HANDY TIPS & INTERESTING FACTS
on pregnancy and parenthood!

• During the pregnancy the average woman gets 11-12 kilograms of weight and a woman's blood volume increases up to 50%.
  
  
• Babies start moving as early as six to seven weeks, even though Mum can't feel them until around week 17.
  
  
• An unborn baby can hear things from as early as 12 week and they will begin to suck their growing fingers. They can even recognise their parent's voices straight after birth because they will have heard them in the womb.
  
  
• Babies practise making noises in the womb. According to research in Spain, they produce sound vibrations from around 18 weeks.
  
  
• Unborn babies dream. Research shows rapid eye movement (REM) at around 23 weeks, which indicates a dream in progress. This also encourages a baby's brain to develop.
  
  
• What makes Mum relax, relaxes her unborn baby. When pregnant women listened to soothing music, researchers found that the baby's breathing slowed down.
  
  
• Twins develop a special relationship. An italian psychotherapist videoed twins in the womb and captured them stroking and patting each other through separate amniotic sacs.
  
  
• At 28 weeks babies can distinguish between the taste of bitter and sweet fluids injected in the womb.

  At around 30 weeks your unborn baby can pick up light from outside your body. If you sunbathe while pregnant your baby will notice a warm glow, and unborn babies will turn in the womb to follow a small flash light moved across Mum's tummy.

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INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT LITTLE MUNCHKINS..

• A baby is born every 3 seconds.
  
  
• Babies are born with 300 bones, but because some bones fuse together, adults only have 206 bones
  
  
• At birth, a child’s feet have 22 partially formed bones; by the time the child turms 18, each foot has 26 fully formed bones.
  
  
• All newborn babies have a pug nose. The bridge of the nose isn't there at birth - it grows later - so babies have a small `button' nose.
  
  
• Babies are almost always born with blue or blue-grey eyes, and within a few moments of delivery their eye colour can change.
  
  
• Babies are born with swimming abilities and can naturally hold their breath. However, they shortly lose this instinct.
  
  
• Newborn babies have an acute sense of smell, which enables them to recognise the natural scent, or pheromones, from their mother’s body.
• Babies have a define preference for high contrast images, like geometric shapes in black, white and red.
  
  
• Men are quicker at changing a baby’s nappy. Men take just over a 1 minute while women can take over 2 minutes to change a nappy.
  
  
• The more stimulating experiences you can give your baby, the more circuitry is built for enhanced learning in the future.
  
  
• Babies are born without kneecaps. They appear when the child is 2-6 years of age.
  
  
• Newborn babies may cry a lot but they don't produce any tears. There is moisture to lubricate and clean the eyes but proper tears don't start to appear until the baby is between three and twelve weeks of age.
  
  
• Any hair that is on your newborn baby's head will soon fall out - to be replaced by permanent hair (which may be of an entirely different colour) at about six months.
  
  
• Gently rocking a baby can stimulate the cerebellum. The cerebellum is the part of the brain that is involved with things like sensory perception and coordination. By stimulating it the baby will mature faster and can have improved vision, sleep cycles, and growth.
  
  
• About one in five toddlers can open bottles with child-resistant tops.
  
  
• Four out of ten babies are born with at least one birthmark.
  
  
• Newborn babies are genetically programmed to respond to human voices - especially female voices. Babies learn to distinguish between different sounds very quickly.
  
  
• Babies have very poor eyesight. Their eyes are focused on a spot about eight inches away - so you need to get really close if your baby is to see you clearly. Babies prefer looking at curved lines rather than straight lines.
  
  
• Contrary to the old wives' tale, babies are not colour blind. They prefer strong primary colours - particularly red and blue.
  
  
• The heart of a newborn baby beats between 130 and 160 times a minute (about twice that of a normal adult).
  
  
• Babies breathe much faster than adults - 30 to 50 times a minute compared to an adult's 15 to 20 times a minute.
  
  
• Babies often sneeze and snort in their sleep to clear their nasal passages. Only later on can babies breathe through their mouth if their nose is blocked. To minimise the problem keep the air in the home as clear and as smoke and dust free as possible.
  
  
• Aerosols and Air fresheners may cause stomach and ear discomfort in babies.
  
  
• Babies and toddlers are, pound for pound, stronger than oxen. This is especially true of their legs.
  
  
• Although babies get some immunity - and protection from infection - from their mothers breastmilk, they are still very vulnerable to colds. Keep anyone with a cold away from your baby.
  
  
• Newborn babies spend between 15 and 20 hours a day sleeping - in bouts of sleep lasting 20 minutes to 5 hours.
  
  
• In the first year of his life your baby will triple his weight, increase his length by 50%, double the size of his brain and create every nerve cell he will ever have.
  
  
• Babies respond well to touch - which stimulates the production of growth-promoting hormones and helps the body become more responsive to these hormones. In one survey it was shown that premature babies who were touched regularly showed 47% more weight gain.
  
  
• It is determined at around 10 weeks after birth whether your baby is right-handed or left-handed.
  
  
• Teething can start when your baby is just three months old.
  
  
• Babies sometimes need background noise to help them get to sleep (the womb is not the quietest place in the world). Some sounds that are known to relax and soothe babies include: a recording of their mother's heartbeat; the sound of a clock ticking; a recording of a stream, waterfall or sea; a vacuum cleaner; air bubbling through a fish tank; running water from a tap.
  
  
• Babies communicate physically before they can communicate verbally.  Parents subliminally teach their children some gestures, such as good-bye waves and pointing at objects.
  
  
• Playing classical music will increase a baby's intelligence.
  
  
• About 1/4 of a baby's weight is accounted for by their head.
  
  
• Wednesday is now the most popular day for babies making their arrival in the world (formerly Tuesday), with Saturday being the least busiest day of the week. This is more than likely because most doctors do not schedule c-sections for Saturdays. Sunday is the slowest day, with 35.1 fewer births than average. The fact that far fewer babies were born on the weekend may be influenced partly by scheduled labour induction and c-sections but vaginal births also occur less often on the weekend.
  
  
• More babies are born during the hottest time of the year, with the late summer months being the most popular. Of course this is a result of what happens 9 month earlier, when the weather is colder and people are spending more time indoors where it is warmer with their loved ones.
  
  
• Boy babies outnumber girl babies, This ratio has stayed the same though over the last 6 decades.
  
  
• The number of multiple births has increased by more than 400 percent over the last 20 years!
  
  
• It is the father's sperm that decides the sex of your baby.
  
  
• Fathers who drink heavily are more likely to have female children. This is due to testosterone being diminished by the alcohol that normally would produce boys. 
  
  
• Older parents are more likely to have girls while younger parents are slightly more likely to have boys.
  
  
• Boy babies outnumber girl babies, This ratio has stayed the same though over the last 6 decades.
  
  
• If your child is  overweight, they are up to 5 times more likely to have a heart attack by the age of 65.
  
  
• Reading to your child at ANY age will increase their knowledge.

• The largest number of children born to one woman is recorded at 69!