4 Tips To Ensure You Have A Healthy Pregnancy
Posted on: 8 December 2017
Regardless of whether you plan to have your baby in a hospital or at home with a midwife, you want to ensure that your pregnancy is a healthy one. Aside from taking prenatal vitamins, here are four tips that will help increase your chances of a happy, healthy pregnancy:
Tip #1: Talk to Your Doctor About Your Prescription Medications
As soon as you find out that you are pregnant, it is imperative that you contact your doctor or midwife and let them know what prescription medication you are on. Some medications can affect the growth and development of your baby and you will either need to discontinue them or change them.
Tip #2: Don't Be Scared to Have Sex
You are dealing with a lot of stuff during your pregnancy, and the one thing that probably is not on your mind is sex. However, sex can be significantly beneficial in just about all aspects of your pregnancy. Sex can help lower your blood pressure, reduce your stress, keep you from having to go to the bathroom so much and give you better orgasms. But, more importantly, it can strengthen your muscles and soften the cervix, which helps to prepare your body for delivery, making labor and recovery much easier.
Many people, especially first-time moms-to-be think that sex can hurt the baby, but this is simply not true. Sex is in no way harmful to the baby and is completely safe. However, if it is painful, you should stop.
Tip #3: Make Sure You Don't Gain Too Much Weight
During pregnancy, many people have the mentality that they need to eat for two. However, this can lead to many women eating too much, thereby gaining too much weight over the course of their pregnancy. While it is true that you will need to consume some additional calories, you actually only need to eat around 300 additional calories – healthy calories, mind you – per day while pregnant. This will help ensure you gain the proper amount of weight.
Tip #4: Avoid Alcohol and Stay Away from Secondhand Smoke
You have a growing baby in your belly. His or her organs are not fully developed yet, which makes them extra-sensitive to anything that you do. This is particularly true for alcohol and secondhand smoke. You should avoid drinking and smoking, as well as putting yourself around others who smoke. Secondhand smoke is just as dangerous – if not more so – as smoking yourself. To increase the chances of delivering a healthy baby with fully-developed organs, don't expose them to alcohol or smoke.
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