PregnancyAndChildCare.org

On June 9, HPP Founder & Executive Director Martha Ryan was honored as one of two 2010 “Art of Activism” award recipients given by the Redford Center. Founded by Oscar award-winning actor Robert Redford, the Redford Center focuses on integrating activism, policy, scholarship and community leadership to improve our world with creative strategies for change. The “Art of Activism” award celebrates the work of extraordinary leaders who are making a positive impact on the lives of others.

Actress and Voto Latino founder Rosario Dawson hosted the award ceremony at the Kabuki Theater in San Francisco. Dawson discussed the motivations and strategies behind her efforts to fight for voter engagement and education, to support disaster relief and refugees, and to use her voice to battle poverty, violence, and AIDS. The evening’s program included a moderated, action-oriented discussion between Rosario, Redford Center Executive Director Lee Bycel, the audience, and the selected Art of Activism honorees. 

Please click here to view a slideshow of the event.

Snapshots in Action

Actress & Event Host Rosario Dawson with Art of Activism honorees Martha Ryan & James Berk

HPP Founder & Executive Director Martha Ryan & Family

Actress Rosario Dawson & Redford Center Executive Director Lee Bycel

Homeless Prenatal Program

During pregnancy, many women get anxious and worried due to the heart palpitations. Heart beating at an abnormal rapid speed can be defined as heart palpitations. Along with pregnancy symptoms such as vomiting, nausea, fatigue and constipation, many pregnant women experiences heart palpitations. There are several causes behind heart palpitations during pregnancy. This article focuses on the causes, and treatment for heart palpitations during pregnancy.

Heart Palpitations During Pregnancy – Causes

Mental Stress:- The stress which a pregnant woman goers through could lead to frequent heart palpitations. Stress becomes a common problem during pregnancy as a pregnant goes through a lot of hormonal and physical changes. The blood pressure of a pregnant women increases due to stress, thus resulting in rapid increase of a heart beat.

Excessive Intake of Caffeine:- Consumption of coffee and tea in an excessive amount can increase heart rate. Intake of caffeine result in causing anxiety attack, thus leading to heart palpitations during pregnancy.

Physical Stress:- It is very important to do some exercises during pregnancy. However, doing excess of physical exercises can also result in dizziness and physical fatigue, thus, causing heart palpitations.

Anaemia:- The deficiency of hemoglobin in the body leads to anaemia. The amount of blood in the body of a pregnant woman doubles. The body of a pregnant woman needs increased amount of iron in order to make blood. If the required iron is not provided the woman turns into anaemic which causes heart palpitations during pregnancy.

Magnesium Deficiency:- Intake of less amount of magnesium in the diet of a pregnant women may result in heart palpitations. Symptoms produced by a pregnant women experiencing magnesium deficiency are morning sickness and vomiting.

Heart Palpitations During Pregnancy – Treatment

• In order to treat anaemia during pregnancy, a diet rich in vitamin C and iron should be taken. Foods that are rich in iron are apricots, prunes, eggs, liver and red meat.
• In order to treat magnesium deficiency, you may include nuts, legumes, green vegetables, wheat bran and raisins in your diet.
• In order to treat stress, do yoga, meditation and simple breathing exercises.
• If you are experiencing heart palpitations during pregnancy due to some medicines, then immediately replace those medicines.
• Take adequate rest and avoid drinking tea and coffee.

During pregnancy, heart palpitations are quite normal. However if you are experiencing heart palpitations along with short breathing, dizziness, chest pain and fainting then immediately consult to doctor.

Pregnancy

Philippine tourism has greatly increased over the years. Fort Ilocandia Hotel and Resort is one of several hotels in the Laoag City area of the Philippines.
Suite101 Articles

Initial phase of a baby’s life depends upon mother’s milk. You need to ensure that you breastfeed your baby for at least six months before introducing him/her to bottled-milk. You need to visit to a baby nutrition care specialist for getting proper advice regarding best methods for bottle-feeding.

However, you also need to maintain cleanliness for bottlefeeding your baby, because babies are prone to infections due to weak immune system. Wash the bottle with hot water for avoiding the residue of the milk on the bottle. You also need to bleach the bottle after washing it. This may ensure that the bottle is free from any infectious bacteria.

The following are a few tips that you need to follow for bottlefeeding your baby:

1. You need to ensure that the nipples have holes of proper size. Bottles with large holes may result in leakages and choking, whereas small holes may result in inability of the baby and toddler to suck milk from the bottle. If you find that the nipple of the bottle is having a small hole, then widen the hole with the help of a needle, which may enable the baby to suck the milk without any difficulty.

