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Before I was pregnant with Funky Monkey I had no clue about anything "pregnancy", except for what I had seen on TV. From big Hollywood blockbusters that misinform to some "documentaries" that misrepresent what the real pregnancy, labor and delivery are like, I have conjured up an image of what pregnancy would be like. Boy, was I wrong!Here are short questions and answers to the most common pregnancy concerns taken from real life.
Q - I think I might be pregnant, now what.
A - Unlike in the movies, you don't need to rush in to your doctors to confirm early pregnancy. Home pregnancy test are more sensitive than the doctor's office ones (First Response home pregnancy test will test positive at pregnancy hormone levels of just 6.5 mlU/ml - thousandths of an international Unit per milliliter, whereas most doctors levels will not test positive until 75 to 100 mlU/ml). That means that the home pregnancy test will show up positive many days prior to the one from doctor's office. When I was pregnant with Funky Monkey I rushed to confirm my positive home pregnancy test at the doctor's office. I was already 2 days past when my cycle was supposed to start, so I wasn't super early. To my dismay, the doctor informed me that my test was inconclusive and I had to return in few days. Eventually, the urine test at the doctor's office confirmed what I had known for days. With Girly Monkey I knew that the pregnancy tests done at home were more accurate so when I went to the doctor and they told me that the test was negative I asked for a beta hCG test (blood test) to confirm pregnancy. Blood tests have an advantage over urine test because hCG (the pregnancy hormone) gets secreted into blood few days before being secreted into urine. Now there are 2 kinds of beta tests, quantitative and qualitative. Qualitative test has a threshold that you have to reach before it will come back as a "Yes" or "no" answer. Quantitative test will check the actual level of pregnancy hormone in your system. Anything over 5 is considered to be pregnant.
