can - but many don't. If you breastfeed, the baby utterly relies on the mother's nutrients - even more so than when in utero. Of course, not everyone breastfeeds, but without some form of feeding and nutrition the baby will die. So in fact without intervention a baby is LESS likely to survive once it's born than a foetus which will pretty much survive anything in utero.
Quote:
|
I have a question for you: When your baby is born, would you consider him/her to be more of a life than he/she already is? Or do you already consider your unborn baby to be a life - such as your own?
|
Good question. Before I was pregnant, I would have been less sure on that. Now that I have seen her (it's a girl), felt her, I get her cycles, she even has moods that I can discern and I still have three months to go - no, once she's born she'll be as much of a life as she is now. The only difference is that I'll be able to see her.
Quote:
Oh my goodness, sounds like a walk in the park, lol!
So, I have to ask, all the things you have mentioned that are common in pregnancy...would you like to see women forced to have babies against their will? Are all these symptoms you describe worth it to make someone have a baby against their will, or should women be able to choose whether they endure all this?
|
I would never see a woman be forced to be pregnant against her will. It's an incredibly profound and amazing experience BUT is also very trying, exhausting, taxing and frightening. You become a vessel, you really do. Depending on your situation in life, that could be a great or an awful thing.
I am fortunate enough to be in good health, have a good income and somewhere to live and food to eat, a partner who loves and cares for me and has been involved intimately in my pregnancy every step of the way, who is supportive and kind, an employer who values me and has looked after me very carefully, friends and family and security. And pregnancy is STILL hard. But with all of those things to help the incredible profoundness of it outweighs any of the difficulties - which have at times felt overwhelming.
I am one of few women who can claim such wonderful adjuncts to my pregnancy. For many women they do not have the things I have - externally - to help them through it. It's a hard time. Even for the women who breeze through pregnancy physically, it's still pretty hard. If my pregnancy was any harder I would be coping a lot less well - and for many women they have a MUCH harder time than I do. Your support network and situation in life is what makes the difference, I believe.
So I am pro-choice for those reasons. I feel that the mother's life in some very few, select cases should be considered before that of the child. I feel she has that right. But I am not universally pro-choice and I am certainly far less pro-choice than I was before I fell pregnant.
Quote:
|
About the placenta, it does grow as a result of being pregnant, and is what feeds the baby nutrients, but the placenta takes these nutrients directly from the mother - what if the mother is already low in certain nutrients, and taking medication or supplements could be dangerous? Being low in certain nutrients can have a devastating effect on your health (as I well know) so I wonder if a woman would be able to cope with the added stress of pregnancy.
|
Well, when you find out you are pregnant you obviously change your lifestyle a little so that you are getting the right nutrients. In many cases, that just means taking a tablet each day. I take Elevit. I can't think of a situation when taking vitamin supplements could be considered dangerous.
Obviously you need to eat a little better and so forth - but the thing about being pregnant is, your baby will get what it needs regardless of whether you provide it or not. You have stores in your body that can literally be invaded in order to provide the baby with what it needs. You don't want that, so you provide it. In the form of better food or a supplement or both.
I haven't changed my lifestyle all that much, to be honest. I wasn't especially healthy before, and I've smartened up my act somewhat, but I wouldn't exactly call myself a model mother in terms of diet. I don't drink or do drugs obviously, and I'm careful about some of the things I eat, but that's about as far as I've gone with it.
So, that is a choice you do have, regardless of how you started out.