What you should do and don’t do during pregnancy

Given below are some important factors that you should consider during pregnancy.

Pregnancy Do’s:

Healthy Diet: Include lots and lots of fruits and vegetables in your diet. Women should take at least 7 servings of fruits and veggies together in a day. Also add whole grain food in your diet like breakfast cereals, bread, and pasta. Take plenty of calcium rich food such as plain yoghurt, low fat milk, broccoli, spinach, almonds they are all good source of calcium. Your growing baby needs calcium for the development of stronger bones and teeth. Avoid eating fatty foods like butter, margarine, fatty meats.

Vitamins and Minerals:
Women need lots of vitamins and minerals especially iron when they are pregnant. Apart from eating the iron rich food in the diet they need something extra. Doctor will suggest you to take some prenatal multivitamins.

Folic acid:

Folic acid can be taken before and during pregnancy. It helps to prevent the major birth defects of the baby’s brain and spine. All women should take at least 400 micrograms of folic acid everyday or as prescribed by the doctor. You can also include folic acid rich diet.

Weight:
On an average the healthy weight gain after 40 weeks of pregnancy is 25 to 30 pounds. Exceeding the recommended limit may result in obesity.

De-stress:
Take a deep breath whenever you feel stressed. Meditation and listening to the soft and soothing music is a better way to get rid of stress. It has been found in the study that most of the pregnant women who are stressed out during the first three weeks after conception are more likely to miscarry.

Yoga:
Yoga works great when you are pregnant. Most of the pregnant women who do yoga tend to have smooth pregnancy and higher chances of giving natural birth. It also helps in the physical and mental development of the foetus.

Prenatal classes:

Both husband and wife should join the prenatal classes. These classes prepare both of you for labor and child birth.

Getting sleep:
Getting good sleep is very important during pregnancy. Pregnant women get pains, aches and swing of moods which keeps her away from bed. Eat dinner at least 3 hours before going to bed. Do some simple exercise like walking and try not to sleep during the day time.

Pregnancy Don’ts:

Caffeine:
An excessive amount of caffeine in your diet can cause problems during pregnancy. As far as possible avoid it.

Chemicals:
Use of chemicals should be avoided. Pregnant women should avoid cleaning solutions which contain toxic chemicals.

Fragrance:
Pregnant women should avoid using fragrances like perfumes and other similar products. This can cause irritation and may affect your body with some infections.

Smoking:
Smoking during pregnancy is very dangerous. Smoke contains nicotine which reaches the foetus and it can result in some serious implications. It raises the risk of premature birth, miscarriages, placental abruption etc. Passive smoking should also be avoided, it also affects the health of the baby. Quitting is hard but you have to do it for your baby. Take advice and help from your doctor.

Do not drink alcohol:
No research has been done that shows the exact amount of the alcohol intake which is safe for the baby and the mother during pregnancy. It is advisable to be away from drinking any amount until delivery.

Exercise:
Heavy exercise like jogging, weight lifting should be avoided. Walking is the best exercise pregnant women can do.

Avoid taking bath in hot water:
Do not use sauna, hot tub, tanning. Taking bath in hot temperatures can become a potential danger to the developing foetus. The temperature of the water should not be more than 100 degree Fahrenheit. Whereas taking bath in warm water is really very soothing for the pregnant women. Even doctors recommend using the warm bath because it soothes the muscular pain.

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