• When does Nicky feel extremely happy?

• What makes her feel awful?

• In what ways does Nicky prepare women for birth in her weekly antenatal classes?

Exercise 6. Discuss with a partner whether you would like to do Nicky's job. Explain your reasons.

II. Independent Work: Risk of Having Children in Later Life

Exercise 1. Read the text.

Over the past 50 years or so possibilities for controlling fertility have grown. These changes began with the introduction of oral contraception and have continued with the legalization of induced abortions. On the other hand the development of more and more sophisticated techniques of in vitro fertilization and advances in obstetrics enhance fertility and ensure safe deliveries in older women, thus giving them a chance to become mothers at a middle age.

But according to the findings of many obstetricians-gynecologists an older age strongly increases the risk of at least three untoward outcomes — namely, stillbirth, miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy. Maternal age has an impact on other aspects of reproduction. Among those that are usually recorded are multiple births and congenital malformations.

When birth defects are considered, older women have a consistently increased risk for Down's syndrome, which is less of a hazard now than it was, owing to the advent of prenatal screening. Certain rare disorders are more common among births to older fathers. Some of them that are thought to be new mutations are detectable in offspring only later in life, schizophrenia is one example.

Information on parental age and possible unfavorable outcome is important in counseling prospective parents. But after potential parents have weighed the age factor in terms of conceiving and carrying a pregnancy to the end, they might be glad to know that a child born to older parents does have advantages. In some studies such children do better at school than those of very young parents. In the difficult task of raising children older parents may be less healthy than younger ones, but their experience and knowledge are almost always greater, their economic situation is better, and they can give to the child a more stable rear. Biological disadvantages are to some degree balanced by social advantages.

From British Medical Journal 2000

Exercise 2. Write a summary of the text.

UNIT TWENTY-NINE

I	Speaking	Pregnancy
II	Independent Work	New Techniques Help Childless Couples - Even after Menopause

I. Speaking: Pregnancy

Exercise 1. Learn the topical words.

condition - стан

exist - існувати, бути, жити

egg, egg cell - яйцеклітина

to fertilize - запліднювати

a missed menstrual period - припинення менструації notice - помічати, відзначати sickness - нудота

trimester - триместр, тримісячний термін experience - відчувати, почувати nipple - сосок

enlarge - збільшуватися, розширюватися waistline - талія

expand - розширятися, розтягуватися apparent - видимий cumbersome - обтяжливий tired - втомлений

Exercise 2. Read the text.

Pregnancy

Pregnancy is the condition that exists in a woman between the time when one of her eggs s fertilized by a sperm and the time when her child is born.