Five Tips for a Healthy Pregnancy

Five Tips for a Healthy Pregnancy : Staying healthy is important. It can help you feel your best and it can prolong your life. Although staying healthy is important throughout your life, it is especially important while you’re pregnant. Not only will your health affect you, but it will also affect your unborn baby.

It’s true that many of the same general health tips apply when you’re pregnant, like eating healthy and getting plenty of sleep, but how you execute those tips changes throughout your pregnancy. Here’s how to take what you know about staying healthy and apply it when you’re pregnant.

Know How to Avoid Getting Sick

Getting sick can really put the brakes on your day-to-day life. Not only is it inconvenient and miserable under normal circumstances, certain illnesses have the potential to affect your unborn baby. Not to mention, the symptoms you experience may be exacerbated because you already feel tired and sick to your stomach!

It’s important to know how to avoid getting ill, especially now that the coronavirus is part of our lives. By washing your hands the right way, avoiding touching your face, and cleaning and disinfecting frequently touched surfaces, you can do your best to avoid becoming one of the more than 34,000,000 people who get the flu every year, or one of the millions who experience a cold, at least while you’re pregnant.

Rethink Your Sleep

It can be difficult to find the sleep tips that work for you, but just when you’ve gotten everything figured out, your pregnancy will make you rethink everything you thought made you feel comfortable.

It’s more important than ever to make sure you get plenty of sleep, but it’s also more difficult as your body is changing. Whether you’re struggling with hip pain or you’re running to the bathroom every 20 minutes, there are things you can try to make your nighttime routine go more smoothly. They include:

Try to reduce the amount of fluids you drink after dinner
Eat a snack to avoid waking up with hunger pains
Find new ways to arrange pillows to support your body while you sleep
Don’t be afraid to take a nap if you’re feeling tired
Set the thermostat even lower than normal if you’re sleeping hot

Eat a Little Differently

You probably already know plenty of tips, like eating more vegetables and drinking more water, when it comes to your health. Those rules apply to your pregnancy, but there are other rules you should be following too.

Food tips to follow when you’re expecting include things like:

Take a prenatal vitamin that contains iron and folic acid
Avoid eating fish with high levels of mercury, like swordfish
Don’t eat uncooked or undercooked meats, like sushi or lunch meat
Stay away from unpasteurized cheeses, like feta and Brie

You may also have to adjust your eating schedule. Many pregnant women find eating many small meals throughout the day helps them avoid feeling sick or hungry.

Exercise in Ways That Make Your Body Feel Good

Exercise continues to be important when you’re pregnant, but that doesn’t mean you should hit the gym and overexert yourself when you’re expecting. It’s important to listen to your body and do exercises that are appropriate for every stage of your pregnancy.

For example, if you’re a runner, you will likely be able to continue jogging throughout the first half of your pregnancy. As it progresses, you may have to slow down and take up speed walking instead.

Stretching and low-impact exercises are great for nearly all pregnant women. If you have any questions or concerns, make sure you run them by your doctor. They can help you choose the right exercises for your unique situation.

Find Ways to Reduce Stress

Having a baby is exciting. Unfortunately, it’s also stressful. In addition to the normal, everyday stresses you experience, you’re also worried about giving birth, the costs associated with raising a child, and much more.

It’s important to reduce stress while you’re pregnant as it has the potential to affect your unborn baby. That might mean taking a few more spa days than you normally would, taking a childbirth education class, or allowing yourself to sleep more than usual.

You can give your baby a great start in life by taking care of yourself while you’re pregnant. When you approach every area of your life a little differently by following the tips on this list, you can increase your health and the chances of giving birth to a healthy and happy baby.

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