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Foods to avoid in Pregnancy

Food Borne Infections: Your unborn baby is very well protected from infections when they are inside the womb. There are a remarkably small number of infections that can cross the placenta and harm your baby. Two of these harmful infections are carried in food – Toxoplasma and Listeria. Toxoplasma is rare but it causes potentially […]

Weight, Nutrition, Hydration and Exercise

It’s really important to get yourself into the best possible shape prior to falling pregnant. Regular exercise is important as is a healthy low carb low fat diet. Your Body Mass Index (BMI) is a measure of your weight in relation to your height. Anything you can do to optimise your BMI prior to conceiving […]

Pre Pregnancy / Early Pregnancy Genetic Carrier Screening

I recommend that you consider genetic carrier testing before you fall pregnant for the first time or, failing that, in early pregnancy. There are a small number of rare or very rare conditions that can be harmful to your baby but are not part of the usual pregnancy genetic testing. The main focus of our […]

Routine Prepregnancy / Early Pregnancy Laboratory Tests

For many years now we – usually your GP – have conducted a number of lab tests as soon as you are pregnant or, preferably, even before you are pregnant. Why do these tests before pregnancy? Simple. This gives us an opportunity to address any potential problems that might crop up as a result of […]

Prenatal Vitamins

Most women know that is important to take Vitamins during their pregnancy. Most of the scientific evidence – and the consequent recommendations by health authorities – on this topic relates to taking a Folic Acid supplement. Why Folic Acid? Folate is Vitamin B9 and Folic Acid is a form of folate, as is folinic acid. […]

Introduction to Pregnancy

This is a funny (peculiar, not Ha Ha) piece of work. Basically it is a collection of a number of information sheets I have written over the past four or five years. This is the reason that the arrangement is by topic rather than chronology (weeks of pregnancy). There is also a fair bit of [...]

The Trimesters of Pregnancy

A very long time ago somebody figured out that a normal human pregnancy lasted nine lunar months. This link – incredibly – was not always known. I’m told the ancient Egyptians were unaware of the link between the menstrual cycle and pregnancy. Accordingly they used to tie a reed gently around the necks of young […]

Group B Strep

Our mouths, our bottoms and our vaginas contain many bacteria. The overwhelming majority of these bacteria are harmless to our health. Group B Strep is a bacterium that lives in the vagina of 12-15% of Australian women. It is not a sexually transmitted disease (which means it is not the type of infection your mother […]

Off Salads & Salmonella

As you no doubt know there is an issue with respect to Salmonella infections in pre-prepared salads that can be purchased in plastic bags, usually from supermarkets. A couple of patients have already contacted me having consumed such salads. Now first things first. Salmonella is an extremely unpleasant infection and well worth avoiding but it […]

Pre Pregnancy Genetic Carrier Screening

I’d like to recommend that you consider genetic carrier testing before you fall pregnant or in early pregnancy. There are a small number of rare conditions that can be harmful to your baby but are not part of the usual pregnancy genetic testing. The main focus of our testing during pregnancy is Down Syndrome and […]

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