Michael F. Roizen - YOU: Having a Baby: The Owners Manual to a Happy and Healthy Pregnancy

To mothers, who bring life into the world, and their babies, who are the future

This publication contains the opinions and ideas of its authors. It is intended to provide helpful and informative material on the pregnancy-related subjects addressed in the publication. It is sold with the understanding that the authors and publisher are not engaged in rendering medical, health, or any kind of personal professional services in the book. The reader should consult his or her medical, health, or other competent professional before adopting any of the suggestions in this book or drawing inferences from it.

In addition, this book sometimes recommends particular products or websites for your reference. Drs. Oz and Roizen are not affiliated in any way with such products or entities (with the exception of the RealAge website and doctoroz.com). In some instances, other coauthors or contributors may be affiliated with a referenced product or website, but recommendations were made independent of such affiliation. In all instances, bear in mind that there are many websites and reference materials other than those recommended here that may provide useful information to you.

The authors and publisher specifically disclaim all responsibility for any liability, loss, or risk, personal or otherwise, which is incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of any of the contents of this book.

S tand at the edge of the Grand Canyon, and your body rockets into sensory over-load. Your eyes widen, your jaw drops, and your neurons spit out more adjectives than a novice novelist. Majestic, awe inspiring, glorious, astonishing, so my-oh-my beautiful that you want to fall to your knees and bow to the deity that created this masterpiece.

Then you freak out.

That, in essence, is pregnancy: On one hand, its the most breathtaking thing youve ever experienced. On the other, its a looooong way to the bottom of the canyon, just as it is a looooong way from conception to birthso you cant help but have some anxiety about taking a wrong step along the way. Theres no doubt that pregnancy evokes a similar diversity of emotional and physiological responses as do such natural wonders: laughing, crying, screaming, dry mouth, dry skin, dry heaves (and thats just the first day). What were here to do is help you manage both extremes of the emotional spectrum, so you can appreciate such a miraculous process and conquer the anxiety and tension through a very powerful weapon: knowledge.

Whether this is your first pregnancy or your fourth, or youre trying so hard that youre spending more time on your bed than a throw pillow, you probably think you know a thing or two about being pregnant. Either youve gone through it before or youve had friends, sisters, and sixteen trillion baby bloggers to give you the inside-the-womb scoop.

However, wed ask that you hold on one diaper-changing minute. Were here to bust myths, challenge your brain, and prepare your body for the greatest journey that any human can ever takefrom the moment two cells become one to the second that your little squirt makes its first appearance outside the comforting shell of your belly.

To whet your appetite, wed bet a case of Gerber bananas that you didnt know things like:

The whole notion of nature versus nurture is as wrong as a three-legged crib. Thats because a cutting-edge field called epigenetics has shown us that you have control over how the genes of your baby will express themselves.

What happens during these 280 days on the inside actually teaches your child about how his body should act on the outside. Hes actually forecasting his futureand that teaches him how healthy or unhealthy he will be years down the road.

While most people assume that a moms biological cocoon supports the child unconditionally, the truth is that your body is actually engaged in a very delicate dance to balance the often competing needs of mom and child.

Theres a biological reason why your areolas are dark, why your feet swell, and why one minute you gag at the thought of eating a cracker and the next minute you cant wait to get your hands on a salsa-smothered cantaloupe.

The good news is that were here to help by teaching you crazy-cool things about your body and giving you the tools to maximize your experience and get the result you want: a healthy and happy baby.

Now, if youre like most women, were guessing that youve already spent a lot of time thinking about whats in store. Youve probably spent all-nighters scouring pregnancy websites and parked yourself in cushy bookstore chairs with thigh-high stacks of mom-to-be manuals. Maybe you havent been this nervous since your sixth-grade oral report on rain forests, or maybe you havent been this obsessed with something since McDreamy made his prime-time debut a few years back. Youre probably poring over baby names, wondering why you crave pretzels dipped in marinara sauce, and debating about whether the nursery walls should have the hue of sunshine, cotton candy, or pomegranate juice.

Nope, theres nothing quite like this internal conflict that is pregnancy. One moment, youre thrilled, elated, and impatient for your babys first smile, babble, and soothe-your-soul hug. The next, you feel anxious about a million unknownsabout whats going on inside your belly, about whether your little one is growing properly, about how youre going to function on zippo sleep. Since this happens to just about everyone, it must, in fact, be strangely ideal. The truth is that vigilance has great benefits. Youre supposed to pay close attention. Our goal is to ensure that you focus on the right clues.

As you struggle to maintain your equilibrium, we want you to relax and take time to enjoy the beauty of the process. The most important thing to keep in mind is that most pregnancies turn out absolutely fine. Absolutely fine. Womens bodies are designed to carry children safely and efficiently. That doesnt mean everything will be smooth sailing on this journey, but it does mean that the odds are greatly in your favor. If you can learn how to maximize your chances that nature runs the course its supposed to, you will increase those odds even further. This book will help show you how.

So lets start by rethinking our perception about conception (and beyond). Back in sex-ed class, most of us were taught a pretty simple recipe for how pregnancy works:

Ingredients

1 egg, mature

100 million sperm, very, very excited

Instructions

Preheat oven. Mix ingredients romantically. Cook bun for forty weeks.

Sprinkle with love and serve to the world.

The bun-in-the-oven image has served us well over the years, underscoring the belief that mom is protector and baby is protected, that mom is cook and baby is concoction, that mom is in control and baby is not. But theres a fundamental problem with this analogy when it comes to the true biology of pregnancy (besides the fact that nobody bakes buns anymore): Baby has a heck of a lot more say about the whole process than a cinnamon raisin roll does.

In fact, pregnancy is more like dancing than cooking. You and your baby have a dynamic, choreographed relationshipone in which you lead and the baby follows. Your subtle movements and directions help show your baby how to grow and develop. After all, it takes two to tango, or in pregnancy terms, its uter-