2. Warm the milk before feeding it to your child. You need to refrain from heating the bottle through microwave. This may leave hotspots near the top of the bottle and the baby’s mouth can burn.

3. Instead of leaving milk in open, prepare the milk and store well in advance in the fridge. Make sure that, you do not store milk for more than 24 hours. Always remember that if you take the milk out of the fridge, then its lifespan reduces to three hours.

4. You need to clean your hands properly before touching the feeding bottle.

You need to take care of numerous things while bottle-feeding your baby and for understanding all these things, you need to visit a baby nutrition care specialist. For instance, you need to tilt the bottle before feeding the milk to your baby.

Problems Faced While Bottlefeeding:

Mothers across the world face similar types of problems while they bottlefeed their babies. Generally, these problems are minor in nature and you can solve them by making slight adjustments. However, you need to consult a doctor, if you find that the problem is aggravating.

The problem of bottlefeeding occurs when air do not enters in the bottle. While the baby drinks the milk, air needs to enter inside the bottle for maintaining a proper balance of pressure. There are instances where air enters inside the bottle through holes at the end of nipple.

If you fix the nipple ring tightly to the bottle, the baby may face difficulty in sucking the milk. You can resolve such a problem by adjusting the nipple ring until you find that a steady flow of bubble arises in the bottle. Inadequate sleep is also a major reason for the baby’s refusal to drink the milk.

Bottlefeeding is very essential activity in terms of baby nutrition care and parents need to take utmost care while bottlefeeding their babies.

Baby Nutrition Care Tips With Ideas…

During pregnancy, cough medicines such as vicks vaporub, robitussin and mucinex are not harmful and effective to take. During pregnancy, it is not safe to suffer from cold and cough because the medicine which is used to treat cold and cough are not safe for the child’s health. Therefore, a pregnant women is always cautious to take medicines during pregnancy. There are certain medicines which are used to treat cold and cough which cannot affect the fetus. This article focuses on the types cough medicines that should be taken during pregnancy.

Types of Cough Medicine During Pregnancy

Robitussin:- Robitussin is a trusted brand in order to treat cough during pregnancy. In order to reduce coughing during pregnancy, many doctors suggests to take robitussin. This syrup is made out of different ingredients. It contains dextromethorphan in it which is safe to take during pregnancy. It does not cause any congenital defects to the baby if it is taken in the right dosage.

Mucinex:- Mucinex is a medicine which provides considerable amount of relief from cough and it is approved by FDA. The ingredient used in making this medicine is guaifenesin. In order to treat cough during pregnancy, this medicine is the most effective medicine. This medicine helps in cleaning the mucus from the lungs.

Hytuss:- This medicine helps in bringing down the cough and it is available in a capsule form. The ingredient contain in this medicine is guaifenesin which helps in reducing the cough. Hytuss also helps in thinning the mucus. Consumption of hytuss prevents a pregnant woman from cold and flu.

Vicks vaporub:- Vicks vaporub is neither a tablet nor syrup but it is an ointment which can be applied on the chest in order to reduce the coughing. Vicks vaporub contains medicated vapors in it which reduces the coughing.

Things to Remember

• These medicines provides temporary relief from cough and cold and it can be used for three to four days. It is not advisable to use these medicines for longer period of time.In order to know the exact dosage of these medicines, consult to doctor.

Overdose of any medicine can be harmful for you and for your baby. Therefore, always consult to doctor before taking any medicines.

Pregnancy

Whether is it safe to consume antibiotics during pregnancy is a matter of concern for all the pregnant women. However, there are some antibiotics which are considered to be safe and some are not. There are various reasons behind taking an antibiotic during pregnancy but one should consult to gynaecologist before consuming any antibiotics. This article focuses the different types of antibiotics during pregnancy.

Types of Antibiotics Dung Pregnancy

Type A:- Very few antibiotics falls under this category. Type A antibiotic means that there is no harm to the fetus in the first trimester of pregnancy. Therefore, type A antibiotic is the safest of all the antibiotics which can be taken during pregnancy.

Type B:- large number of antibiotics falls under this category, however, there are no evidence of pregnancy related issues or birth defects due to the consumption of these antibiotics. Hence, these antibiotics are also safe to be taken during pregnancy.

Type C:- These antibiotics are need to be avoided during pregnancy as they do not contain sufficient data about the effects of type C antibiotics.

Type D:- These antibiotics are completely avoided during pregnancy and prenatal care. If there is no better alternative, you may take this antibiotic during pregnancy.

