Once you know you are pregnant, your duty doubles. You must care for yourself and your unborn child to ensure a healthy pregnancy. One of the essential things expectant moms should know is that every small activity collaborates to make pregnancy safe and healthy. Whether it is your diet, physical activity, or medication, you cannot be careless. Even a slight carelessness can be harmful to your unborn child.
Your job to be careful about your health starts when you know you are pregnant. Meaning taking care of yourself in the initial days of the pregnancy is as crucial as the last trimester.
Some ways to ensure a healthy pregnancy include the following.
- Take your prenatal appointments seriously
Even after knowing about your pregnancy through a home pregnancy test, you must still visit an obstetrician for final confirmation. Your healthcare provider will conduct a few mandatory tests and schedule prenatal appointments. Following the schedule for these appointments is one of the easiest ways to ensure your and your baby’s health.
Doctors recommend regular checkups during pregnancy to ensure the healthy growth and development of the baby. Your doctor will conduct a few screenings every visit to confirm everything is fine. These tests help with early diagnosis and treatment, reducing the chances of a complicated pregnancy.
Sometimes, due to your doctor’s negligence, potential problems are not highlighted even after regular checkups. In severe cases, a pregnancy becomes complicated, causing birth injuries such as cerebral palsy, bruising, facial paralysis, Erb’s palsy, etc., in a child.
Birth injuries due to doctoral negligence are punishable, making you eligible to demand hefty compensation. To know more about birth injuries, their types, treatments, and legal options, visit credible sites or talk to your healthcare provider. Talking to your healthcare provider during prenatal appointments will send them a message that you are not unaware of these issues, and they may be more careful about your health.
- Practice mindful meditation daily
Pregnancy is a stressful period; the thoughts of the unknown and things going wrong always stays with you. But stress can be harmful to the mother and the unborn child.
Extreme stress can cause premature birth, low birth weight, not to mention future mental and developmental problems in the child. Therefore, you must practice stress-busting activities such as mindful meditation during pregnancy. Meditation enhances inner peace and expels negative thoughts; hence, you feel less overstretched and unperturbed.
Studies have proved the immense stress-relieving effects of meditation on pregnant women. The benefit of mindful meditation is that it increases your consciousness of the present, preventing you from reminiscing or fretting over the future. This helps you be more aware of your current state and focus on improving it for the betterment of yourself and your child.
When you meditate, try to picture yourself with your child, telling them how loved they are or how eagerly you are anticipating their arrival. This helps you stay optimistic about the health and safety of your child and develop a bond with them.
- Avoid unhealthy habits
What you do during pregnancy directly or indirectly affects your child. Therefore, to ensure your unborn child’s safety, you must revisit your habits and rethink everything that might be risky for your child. Some things you must change during pregnancy are the following:
Staying in bathtubs and saunas: When your body stays in hot water, it cannot effectively lose heat through sweating, so your body’s core temperature may rise. This can be harmful during pregnancy.
Late-night partying: late night partying means you are not resting enough, which can make your baby restless. It can also affect your health. Besides, this late-night partying also poses the risk of consuming harmful drinks and substances, which are detrimental to the baby’s health.
Excessive caffeine consumption: Studies have associated over-consumption (more than 200 mg per day) of caffeine with babies being smaller than their gestational age and risk of intrauterine growth restriction. Though the results of the studies are not very consistent, the risk is still there to some extent. And it is always better to be on the safer side.
Extra weight loss: pregnancy is not the time to lose excessive weight. Once you are pregnant, consider the ship to fit in slim-fit and trendy clothes sailed. Instead, you need to focus on a healthy weight for a healthy pregnancy. Though the specifics vary from case to case, on average, you must gain 25-30 kgs more weight during pregnancy. Losing weight during pregnancy can even cause nutritional deficiencies in babies.
- Consume healthy diet
All the nutrition reaching your unborn baby’s body is being transported through your body. Which means your baby eats precisely what you do. Never ignore your diet if you don’t want your baby to feel the detrimental effects.
Ignoring your diet or eating an unhealthy diet during pregnancy can risk your child’s development. Insufficient intake of essential nutrients can result in stillbirth and developmental delays for the baby, among other serious issues.
On average, you must consume 300 additional calories on top of what you generally eat during gestation. You must eat various fruits and vegetables and drink enough water to prevent constipation and promote better digestion. Also, avoid processed and sugar foods, sodas, and sugary drinks; they can increase the risk of excessive and unhealthy gestational weight gain and preterm birth.
If you are a chocolate lover, the good news is that you can enjoy chocolate, especially dark ones, but in moderate amounts throughout the pregnancy. Benefits include better blood flow to the child and reduction of some complications.
Also, make sure to fulfill your daily dose of essential vitamins and minerals. A deficiency of elements such as iron, calcium, folate, zinc, etc., can cause anemia, preeclampsia, malformations, and other serious issues.
Conclusion
Pregnancy is difficult for the mother and the unborn child. The mother struggles to adapt to the changes in her body while the child goes through various development phases. Adherence to healthy habits and letting go of unhealthy ones can ensure a healthy pregnancy.
Some healthy lifestyle ways are mentioned above. Since changing a lifestyle all of a sudden is difficult, pregnant ladies, as well as those trying to conceive, must adopt the habits mentioned above gradually.
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