1. Health
A woman’s health is essential to the good health of her baby. As soon as you find out you're pregnant, get in touch with a gynecologist or a midwife to organise your antenatal care. Women who go for regular prenatal care are less likely to have complications and they're also more likely to successfully give birth to a healthy baby. Attending all prenatal care checkups will also help your doctor carefully monitor you and your growing baby throughout your pregnancy.
2. Opt for a Balanced Diet
Eating a nutritious diet during pregnancy have a direct influence on the health of the unborn baby. The food a woman eats during pregnancy is linked to good fetal brain development, a healthy or normal birth weight, and lowers the risk of many birth defects. Healthy diet is a must during pregnancy. It also reduces the risk of pregnancy complications like anemia, morning sickness and fatigue. Good nutrition also help balance mood swings and it may improve labor and delivery as well. A well-balanced pregnancy diet includes, plenty of nuts, vegetables, fruits and fresh fish to help your body get protein, vitamin C, carbohydrates calcium, iron and adequate fat. Foods rich in Omega 3 and Omega 6 oils. Eat organic foods, especially leafy greens to build an iron- rich blood supply, and try to have five portions of fruits and vegetables daily. Along with food drink plenty of pure water, switch to green tea and real fruit juices. Avoid coffee and sodas.
3. Exercise Regularly
Regular moderate exercise during pregnancy ensures proper health of
the mother as well as the newborn. Exercise helps:
- Alleviate Constipation
- Relieves leg cramps, swelling of the ankles and back pain
- Improve sleep
- Help ward off depression
- Increase energy levels
- It helps to cope better with the hard work of labour
- It makes it easier to get back into shap after your baby is born
- Enhances the newborn child’s brain development.
Avoid sports that have a risk of falls or knocks, or put extra stress on your joints. Before starting any new exercise, it’s important to talk to your doctor. Good exercise choices for pregnancy include, Aerobic exercises, such as walking, brisk walking, jogging, swimming prenatal dance classes, and yoga. These exercise stimulate the heart and lungs as well as muscle and joint activity,it also improves circulation and increases muscle tone and strength. There are other exercise designed specifically for pregnant women that help to improve posture, build strength and promote better circulation and respiration. Some of these exercises are Squatting and Kegel exercises. Kegel exercises focus on the vaginal and perineal muscles and are thought to help women maintain good muscle tone and control in the perineal area, which can aid in delivery and recovery after birth. However, if you were not physically active before getting pregnant, talk with your doctor about what exercise you can do during your pregnancy.
4. Getting Sick During Pregnancy
Pregnant women are more susceptible to certain infections, like the common cold or flu. Though such illnesses can make you feel very unwell, most will not affect your developing baby. Some of the more common illnesses besides all of the symptoms that go along with pregnancy, include common cold,flu runny nose and upset stomach. It’s important to talk to your doctor about treatments that are safe to use for any illnesses during pregnancy. Talk to your doctor about your health history. They can tell you
whether or not there are risks to your baby’s health.
5. Avoid Certain Foods
There are some foods it's safest not to eat in pregnancy to protect yourself and your unborn baby from bacteria or parasitic infections. These foods pose a threat to your health and can harm the health of your baby and cause birth complications . Such infection causing bacteria and parasites are:
1. Listeriosis- Caused by listeria bacteria. It doesn't usually pose a threat to your health. However, it can cause pregnancy or birth complications and even lead to miscarriage. Food to avoid are, unpasteurised milk and juice, undercooked ready meals and soft cheeses. Make sure you heat ready meals thoroughly before eating as listeria bacteria are destroyed by heat. Also make sure that all milk, cheese, and juice are pasteurized.
2. Toxoplasmosis- This is an infection caused by a parasite. It rare and it can affect your unborn baby. You can lower your risk of catching it by, washing fruit and vegetables well to remove soil or dirt, cooking meat and ready meals thoroughly and wearing gloves when handling pet litter and garden soil.
3. Salmonella- It can cause food poisoning. It can be transmitted from
refrigerated, smoked seafood and undercooked meat, fish high in mercury and raw sprouts, poultry and seafood. Thoroughly wash utensils, boards and your hands after handling raw poultry and cook eggs until the white and yolk are solid, do not eat soft-boiled or raw eggs during pregnancy.
