Why does my Blood Pressure Matter when I’m Pregnant? Pregnancy is a time of many changes in a woman’s body. One of those changes is in the amount of blood in her body. Her blood volume increases to meet the needs of her growing baby. Most women are able to tolerate the increased fluid by adapting without
Pregnant women can experience violence from their partners; so can women who willingly decide to terminate their pregnancies. Known as Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), this issue is “significant yet preventable,” according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and “affects millions of women regardless of age, economic status, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or educational
Spring is in full bloom in Casper, Wyoming! Recent snows and rains helped the grass grow and green, tulips, daffodils and various flowers to bloom, and apple, elm, and other trees to bud. With the onslaught of the season and its beauty also comes small, and large, irritants: like allergies. According to the Centers for Disease
Every 98 seconds someone in America is sexually assaulted. Such trauma is experienced by people from all walks of life: women, children, and men; college students; military personnel; people living in cities, suburbs, and rural areas. Anyone can become a victim of this crime. April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Shining a light onto this dark issue is
Imagine you find out you are pregnant and the timing is horrible. All your plans will be impacted by this pregnancy. You wonder how you can take care of a baby, but you struggle with the thought of ending the life within you. Then you decide to make an abortion appointment because you don’t know
With the amount of germs and allergens in the air, the waves of sickness in the forms of cold and flu have been fairly high. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), the peak of flu season has passed, and Wyoming reported minimal flu-like illness. However, the CDC expects flu activity to continue for
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the United States has experienced a five-fold increase in the use of opioids by women who are pregnant. This results in a drug withdrawal in newborns known as Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS), which can cause tremors, seizures, excessive crying, and poor feeding. Symptoms may appear right after birth
When Natalie came to True Care Women’s Resource Center, she believed she was about six or seven weeks along. She met with a staff nurse and answered some health care questions, including when her last menstrual cycle took place. The nurse provided Natalie an ultrasound to confirm pregnancy. The human heart begins beating at 21
There are many reasons women consider and/or have an abortion when they experience an unplanned pregnancy. Family, finances, health, education, and career are factors that affect a woman’s decision between carrying to term and aborting. According to the Guttmacher Institute, the research arm of Planned Parenthood, more than half of women in the United States who
One of my jobs as a nurse and sonographer at True Care is to scan women who have a positive urine pregnancy test to look for what is called a viable pregnancy (baby with a heart beat in the uterus). As I scan my patients, I often come across a cyst on one of the woman’s
