some of the most Googled pregnancy related questions

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Does eating certain foods affect the gender of your baby?No.My name is Candice Fraser, and I'm an OB-GYN I'm here to answer some of the most Googled pregnancy related questions.

Can you get pregnant without having sex?

Yes, if you're Mary, but that happened already. If you were to collect someone's sperm, let's say you wanna do your own intrauterine examination, you've got a little turkey

baster and you squirt it inside, yes that could happen. If you are having oral sex or other types of sex

that isn't necessarily penetrative. if you have semen coming close enough to the vagina that they're really excited and motivated and they make their way inside yes, but again they would be super  sperm. You can get pregnant at any age, after you've had your first period. However, there's a caveat.

Because women ovulate before they get their period, someone may have ovulated and never had a period and get pregnant. Sometimes it can be very difficult to tell what's pregnancy and what's just a flu bug. So basically some things that you may experience is nausea, vomiting, breast tenderness, maybe some cramping sometimes it can just be different things but the most important sign that we're looking for is that you've missed your period. So anything that can cause direct trauma to yourself I would avoid.

I wouldn't necessarily go ice skating or skiing, I probably wouldn't go on roller coasters.

Anything that's gonna have like strong, jerking motions. Any really, really hot bodies of water, so not like a regular bathtub. Like a sauna or a hot tub that's really heated, you definitely wanna avoid doing those. If you were super active and exercising it's probably okay for you to continue but I wouldn't start crossfit when you get pregnant. So as far as foods go, you don't wanna eat anything that is raw. So no raw meat, no raw fish, no sushi. Soft cheeses, so anything that's not pasteurized. Most types of fish are safe to eat in pregnancy. So as far as cold cuts and deli meats, we're concerned about the bacteria called listeria. This is associated with pre-term labor and miscarriages and then you can just get really sick. Things that are caffeinated, we give you one small regular cup of coffee or tea, not venti... regular, eight ounces cup of coffee or tea. If you just stop cold turkey during pregnancy, then you get headaches and things like that.

You don't need to do that, just cut it down significantly. Alcohol, it is never recommended. Don't do it. Nothing is safe, just save it up, as soon as you have that baby, someone can bring you that bottle  of wine, you're good. Do not drink a glass of  wine to induce your labor. I don't know what that would do, it'll put you to sleep, I don't know, don't do it.

How much weight can you expect to gain in pregnancy? I expect you to gain  between 25 and 35 pounds. You wanna have a well balanced diet and in general you need about 400 calories on top of what you would be eating regularly. So you would be eating for two, it's just basically a snack on top of your regular three meals. Just healthy snacks that you can think of  is what you want to add to your regular diet. Sleeping positions. this causes pregnant women a lot of distress. So, in your first trimester, even in your second trimester, it's probably okay to sleep on your back. So what we get concerned about is as the uterus gets larger, it's gonna put pressure on that big blood vessel, The Vena Cava which takes blood to the baby when you lay flat on your back. So we say that it's most  ideal to lay on your side.

 However, who can control where they end up when they're sleeping? So what I usually recommend to my patients is just put a pillow just right under your back so that there's more of a tilt, so if you do turn kind of a little bit more while you're sleeping, its okay. Sex during pregnancy...

Do it!You can safely have sexduring pregnancy unless yourdoctor tells you specifically not to.There are some problems that women may have with placenta location or problems with the cervix that may make bleeding a little bit more likely but other than that,yes, you can have sex.(typing)The vagina is wonderfully made.So, even though you push out a babies big,ten centimeter head andit seems like your vaginamay have just likestretched to the size of...I don't even know a big bowl,it usually comes right back.(typing)As far as stretch marks go,you can try to prevent thembut ultimately it just dependson your type of tissue.

There's a lot of products out there that you can discuss with your OB-GYN or a great dermatologist but it's something that you have to start from the beginning and use consistently.And a lot of women, despite what they try,they end up with stretch marks because their skin is stretching and it's just something you have to do to get your beautiful bundle of joy.Stress during pregnancy is something that I get commonly asked about.So there are different levels of stress.It doesn't matter how much it's affecting you.If you are in a traumatic situation and it's really giving you physical symptoms because of your stress,it can also affect your pregnancy in terms pre-term labor, things like that.But generally, don't worry if life's regular stress or sare there because your babies,baby is stronger than that.

Mental health and pregnancy is some thing that you definitely need to discuss with your doctor,preferably prior to pregnancy.Discuss it with your mental health provider as far as should you continue your medications,should you try to stop your medications.A lot of women can continue their medication throughout pregnancy because that's what's healthy and so you never want to be pregnant and stop your anti-depressants or other medications that you take for any mental illness because that can be detrimental to your health.You need to take care of yourself.We always wanna take care of mom first because anything that mom experiences,can potentially have an affect. 

Teen pregnancies are a little bit of a different situation,mainly for social reasons.So as a teenager, you're dealing with school and possibly other things that are going on in your home and it may not be something that you planned on so there may be other stress or that you're encountering because you're a teenager.You can have a healthy pregnancy the same as an older woman.However, we may wanna monitor you a little bit more closely just to make sure you'retaking care of your self the best way possible and that you're safe in your home environment.So I hope that these answers have been helpful,but always remember that every pregnancy is unique.It's unique to the mom,it's unique to the baby.Always consult with you rown OB-GYN that you have a relationship with to get the best answer for you.