Pregnant women should ensure that their food is obtained from reputable establishments, cooked properly and consumed within a couple of days of purchasing. Speak to your doctor about allergies, so you'll know foods to avoid.
6. Take Necessary Supplements
Most nutrients needed during pregnancy should come from food, but prenatal vitamin supplements play an important role. They can help if you're worried you're not eating well, or you're too sick to eat much, and as such not getting the right nutrients that the developing fetus needs. Make sure your supplement contains 400 micrograms (mcg) of folic acid and iron because it's necessary to prevent neural tube defects such as spina bifida and iron helps in the baby’s overall growth. Your supplement should also contain calcium and vitamin D for proper bone development in babies. If you don't eat fish, fish oil supplements may be helpful. Choose a supplement made from the body of the fish, not the liver and Omega-3 fatty acid supplements also can promote a baby’s brain development. However, these pregnancy supplements are not a substitute for a balanced diet. Talk to your doctor before you start taking prenatal vitamins. They can help you decide which type is best for you.
7. Get Plenty of Rest and Sleep
Getting adequate sleep during pregnancy is vital. Pregnancy causes several hormonal changes in the body that can lead to fatigue and exhaustion. To help your body overcome this, it is important to get adequate rest. Sleep deprivation during pregnancy can lead to longer labor,discomfort during labor, higher cesarean rates and preterm labor. Sleep nourishes the development of the unborn baby and provide energy to the mother needed for labor and delivery. Factors that cause sleep problem during pregnancy include backache, leg cramps, morning sickness ,heartburn, and endless bathroom trips. Backaches is one of the main causes and if backache is disturbing your sleep, try sleeping on your left-hand side with your knees bent. Placing a wedge-shaped pillow under your bump may help ease the strain on your back. Exercise may also give you some relief from backache. You can also try relaxation techniques which are safe in pregnancy before you go to bed, such as deep breathing, yoga visualisation, stretching and warm massage.For a healthy pregnancy, you need restful and quality sleep.
8. Manage Stress
Feeling stressed during pregnancy is normal, but the stress level should be under control. Stress hormones can impact the health of the unborn baby. Stress during pregnancy is related to a child’s motor development, as well as mental outcomes in middle childhood and into adolescence. Stress can make pregnant women overwhelmed and fatigued all the time, it can causes low blood flow to the baby, thereby making it hard for important nutrients to reach the baby’s developing organs and it can result in premature labor due to the release of contraction-triggering hormones. To manage stress, talk to your partner, friends,family members and doctor about your fears and problems
9. Do Pelvic Floor Exercises
Your pelvic floor comprises a hammock of muscles at the base of
your pelvis. These exercise are great for strengthening the muscles that support your bladder, vagina and back passage, because pregnancy hormones can also cause your pelvic floor to slacken slightly and feel weaker. Pelvic floor exercises can aid in smooth delivery and quick recovery after birth. It also helps prevent urinary incontinence.
10. Cutting out bad habits
It’s important to cut out smoking, drug use, and alcohol consumption when pregnant as these have been linked to serious complications and risks for both mother and baby.
- Alcohol: Any alcohol consumed rapidly reaches your baby via the blood
stream and placenta. Hence, it is important to avoid alcohol during pregnancy. Drinking alcohol during pregnancy is linked with a wide range of problems in the developing baby such as miscarriage,premature labor and delivery stillbirth. It can also cause fetal alcohol syndrome, which causes low body weight, abnormal appearance, short height and low intelligence, and other problems in the newborn. Reports says that prenatal alcohol is the leading preventable cause of birth defects and intellectual and neurodevelopmental disabilities. Also, do not drink any alcohol while trying to become pregnant.
- Smoking: Smoking during pregnancy can cause serious health problems,
for you and your baby. It affects blood flow and oxygen delivery to a baby. Pregnant women should not smoke before, during or after pregnancy and should try to avoid secondhand smoke as well. Pregnancy complications linked to smoking are:
Ectopic pregnancy
Vaginal bleeding
Nausea and vomiting (morning sickness).
Premature placental detachment and abruption
Premature labor and delivery
Cot death (SIDS)
Smoking also cause low birth-weight babies, which is the most common cause of death and illness in the first few weeks of life.
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