Pea In The Podcast

This week we'll continue our conversation on pregnancy complications. This time we're talking to moms who spent months fighting for their babies before they were even born. Whether by staying in bed, ''I was terrified to just go to the bathroom.'' Or giving themselves 2 shots a day, ''I gave them to myself throughout my entire pregnancy up to the day I was induced.'' They fought for their babies lives and won and they promise you can too.

This week we'll talk about some of the problems you may face during your pregnancy. The frightening, ''In severe, severe cases women can have a stroke.'' The uncomfortable, ''I was sick pretty much the whole time: barfing.'' And the ugly, ''My ankles were bigger than my calves.'' We're talking about pregnancy complications you'll want to know what's normal and what's not.

This week we'll prepare you for some of the things that can go wrong during your labor. ''In the opinion of the doctor, the baby's head was too big to go through. As soon as they started fiddling around down there I went crazy.'' And what doctors can do about them. ''You give the patients oxygen, increase the IV fluids. You turn the patients on their side to reposition them.''

So your baby's coming whether you're ready or not. But you'd rather be ready, right? So you run a search on your favorite search engine 'labor options' and you get millions of hits. So you talk to your friends and they all have different advice for you. All those voices, what's right for you?

Dr. Keith Eddleman, author of Pregnancy for Dummies walks you through the miracle of birth and we talk to a mom who's been through it. Dr. Keith Eddleman is a maternal fetal medicine specialist at Mt. Sinai medical center in New York City. Now he's the guy who wrote the for dummies book on pregnancy and he says labor should not scare you. It's a natural process. The outcome is overwhelming positive, most times. Even when there are complications there are things that we can do to deal with them and still get a good outcome. This natural process can take hours, days, or even weeks to unfold.

Improve your chances for conception, break your anti-fertility habits and learn when to have sex

Ovulation, timing, pre-conception counseling & doctor appointments: what to expect

Egg and spermatozoa meet and join, and by the end of the week your baby is a ball of cells that can fit onto the head of a needle.

You may get a positive pregnancy test this week! Why are you crampy? Will you start to feel pregnant? Early symptoms.

You might see your baby's heartbeat. How big is your baby? Symptoms begin. What can you expect? What can you do about them?

What to expect on first prenatal appointment

You'll be tested for many things early in your pregnancy. What are they looking for? Also, more morning sickness management.

How to know when to call you doctor. How do cope if you do miscarry

What tests are available? What are doctors testing for? What are the risks and benefits?

You may be able to hear your baby's heartbeat on doppler. Also, we talk CVS testing.