Symptoms The symptoms of postpartum depression are similar to a major depressive episode. In the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” (DSM-5), the description of postpartum major depression is a “major depressive episode with a peripartum-onset specifier.” Postpartum depression tends to develop within several weeks of delivery. Some experts feel the criteria to qualify for postpartum-onset should extend longer, perhaps up to six months after childbirth. Symptoms of PPD may include the following:...

Study Details The study, published in Sleep Health, collected data on 33 expectant mothers, ages 23 to 45. The Los Angeles-based participants were monitored during their pregnancies and into their babies’ first year of life. Researchers looked at DNA from blood samples and examined their epigenetic patterns. This means they analyzed the codes DNA uses to make proteins. These codes enable researchers to estimate a person’s biological age, as opposed to their chronological age....

Clothing is avoided for most preemies because it may interfere with temperature regulation and access to any needed intravenous lines, says Karleen Sigvartsen, BSN, RNC-NIC, a neonatal intensive care unit nurse at Children’s Hospital Colorado. Once these considerations are no longer an issue, preemies can typically start wearing soft, simple clothing. Learn more about when preemies can start wearing clothing, what type of clothing is best, and other guidelines to follow for their wardrobes....

Week Number 23 Eyebrows and eyelashes are forming. Lips are becoming more distinct. Eyes are becoming more developed, but they still lack color. The first signs of teeth appear beneath the gum line. Week Number 24 Blood vessels in the lungs are developing. The head is still large compared to body size. The baby can swallow. Week Number 25 The body is beginning to become plump. The skin becomes wrinkled. If the baby were born now, it would attempt to breathe....

During pregnancy, the surge of the hormones estrogen and progesterone in your body makes you more susceptible to gingivitis, which is a common issue for many expecting folks. In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), gingivitis affects 60% to 75% of pregnant people. Pregnancy gingivitis is an inflammation of the gums that is often caused by a sticky film of bacteria called plaque. This accumulation of plaque along your gum line causes your gums to become red, swollen, and tender....

The evaporation line on a pregnancy test comes when the urine used in the sample evaporates after a certain amount of time. This is normal and a part of the process but leaves behind a colorless but distinct line. The evaporation line does not show up until after the pregnancy test reading window of time to accurately get your results. So you will not need to worry about an evaporation line if you read the pregnancy test within the time frame specified in the instructions that came with your test....

Leaving baby behind in the hospital for weeks is just the beginning of the difficulties awaiting the parents of a preemie in the following months. One of these difficulties is determining if the child is developing normally. If a baby is born six weeks early, at what age should the baby sit up? Start walking? Start talking? Charts of normal developmental milestones don’t seem useful because a preemie’s development lags behind that of full-term babies....

Medical professionals are one of the other few professions that have been under as much fire as teachers lately. Both fields are overworked, underpaid, and often lack the necessary supplies to perform their jobs to the best extent. Grueling schedules, lack of administration support, and criticism from parents and the community have led to teachers quitting all levels. For example, I was a preschool teacher for fourteen years and left teaching in March 2020 to care for my kids when their school shut down....

The best way to defeat the influence of bias is to talk about it with your toddler or preschooler. Listen to your child’s questions and comments about others—and about himself—and answer them as directly and as well as you can. If you show your child that you welcome open discussions about race and gender and age and physical abilities, you can expect him to start asking some tough questions:...

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) recommends that team organizers group athletes by size, skill level, and physical maturity rather than by chronological age, especially in contact sports. If this isn’t possible, coaches should modify the sport to accommodate kids with varying ability levels. Game officials can make sure kids play fair, and they can call fouls or otherwise sanction players who engage in unnecessarily rough or dangerous play that can injure others....

This game is a homemade version of the popular board game Pictionary. For this game, you’ll need a lot of paper and a couple of pens or pencils. You may also want to use a stopwatch. If you don’t have a stopwatch, someone with a second hand on his or her watch will work. What you need to do is form two teams. Each team has to think of 12 things that they’d like the opposing team to draw....

License to read. On car trips, make it a game to point out and read license plates, billboards, and interesting road signs. Better than TV. Swap evening TV for a good action story or tale of adventure. Look and listen. Too tired to read aloud? Listen to a book on tape and turn the book’s pages with your children. You’ll still be reading with them! Labels, labels, labels. Label things in your children’s room as they learn to name them....

When Looks Are EverythingOn my first day of junior high school, Danny Schlett (I’ll never forget his name!), a loud-mouthed ninth-grader, bumped into me in the corridor. He scrutinized my face from close range and asked in a voice that echoed through the halls, “Hey Kendrick! Have you gotthe measles?” I barely summoned a humiliated “no” and slunk off to my second-period art class. At that moment, I could not imagine how I could show my acne-ridden, pizza face to one more kid in school, let alone show it to hundreds – or thousands – more kidsfor the next five years I walked those halls....

Technology access and frequency of use in adolescence only weakly predicted time spent using technology in adulthood, according to the research, which was published in Advances in Life Course Research. Parental restrictions during childhood and adolescence didn’t have a significant effect on tech use in adulthood. “When interviewing parents of kids and teens, we heard that a major concern they had was that their kids would end up addicted to technology as young adults, especially if they weren’t vigilant enough as parents right now,” says lead author Stefanie Mollborn, professor of sociology at the University of Colorado Boulder....

Natural and Logical Rewards Rewards are best when they are a natural or logical extension of the behavior. The best rewards are natural—and you don’t have to provide them (though noticing them is wonderful, positive reinforcement). A child who works hard in his swimming class is rewarded by increased skills, bigger muscles, the great feeling of improvement and ability, and, eventually, permission to swim on his own. For a child, the sense of “I can do it!...

Risk Factors vs. Causes of Miscarriage Most of the time we don’t know exactly what causes a particular miscarriage. Instead, we usually look for risk factors, or factors that suggest that the chance a miscarriage may occur will be higher than average. The truth is, however, that risk factors regarding miscarriage are a complicated subject. Many people who miscarry do not have any risk factors prior to their miscarriage. In contrast, some people have many risk factors for miscarriage, but end up carrying a normal pregnancy to term....

However, twins, triplets, and other multiple pregnancies now account for an increasing proportion of all pregnancies in the developed world today due to older maternal and age-expanded use of fertility treatments. With more multiple pregnancies occurring, the risk of complications increases. Risks of Multiple Pregnancy: Placenta Problems The placenta plays a vital role in pregnancy, delivering nutrients and oxygen to the babies and removing their carbon dioxide & wastes. The placenta also secretes steroid hormones that regular maternal metabolism and fetal growth and development....

It’s painless, and although it can happen on only one side, you are more likely to see it in both breasts. It’s also more common in first-time parents. You do not have to wait until it runs its course to breastfeed your child. Your breast milk is still good, so go ahead and breastfeed. The small amount of blood is not likely to bother your baby or to have any effect on them....