Quick weight gain or loss, puberty, body-building, or pregnancy causes progressive stretching of the skin, often leading to unsightly stretch marks. Laser treatment for stretch marks, topical creams, and chemical peels are the recommended treatments. Just as an elastic band loses its elasticity after being stretched over a certain period of time, the dermis (the skin’s middle layer), upon being stretched, tends to become fragile, causing the skin to lose its elasticity. Marks usually appear as red or purple scars in areas where the amount of fat stored is relatively high, such as abdomen, thighs, arms, and calves. Over a period of time, scars fade to a whitish shade. Although cosmetic in nature, stretch marks can certainly put a dampener on wearing those tank tops or hot pants.

Preventing Stretch Marks

Since stretch marks are difficult to eliminate completely once they occur, this is one condition where prevention is certainly better and easier than cure. Using creams, rich in Vitamin E, are an elixir for the skin as they possess optimum moisturizing and healing qualities to massage the skin and help increase its elasticity. Topical creams containing cocoa butter, Tretinoin, or Retin-A are widely used as massage creams and are freely available over the counter at most cosmetic and drug stores. The massaging action can help increase the blood circulation in the affected areas, resulting in making the skin better prepared for the stretching phase, especially during pregnancy. Maintaining a pregnancy journal can help track the growth of the abdominal swelling, so that the cream can be used well before the stretch marks become evident. Most creams can only penetrate and soothe the epidermis, but are often ineffective in dealing with pre-existing deeper scars. For those seeking a more effective option to get rid of them, surgery, or even Laser treatment for stretch marks is widely suggested as an excellent alternative.

Surgical Procedures And Laser Treatment For Stretch Marks

Surgical procedures like Abdominoplasty, also known as the surgical tummy tuck, affects the appearance of stretch marks by tightening the loose skin around the abdomen, but is not recommended solely as a means to remove the scars. Laser treatment for stretch marks helps in steadily removing the damaged layer and promoting the growth of a fresh layer of damage-free skin. Due to the inherent nature of the treatment, it takes multiple sittings, depending on the severity of the condition. While earlier lasers only worked on red and purple scars, recent technological developments have helped remedy even the older white marks. Since the marks can never be cured completely, very fine lines still remain, but the laser causes the affected skin to appear quite like the remaining skin in the area, thus camouflaging the scars to the best possible extent.

A pregnancy journal is a diary that helps pregnant women knows their symptoms and experiences. It enabled you to keep track of your everyday moods. It can also act as a newsletter that gives you information on various topics related to pregnancy.

Today, these journals are available online as well. These are interactive and help you understand your pregnancy milestones. Using these online diaries, you can share your pregnancy period with loved ones. You can continue to maintain these journals even after the birth of your child and share the moments with your child when he or she is older.

Pregnancy Journals are available on topics like pregnancy diet, the probable due date, breastfeeding, week-by-week pregnancy details, advice for stay-at-home moms or working moms, and many more. These journals are filled with a lot of first hand information: from newly pregnant women to full-fledged moms that it becomes helpful for others in more ways than one.

Although no two pregnancies are alike, there is plenty of common ground. For women who are planning to conceive or have recently conceived, this information can be very beneficial for the beginning phase of the pregnancy.

What Does A Pregnancy Journal Contain?

It is an outlet for your feelings and emotions. It is a place where you can take refuge and write down every detail about your incredible journey. It is a personal diary where you can record small secrets: the names that you are considering for the baby, the tests that you have been through and other things. This can be used as a keepsake folder to store pictures, doctor’s notes, and nursery ideas.

You can record all the aspects and elements of your pregnancy such as baby updates, body updates, and mind updates.

During pregnancy, the most important record is that of your pregnancy diet plan. What you eat during pregnancy not only affects the health of your child during the nine months when it is a fetus but also in the later stages in life. Maintaining your daily diet in your journal lets you keep a check on every food item that you eat.

What You Can Write In A Pregnancy Journal

• The firsts: the first person you told the news to when you experienced symptoms of pregnancy, your first doctor’s visit, the first time you wore maternity clothes, and the like.

• Weekly weights and measurements

• Tests and their results

• Reactions to your developing body

• Questions to ask the doctor

• Pregnancy diet

• Cravings and mood swings

• Changes happening to the body and mind

A pregnancy journal is a day by day record of your pregnancy. It could act as a guide for your forthcoming pregnancies or for other women in your family that get pregnant at a later date.