Pregnancy

I thought I'd always been the type to fear swimsuit season. Maybe. But there was a time in my life when I was apparently possessed of enough confidence to strut poolside in a string bikini. At least that's what my swimsuit collection tells me.

For the past three Summers, I've been in some state of either pregnancy or postpartum "WHAT IS MY BODY DOING?!" panic; so, needless to say, those bikinis have remained dormant at the very bottom of my drawer. In fact, some of them I've even permanently retired to a box in the basement wardrobe. But I digress.

Last Summer, just barely popping with our second, we took a family trip to Mexico. I had to find something to contain pregnant boobs, smooth the bulges of early pregnancy, and boost my confidence enough to not detract from the fun of seeing my then-16-month-old on the beach for the first time. When it's time for fun in the sun with your family, the last thing you want to worry about is tugging a swimsuit back into place.

That's when I saw it! It wasn't the awful maternity options turned out by Motherhood and Target. It wasn't some ridiculous attempt to put myself into a two-piece. (Some moms-to-be can pull this off; my pregnant tummy ain't that cute.) And it wasn't reminiscent of something my grandmother wore once either.

Keep reading.

The sight of a smiling baby can help brighten any mom's day, but Texas mom Erica Nigrelli literally was brought to life at the sight of her child.

English teacher Nigrelli was 36 weeks pregnant when she started feeling faint while at work one February morning. When she passed out, the school called 911 and two co-workers started CPR to try to restart her heart, the Huffington Post reports.

When Nigrelli arrived at the hospital, the doctors stopped CPR so that they could deliver the baby.

"The doctors told me that Erica delivered post-mortem because she did not have a heartbeat when they took the baby out," Nathan Nigrelli told The Star. "But I married a fighter, and now I had a baby girl who was a fighter, too." After the C-section, doctors diagnosed Erica with the heart condition hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and gave her a pacemaker, reports KHOU 11.

Read the full story at the Huffington Post.

One of the many questions a pregnant mom is likely to be asked by her doctor before she has the baby is whether she wants to bank or donate cord blood after the birth. "I've been thinking about this for months now. I'm having my first child, and I wanted to bank because I thought it was [a] cool and beneficial idea. However, if I'm having a healthy baby is it necessary? Should I just donate?" asks Circle of Moms member Ashley B. 

Cord blood is helpful in transplants for patients with leukemia, lymphoma, and many other life-threatening diseases, according to the National Marrow Donor Program.

Despite the life-saving opportunities, however, I decided to forgo banking or donating my children's cord blood when they were delivered. Here are five reasons why.