Things to Remember

Duration of medication:- Too much exposure of the antibiotics may lead to deformities in the fetus and even results in miscarriage.

Type of antibiotics:- Erythromycin,penicillin and cephalosporins are some of the antibiotic which are safe to consume during pregnancy. Along with these antibiotics, you must take multivitamin dose regularly.

Trimester of pregnancy:- It is very important to see in which trimester you are consuming the antibiotics as there are certain antibiotic which need to be consumed during certain trimester.

Dosage of the antibiotic prescribed:- In order to treat urinary tract infection, take folic acid at least 400 milligrams along with the antibiotics. Take extra folic acid if you are treating prenatal vitamins.

Before taking any antibiotics during pregnancy, it is very necessary for you to check the harmful effects of these antibiotics. Consult to doctor before consuming any antibiotics during pregnancy.

Pregnancy

Centering Pregnancy participants Tuula Ala (right) and Linda Lagunas-Atwood (left) with New Beginnings Case Manager Carrie Hamilton (middle)

Thank you so much to Centering Pregnancy participants Tuula Ala and Linda Lagunas-Atwood, who raised over 0 organizing a baby shower fundraiser for HPP. The two moms-to-be held a raffle during their celebration with 100% of proceeds to go towards our families in need.

“If you are poor and lack a support structure, it can be incredibly isolating being pregnant in an urban area,” Tuula said. “HPP brings women together and offers community, and we’re just glad we can help any way we can.”

Tuula and Linda are both participants in the San Francisco General Hospital’s Centering Pregnancy program, which HPP hosts and co-facilitates on-site. The program combines support and education with prenatal care in a group setting with women who are all due around the same time.

HPP New Beginnings Case Manager and Centering Pregnancy Co-Facilitator Carrie Hamilton was touched by the women’s thoughtfulness. “We really appreciate their efforts, and it’s absolutely amazing what they did for HPP!”

Homeless Prenatal Program

Rafael Nadal is dominating the ATP Tennis circuit but who could upset the favourite next month, at the 2010 US Open Tennis Championship.
Suite101 Articles

Actress Rosario Dawson of Men in Black II and Seven Pounds fame stopped by for a visit to HPP and left, in her words, completely blown away by the experience. Introduced to HPP through the Redford Center’s Art of Activism event, Rosario spent hours chatting with staff and clients and touring our beautiful home. Watch her share her thoughts as to why HPP is so needed and valued in the community.

Snapshots in Action

Rosario Dawson & HPP Staff

Rosario Dawson & Family Case Manager Julie Mitra

Rosario Dawson & Community Health Worker Alma Vasquez

“Rosario demonstrated a compassion for our work here at HPP that went beyond the superficial level,” Family Case Manager Julie Mitra said. “She was so down-to-earth and really understood the tremendous stories and sadness that are experienced by those who have fallen through the safety net in our community.”

Thank you so much for visiting HPP Rosario! You are welcome anytime!

Homeless Prenatal Program

Graduating CHWs Ethel Ennon and Jessalynn Castaneda with Wells Fargo Vice President, District Manager Eric Young and Store Manager Kelly Saleh

Eight up-and-coming graduates from the Community Health Worker (CHW) Training Program celebrated with family, friends and staff on June 4 to cap off their successful yearlong participation in the program. HPP also welcomed Wells Fargo special guests Vice President, District Manager Eric Young and Store Manager Kelly Saleh, who presented the training program with a ,000 check. Graduating CHWs Karla Ayala, Jessalynn Castaneda, Ethel Ennon, Heshima Jenkins, Marisol Silva, Vanessa Garcia, Angelina Gonzalez, and Jessica Silva were honored at the graduation.

HPP’s CHW Training Program is a highly competitive, intensive 12-month paid job training program that prepares economically disadvantaged and formerly homeless mothers for employment. More than 50% of candidates chosen to be CHW trainees are former HPP clients. Many graduates of the program go on to work in a variety of positions at local community-based organizations, and some fill HPP’s open staff positions.

Elisa Gasca, a current Community Health Worker, shared how the graduation prompted feelings of excited anticipation for her own next steps. “HPP has opened so many opportunities for the graduating CHWs,” she said. “This experience so far has helped me grow and realize what I need to do to get ready for my goal of studying at a university to be a probation officer.”

Congratulations to our amazing graduating CHWs and a heartfelt thank you to Wells Fargo for their generous and continued support of a truly life-changing program!

Community Health Worker (CHW) Training Program graduates celebrate their accomplishments

Homeless Prenatal Program