Welcome to Ask a Midwife

[aussiemidwife]

I'd like to welcome you to Ask a Midwife. If you have any questions for me post them on this forum. I will try and answer them as quickly as possible. I am looking forward to hearing from you.

[ROZNA]

hi ,so nice to meet you!
I recently had my 22week obgyn exzam and baby is doin great,so am i!We wanted to keep the baby gender for the end so we didn,t ask,but we got a photo of babys femur mesures and i think it shows gender...are we right?How do we know this?Now me and my hubby belive it is.........but are not sure and can,t wait 4 weeks till another dr comfirms what we think...hahahah silly i know as we didn,t want to know in the first place...but now it,s in our face...can you help out maybe?How do we tell the difrence and how reliable are these pics....?

[ROZNA]

help us guess the babys gender

[aussiemidwife]

Hi Rozna - Welcome to the forum. Unfortunately it is quite difficult to tell a baby's sex from an ultrasound. A trained ultrasound technician has to look at the live scan to see if they can see the labia and clitoris for a girl or scrotum and penis for a boy. Even then they sometimes get the sex wrong. The length of a baby's femur will not tell you if it is a boy or girl.

[steph01]

Hi there I am just wondering what do sore nipples mean I am not due to get my periods until the 17th and I am just abit unsure as I have a 5 year old daughter already and I didnt have many symptons with her except morning sickness and that is it

[aussiemidwife]

Typically early pregnancy symptoms such as tender breasts, sensitive nipples, nausea and tiredness don't start until around the time that your period is due. Was your last period normal? If it was light or short there is a possibility that you are already pregnant.

You can have sore nipples and not be pregnant. Hormonal changes can cause sensitivity.

[Kaani23]

hi, im 19yrs old and 19weeks in my first pregnancy... i was just wondering is severe pain in the lower groin area and left hip normal??(especially when i use the toilet). i have to wait 2 more weeks before the next doctors appointment, but im just kinda worried that it might be a serious thing to wait that long to get it checked out... it gets so bad sometimes that i cant sleep or it makes me cry, and im told taking panadol is bad for the baby at this time... if you could ease my mind, that would be great... :-)

[aussiemidwife]

Can you please see a doctor immediately - you need to get checked out to make sure the pain you are experiencing is nothing serious. If you can't get an appointment today please go to the emergency department of a hospital so you can be seen. Possibilities for severe pain in pregnancy include infection and ectopic pregnancy. I hope everything is okay.

[Mimi78]

Hi Aussie Midwife,

I have just confirmed my pregnancy so approx 5 weeks into my first pregnancy. I recently found out I have the opportunity to start working for a new company. Do I need to tell them I'm pregnant before I start work? When should you tell your employer your pregnant? Any insight into this topic would be great.

[aussiemidwife]

Hi Mimi78 - I am so sorry I missed your post. LJMarsden has given you some great advise. There is no legal requirement let your employer know about your pregnancy early if you choose not to. However if you are experiencing marked morning sickness you may need their support. Also you would need to let them know if your job could in anyway be harmful for your pregnancy (there are not too many jobs in this category though). Congratulations.

[ljmarsden]

Hi Mimi78,

I thought I'd give you my comments on this as I have just seen your post. I am not a midwife but I enjoy writing on this forum and I follow a gentle parenting style with my son. I have also worked supporting pregnant mums and checking the health of newborn babies in the health sector.

Are you based in Australia? I believe the law here says that you need to give your employer 10 weeks notice before you go on maternity leave but there are no other requirements. Some women wait until they are 12 weeks pregnant (when they are likely to have had their dating scan) before announcing their pregnancy (particularly to an employer). However, the advantage of telling an employer soon is that they can carry out a health and safety check to make sure you are safe in all aspects of your work when pregnant. I ended up having to tell my employer really early due to morning sickness but they were very supportive. Pregnant women are protected against discrimination at work - as I'm sure the midwife will confirm.

Congratulations on your pregnancy and your new role.

[raish]

hi good day,
I just want to ask something is too much sleeping is bad for me and the baby?

Because here at home when I feel sleepy during day time my parents wont allow me to sleep they said the baby will get big and if the baby gets too big it will be hard for me to have a normal labour and because of that it might be caesarean and having that is too much expensive rather than having a normal labour and we don't have that kind of money for caesarean.

[aussiemidwife]

Hi Raish - It is really common in early pregnancy to feel very tired in early pregnancy and late pregnancy. Have a nap during the day is a very healthy thing to do. Having a healthy diet that is not high in carbohydrates is the best thing to do to avoid having a baby that is too large. Lots of sugar in your diet should be avoided.

[raish]

HI,aussie

I would like to ask you again, I already have a work now online job but my working time is on night shift 6hours day can you give me an advice for my baby some vitamins name and food should i eat for my baby because i know its not good that i should not sleep at nigt but during the day time i sleep but sometimes i'm having a hard time to sleep during the the day what should i do?

[ellesmommy]

I am close to my due date and I am wondering about my water breaking. I have heard that it can either come out as a "trickle" or a "burst". Lately I have been experiencing a very watery discharge and I am unsure if it is my water or just a normal pregnancy symptom. My friends tell me I will "just know" if it is my water-but I am kind of worried about whether or not I will know. Also, is it possible that I won't know when my water breaks? And will this hurt my baby?