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pregnancy

Pregnant & Posting: 23 & 24 Weeks

The past couple of weeks have been awfully busy for me. In fact, I'm at home today with a kiddo who has strep throat. (Here's hoping I don't pick it up too!)

At my most recent appointment with my obgyn, everything looked good. I'd gained 2 lbs. My doctor is still not particularly concerned because of the overall weight loss that I had during the first trimester. My blood pressure and urine were fine as well. Little one's heartbeat was in the 150s, exactly where it should be, and I'm feeling lots of movement now.

Morning-After Misunderstandings

Labels inside every box of morning-after pills, drugs widely used to prevent pregnancy after sex, say they may work by blocking fertilized eggs from implanting in a woman's uterus.

But an examination by The New York Times has found that the federally approved labels and medical websites do not reflect what the science shows. Studies have not established that emergency contraceptive pills prevent fertilized eggs from implanting in the womb, leading scientists say. Rather, the pills delay ovulation, the release of eggs from ovaries that occurs before eggs are fertilized, and some pills also thicken cervical mucus so sperm have trouble swimming.

Abortion, Pregnancy Options & Scarleteen

While we're on this topic today, on this day, just a couple reminders about where we stand and what we can help with should you or someone you know become pregnant when it was not wanted or intended.

1. We are a fully pro-choice organization, resolutely supportive of everyone's -- at every age -- right (even when they legally do not currently have that right) to choose to remain pregnant or terminate a pregnancy; to choose to parent, to choose to arrange an adoption, or to choose abortion.

New Study Finds Long-Acting Contraceptives Much More Effective Than Pills (Especially for Those Under 21)

From Reuters, today:

A large real-life test of birth control methods found more U.S. women got pregnant while using short-acting methods such as pills, patches and vaginal rings — and the failure rate was highest when they were used by women under 21.

“We found that participants using oral contraceptive pills, a transdermal patch or a vaginal ring had a risk of contraceptive failure that was 20 times as high as the risk among those using long-acting reversible contraception,” said the research team.

Pregnant & Posting: 20 weeks

After quite a wait, we finally got a look at the little peanut that I've been carrying around for the past 20 weeks.

Pregnant & Posting: 18 & 19 weeks

It's been an exciting and also unexciting couple of weeks. Life is changing, as it often seems to do.

At my last doctor's appointment I had gained a couple of pounds. My care provider was okay with this because it puts me back on the way to my pre-pregnancy weight. My partner was able to come to my appointment with me this time. We got to hear the heartbeat again.

If you've wanted/needed to use emergency contraception, have you had any trouble getting it?