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Healthy Eating During Pregnancy
IMPORTANT TIP: Folic Acid
When trying to get pregnant, or when you are pregnant, your body needs extra vitamins and minerals. Critical fetal development occurs in the very early weeks of pregnancy when most women do not even know they are pregnant. Therefore, it's important that all women of childbearing age take a daily multivitamin with 400 micrograms of folic acid in it. Folic acid is a B vitamin that helps prevent serious birth defects of the brain and spine. Dietary sources of folic acid include whole grains, leafy green vegetables, citrus fruits, beans, and liver. Since it's difficult to get enough folic acid from your diet alone, it's best to take a multivitamin every day. Most recent page update: 2/29/2008
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Childbirth Connection is a national not-for-profit organization founded in 1918 as Maternity Center Association. Our mission is to improve the quality of maternity care through research, education, advocacy and policy. Childbirth Connection promotes safe, effective and satisfying evidence-based maternity care and is a voice for the needs and interests of childbearing families. |
News and Features : Health Professionals
New VBAC Guidlines
ACOG has just issued new Guidlines for VBAC. What changed? What continues? We've Moved!
On July 1, 2010, the Childbirth Connection office moved to 260 Madison Avenue, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10016. All other contact information is unchanged. "2020 Vision" and "Blueprint for Action" Reports Available
Rising Maternal Mortality
Help Transform Maternity Care!  Please join our efforts to make quality maternity care a top national priority. Your support will help make the transformation possible. View 2010 Supporter Roster 
Updated Maternity Care Statistics Available
US Cochrane Center (USCC)/Consumers United for Evidence-based Healthcare (CUE)
New Mothers Speak Out National Report Released The latest report in Childbirth Connection's Listening to Mothers series is now available. Get an eye-opening look at the reality of life as a mother of young children in the United States, based on national surveys conducted by Harris Interactive. Learn more, get the report Read the Wall Street Journal story and listen to the podcast Download Quick Facts (PDF) Why does the national U.S. c-section rate keep going up? Current research points to an optimal cesarean section rate of 5% to 10%, but 1 pregnant woman in 3 is giving birth by major surgery in the United States. Why the surge and is this safe? A new page - and a PDF handout for journalists, policy makers, students and others - answer these questions. Read more about the rising cesarean section rate New Content!
March/April 2009 evidence column is now available.
Features: National Quality Forum endorses consensus perinatal performance measures; systematic reviews on induction of labor, environmental tobacco smoke and fetal health, and HPV infection and cervical neoplasia Get the column Popular Pages
 Comfort in Labor, by Penny Simkin Penny Simkin, the internationally recognized leader in childbirth education and labor support, shares her wisdom with women, including comfort measures, effective positions, and tips for partners and doulas. Download Comfort in Labor (free PDF) 
Every woman has the right to receive all or most of her maternity care from a single caregiver or a small group of caregivers, with whom she can establish a relationship. Every woman has the right to leave her maternity caregiver and select another if she becomes dissatisfied with her care. (Only second sentence is a legal right.)
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