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CHAPTER FIVE

THE REST OF THE PREGNANCY

TAKING CARE OF YOURSELF

     Many hospitals and adolescent clinics have childbirth classes, which give you lots of information on what is happening inside your body during pregnancy. Classes can be a place to get to know other young women who will give birth about the same time that you do.

Sometime between the sixteenth and twenty-second weeks you will feel the baby move for the first time. you may begin to have backaches or have trouble sleeping in the last month. You may urinate much more often at the end of pregnancy. You are now getting rid of the baby's wastes as well as your own. Many women feel gassy and have constipation and cramps because of the growing baby. Some women get hemorrhoids at this time. These are enlarged veins around the rectum or anus, which may break and bleed and become itchy while they heal.

To prevent discomfort, you can drink at least eight glasses of water a day, eat lots of green, leafy vegetables and fruits, and walk at least a mile a day. Water, exercise, and food with fiber can also prevent damage to your body.

Special exercises can help. Tilt your pelvis back as if you are trying to touch your belly button to your backbone and tuck your hips under so that your baby stays straight. Pull yourself into this position and hold it ten or fifteen times a day to keep your lower back muscles strong and prevent back troubles later on. Squat with you knees up to your chin and your feet flat on the ground for fifteen or twenty minutes a day to get your muscles ready to push the baby out when the time comes and to keep your back muscles in good shape.

The right position for sleeping can help. Lie on your side with your neck on a pillow, your top leg bent in front of you and your lower leg bent under you, your top arm bent in front of your face and your lower arm behind you.

In late pregnancy women find that if they get tired they don't bounce back fast. It's a good idea to take a nap every afternoon at this stage. You should be able to rest in the school nurse's office. If getting time for it is a problem, see your guidance counselor, dean of students, or the principal.

During the day, too, try to find a place to sit down with your feet up. This will help keep your legs and ankles from swelling too much and prevent varicose veins.

You can protect yourself and your baby from problems by keeping up your visits to the doctor or clinic. The same things will be checked that were checked in the first three months, but you may have many more questions now. You have a right to know everything that is happening to you. It may help to make a list of questions before each visit.

• Itching and thick white fluid coming out of your vagina.
• Burning and pain when urinating
• Tiredness, weakness, and headaches.
• Not gaining weight
• SUDDENLY gaining a lot of weight.
• Swelling of fingers, toes, or legs, or a puffy face.
• Cramps.
• Stomach pain.
• Vomiting.
• Water or blood coming out of your vagina.
• Constant headaches with blurred vision and fever.
• The baby's not moving.

     You can travel at any stage of your pregnancy if you are feeling well. But since a miscarriage or labor can happen any time in late pregnancy, it is better not to travel too far from your hospital.

You need to be careful about car trips. Keeping your seat belt buckled low below your hipbones and getting out to walk around every so often can help make the car tips safe and more comfortable.

     A young woman who plans to continue her pregnancy should know that the school is not allowed to make her stay home or to put her into a special program for pregnant women if she doesn't want that. A federal act called Title IX says that depriving someone of her right to an equal education because of pregnancy is sex discrimination.

If you are still living at home, you have the right to a home tutor, to be in a special program if the school has one, or to continue in your regular classes. Talk to your guidance counselor or the school principal about this, especially if you feel you are being pushed into a decision you don't want.

A home tutor gives you the most privacy, but also keeps you out of school activities that could be a lot of fun for you, even while pregnant.

The special programs are helpful because they usually include courses on baby care and nutrition and because you may feel more accepted among other young women in the same situation.

Staying in your regular classes means you will have the best chance of staying in step with your classmates. You will be sure to get all the necessary information about testing, schedules, and new courses. You will feel more like your regular self. With all the changes in your body and in your relationships with your family, staying in regular classes can be the one stable thing in your life. And concentrating on your schoolwork can give you something to think about besides your pregnancy and your worries.

It may also make finishing school easier.

Save all your old school report cards so you will have your own record of your marks and credits in case you do have to miss some school. The school can make mistakes, and mistakes are more likely in the record of anyone who is absent a lot or who drops out for a time and tries to pick up again.

Most students depend on their guidance counselor or grade advisor to see to it that they get enough of the right credits for graduation. But when you do things outside of the regular timetable, it is easier to overlook something. Maybe you missed the half year of health that everyone else took in tenth grade. Or maybe you have some gym classes or science labs to make up.

Be sure to know your school's policy on class cutting, absences, and lateness. Some schools drop you automatically from class lists if you are absent a certain number of times, no matter how good your work is. Some schools do this only for unexcused absences. Once you know exactly what the rules are, make sure you are covered. Get a note from home for each absence. Get a note from your doctor or from the clinic if you need to be excused from gym.

If you do stop school for a while, try not to leave until the end of a marking period or term. You may be able to get partial credit even for your full year courses and bank them until you go back. Since arrangements like this usually need to be okayed by the principal, it would probably be best to see her or him first.

Before you leave school to have your baby or to stay home to take care of it for a while, be sure you know exactly what to do to keep up while you are gone. You may be able to work out a specific learning contract, stating just what you will do for how much credit on your own and how it will be rated. The more you have in writing, the better off you will be.