6 Pregnancy Questions You Need to Ask

Questions every mother-to-be may not be asking, but should!

-Susan Crandell

Every woman has questions about her pregnancy, but here are six you might not have considered that are worth talking about with your doctor:

How Much Weight Should I Gain? When my mother had me, doctors wanted women to gain as little weight as possible during pregnancy. I myself gave birth during the Goodyear Blimp era of maternity – when there were no rules on weight gain. I ate a cinnamon donut every morning and a frozen Snickers every afternoon – and gained a whopping 40 pounds.

Now, the pendulum is swinging back to the theory that less is more – at least if you’re overweight. In the first revision of weight gain guidelines in nearly 20 years, the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council recommend that women who have a body mass index of 30 or higher should gain no more than 20 pounds. For thinner women, the rules haven’t changed (nor has the fact that I broke them). If your BMI is 25 to 29.9, gain 15-25 pounds; if it’s 18.5 to 24.9 (normal), gain 25-35 pounds; if it’s under 18.5, gain 28 to 40 pounds.

Is My Placenta Big Enough? Since it’s the sole source of nutrients – both oxygen and food – to a developing fetus, the placenta’s health and size are critical to a successful pregnancy. Yet because of its unusual shape, the placenta is hard to measure.

Now, researchers at Yale have devised a formula to calculate its volume using measurements taken during a routine ultrasound halfway through a pregnancy. It’s a calculation some doctors urge all pregnant women to have.