Pregnancy Info

Flax seed is largest resource of an essential ingredient called omega-3 fatty acid which is must for proper growth and development of body. The benefit of flax seed oil are widely known throughout the world. Many health ailments can be treated with the help of flax seed. For nursing mothers and pregnant women flax seed oil is a boon. Usually pregnant women are dependent on fish and fish oil for consumption of omega-3 fatty acids but these days’ fish are polluted with heavy metals thus fish oil is not recommended for pregnant and nursing women.

The omega-3 fatty acid requirement of body can be easily catered with help of flax seed oil. But you should be careful with use of flax seed oil during pregnancy as flax seed contains ingredients which affect the estrogen levels of body and this might lead to hormonal imbalance in the body. The amount of dosage that a pregnant woman is taking should be ensured and only limited amount of flax seed oil should be given so as to avoid hormonal imbalance of the body. Before taking any supplement for omega-3 fatty acids present in fish oil and flax seed you must consult your doctor.

Assisted reproduction technology has helped many childless couples to become parents. What was once known as in vitro fertilization (IVF) has expanded into a number of different techniques aimed at helping a man and woman conceive and give birth to a healthy child. The rewards are wonderful, but the emotional costs of ART can be high, and any couple considering treatment will need plenty of expert support and counseling.

What is art?

ART is a term used to describe a whole range of infertility treatments. Through drugs, laboratory techniques, and even the use of sperm or egg donors, both men and women can be helped to bring about sperm production, ovulation, fertilization, implantation, conception, and birth.

Why you many need art

If you or your partner has problems with any stage in the chain of events leading to a healthy baby, you may need ART. Possible difficulties include failure to produce normal, active sperm, failure to ovulate, and failure of healthy sperm to penetrate and fertilize an egg.

Ethical considerations

The science of assisted reproduction technology raises enormous ethical questions that affect the individual, the couple, the family, the community, and society. Most of us would say that if this technology helps a couple who are desperate for a child but have fertility problems, it is morally acceptable. But each situation can be complicated by experience, cultural background, the law, and religious teaching.

Discussing alternatives - Each member of a couple has a unique perspective and interest. In addition, there are the interests of the potential child to consider. I don’t feel that doctors have the right to question a couple who opt for treatment for infertility. To my mind, the only option is to offer the couple expert counseling so they can discuss alternatives like adoption and the use of donor sperm or eggs.

It’s important for specialists to understand that an infertile couple is in a vulnerable position. They bear a heavy responsibility to see that every couple receives impeccable investigation and therapy.

Contentious issues - Most people agree that there is no moral problem with ART using the sperm and eggs of partners, the only objection being from the Roman Catholic church. The use of donor eggs, sperm, or even embryos, however, is highly sensitive. Arguments against it include that it violates marriage vows and blurs a child’s genetic makeup. On the other hand, all the evidence points to a reassuring track record for such children.

Laws regarding ART vary widely from state to state. In general, donors and surrogates receive some compensation, although this is usually classified as payment for lost wages or inconvenience, rather than direct payment for genetic material or the relinquishing of parental rights. Children conceived through ART have no inherent right to learn the identity of their donors, but provisions for eventual disclosure are often incorporated in the donor’s individual contract.

Cryopreservation - (freezing of donor sperm or pre-embryos) is another area of concern. Despite religious opposition, cryopreservation has proved to be useful in improving pregnancy rates while avoiding multiple pregnancies. Most moral arguments object only to the fact that some pre-embryos will not survive. In principle, cryopreservation preserves individual human life.

Ethics is not an exact science. There is no absolute moral right and wrong. To impose a moral imperative on another, unwilling person is nothing less than tyranny and flies in the face of enhancing the moral dignity of a couple and their children.

Sperm, a man’s contribution to the conception of his child, are made in his testes (testicles). A man begins making sperm at puberty under the influence of testosterone from the testes, and luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) from the pituitary gland. LH and FSH act on the testes as they do on the ovaries. A man goes on making sperm throughout his fertile life and, although the numbers and quality of sperm produced decline from the age of 40, men in their 90s have fathered children. Sperm production speeds up at times of sexual activity, but if ejaculation is very frequent, sperm numbers decrease, lowering a man’s fertility.

The mature sperm - Each individual sperm is only about 1/500 in (0.05 mm) long, so it cannot be seen by the naked eye. It’s shaped like a tadpole and has a strong tail, five or six times longer than its head, which it uses to move itself along. The tail is attached to the head by a short middle section or body. This contains special cell components called mitochondria, which are its energy­producing apparatus. A sperm’s head is dark in color because it contains so much genetic material.

The newly formed sperm pass into the epididymis at the rear of each testis, where they mature. From the epididymis, matured sperm travel up a tube called the vas deferens, which leads to the seminal vesicle, a small, saclike structure near the bladder. When a man ejaculates, seminal fluid (semen) is discharged from the penis via the urethra. Semen is made up of sperm, mixed with fluid produced by the seminal vesicle and fluids secreted by the prostate and other glands.

Ejaculation

Most men ejaculate about two-thirds of a teaspoon (3.5 ml) of sperm when they make love, but the amount ranges from 1/2 tsp to 1 tsp (2-6 ml). Each milliliter contains 60-150 million sperm, of which nearly one-quarter are abnormal. Only about three­quarters are motile (able to wriggle).

Reaching the egg - Although sperm can move 1/10 inch to 1/4 inch (2-3 mm) per minute, their actual speed varies with the acidity of their environment-the higher the acidity, the slower their movement. The vaginal secretions are slightly acidic; so sperm ejaculated into the vagina probably move quite slowly until they reach the more friendly alkaline environment of the uterine cavity. Having gotten through the hostile acidic conditions of the vagina, they then face a longer and more dangerous journey before they reach the egg, far down a fallopian tube. Of about 300 million sperm in an ejaculation, only a few hundred will actually reach the egg. Most of the rest trickle out of the vagina, or are destroyed by Vaginal acidity. Others may be swallowed up by cleansing cells Within the uterus, enter the wrong fallopian tube, or go into the correct tube but miss the egg altogether.