Every mom wants to have a healthy baby. Whether a boy or a girl, the baby must be healthy. Whether the first child or the second or third, a mother is always concerned about the health of her baby. We understand the situation and this state of mind, which is why we have come up with this blog to help every mother have a healthy pregnancy. After all, a healthy pregnancy leads to a healthy and happy baby. So, here are a few tips you need to follow if you don’t want to compromise on the health of your little one.
Eat well
You need to have a healthy and balanced diet because the food you eat reaches your child as nutrition; and you definitely don’t want the wrong stuff reaching his body, do you? Here is what a healthy balanced diet is all about –
- Having five portions of fruits and vegetables every day.
- Having dairy foods like milk, yoghurt, and cheese.
- Including proteins like fish, lean meat, eggs, nuts, pulses, and beans in your daily diet. You can replace the fish with imega-3 fatty acids from green leafy vegetables, nuts, and soya products.
- Limiting carbohydrates like bread and rice to only one-third of your daily diet; and focusing more on wholegrain varieties, rather than whites.
- Including 200 calories a day in your diet for the last three months of pregnancy.
- Staying well hydrated with eight glasses of fluid a day, including water, juices, fruit teas, and skimmed milk.
Also remember that there are certain foods that you must avoid. For example, unpasteurized milk, undercooked ready meals, soft cheese, and blue-veined cheese may contain listeria bacteria that can result in a serious ill baby or even miscarriage. Moreover, raw shellfish, raw meat, raw eggs, and mayonnaise can cause food poisoning, which can harm the baby’s health.
Take supplements
Even if you are having the best of food and nutrition, adding supplements to your diet is essential for the better development of your baby. Taking supplements include –
- Taking folic acid for the first three months to avoid risks of neural tube defects.
- Taking vitamin D supplements throughout the pregnancy period for better skeletal and bone health.
- Taking fish oil supplements labeled omega-3, rather than fish liver oil.
Exercise regularly
Exercising is always beneficial for everyone’s health. And, if you are carrying another body within yourself, exercising becomes even more important. However, you need to be gentle on yourself with the exercises while you are pregnant. You could opt for brisk walking, swimming, aquanatal classes, yoga, and pilates. These exercises will help you stay a healthy weight, cope with the changes to your posture and strains on your joints, protect you against pregnancy complications, and increase the chances of a normal delivery. You must also pick on performing pelvic floor exercises, as the muscles at the base of your pelvis are the ones that support your bladder, vagina, and back passage. A week pelvic floor muscles can put you at risk of developing stress incontinence. Thus, you need to strengthen these muscles by performing eight pelvic floor squeezes, three times a day.
Get enough rest
It is normal to feel fatigue in the first few months of pregnancy. There are also changes in the sleep patterns and comfortability. This is why you must get enough rest throughout the day. You must practice sleeping on your side. You could sleep with your knees bent, or placing a wedge-shaped pillow under your bump.
Cut out on alcohol, cigarette, and caffeine
Alcohol, cigarette, and caffeine are the most harmful to your body while you are pregnant. This is why you should cut them off completely for those nine months. Drinking alcohol and caffeine can increase your risk of miscarriage and affect your baby’s brain development. Too much caffeine can also result in a low weight baby. Smoking can also cause complications and risks like premature birth, low weight baby, stillbirth, miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, placental abruption, or sudden infant death syndrome.
With all of the above practiced submissively and regularly, the chances of having a normal delivery and a healthy baby shoot up. So, make sure to follow these instructions to be a happy mom with a healthy baby. However, God forbid, if you have a premature delivery, or a baby who is unwell and needs care, you must immediately get in touch with Maitri Hospital’s paediatric doctor in Kota. Here, your child will get intensive care for any ailment that he’s suffering from like pneumonia, low birth weight, urinary tract infections, or growth disorder.
