LiveWorld Transcripts

Women.com presents

Tori Kropp, RN
Pregnancy and Childbirth

January 07, 2000

Tori Kropp, Women.com's resident health expert, is a Prenatal Registered Nurse and the founder of Stork Site. Tori, known as "the Dear Abby of pregnancy," has helped deliver more than 5,000 babies! She advocates a common-sense approach to women's health issues. Tori is here today to talk to you about pregnancy and childbirth.

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HomeArts: Good afternoon and thanks for joining our chat with Tori Kropp, RN. Tori, Women.com's resident health expert, is a Prenatal Registered Nurse and the founder of Stork Site. Tori, known as "the Dear Abby of pregnancy," has helped deliver more than 5,000 babies! She advocates a common-sense approach to women's health issues. Tori is here today to talk to you about pregnancy and childbirth. Welcome, Tori!

Tori Kropp: Hi everybody! It's great to be here and Happy New Year! I hope you are all staying warm. Let's get started!

MinnesotaGirl: I have herpes and I'm still at the stage where it flares up every few months. Should I have this child via C-section to keep it from becoming infected? Can I have it naturally?

Tori Kropp: Nearly 30 percent of the population of women carry the Herpes virus. It's certainly not necessary to automatically have a C-Section. However, your doctor will culture your vagina at about 38 weeks in your pregnancy and if you were to have an outbreak at that time it may be safer to deliver the baby by C-Section. If you don't have an outbreak and you go into labor, there is no reason why you can't deliver the baby naturally. You may want to ask your doctor about a medication called Zovirox, which can reduce any outbreaks. It is widely used during pregnancy and has been found to be safe for both you and the baby.

RelentlessPursuit: I just left for maternity leave and will be returning ten weeks after my due date (Jan 10!). Because of my job, which requires a lot of overnight travel, I don't think I'll be able to breastfeed when I go back to work. So, is it advisable that I not breastfeed, but bottle-feed when my child is born? Would it be too hard to wean a baby that young?

Tori Kropp: Absolutely not. Your baby will have ten excellent weeks of breast feeding before you return to work. Many mothers need to supplement breast-fed babies with formula when they return to work and although weaning can at times be difficult, the benefits of breast feeding are so much greater than bottle feeding. I encourage you to breast feed for any amount of time that you are comfortable with.

Slowpokey: Do you think that the reason we are seeing bigger, healthier babies is because of the better prenatal care that moms are receiving today?

Tori Kropp: That's a great question and yes, that is part of the reason. The other reasons are that moms are no longer restricted in the amount of weight that they gain during pregnancy. Our moms were told to gain only 15 pounds (laughing) when they were pregnant (can you even imagine that? And in the 40's, 50's and even into the 60's, many women smoked more during pregnancy. We know this results in lower birth weight babies. All in all, we take much better care of ourselves nutritionally today than a generation ago.

Ellen: What is the recommended stay in the hospital after birth? When I had my son five years ago, they had us out of the hospital in 24 hours and my girlfriend is staying three days after delivery this month.

Tori Kropp: For most women, 24 hours is clearly not enough time. The standard practice today is 48 hours after delivery, and that seems a comfortable amount of time for most people. For a first baby, three days might be fine; but for a second or third baby, most moms are anxious to go home after two days. If a woman has a C-Section, she will be able to stay at the minimum of 3-4 days, because she must also heal from surgery.

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