Learning about your pregnancy can be a wonderful experience. You may feel excited, happy, and thrilled about becoming a mother. But before you can welcome your baby into this world, you must arrange their arrival. During pregnancy, your body will undergo numerous changes to accommodate the growing fetus. Being slightly neglectful about your well-being can easily lead to a complicated birth and delivery. This is a painful position to be in since difficult labor can harm your child. Hence, to ensure you have a healthy and safe delivery, here’s what you need to do.
⦁ Understand What Can Go Wrong
While it’s essential that you stay happy and healthy during your pregnancy, it’s equally vital you prepare yourself for what can go wrong. Knowing what’s to come will help you take care of yourself better and understand what hurdles you may need to face if you have a complicated birth.
Factors like negligent medical staff, fluctuating blood pressure, and lack of oxygen can distress your baby. These, in turn, increase the risk of your child being born with a congenital disability. Birth injuries are both painful and tragic to witness. Since these are caused by medical errors and come under malpractice, the law can help you get justice for your hurt child.
If you’re sure your baby got injured due to medical negligence, you should look for birth injury attorneys and file a claim. A lawsuit gives you substantial monetary compensation that you can use to treat your child. While there is no compensation for your grief and suffering, it still helps to have money that you can funnel into your child’s treatment.
⦁ Join A Birth Class
The best way to learn about your delivery is through birthing classes. These instructional classes guide you on various topics related to childbirth and pregnancy. During a session, you’ll get to meet and bond with other expecting mothers, which can be comforting. Your teacher will walk you through ideal birthing positions, direct you on maneuvering your body in different ways that can make delivery easy, and inform you about the warning signs you need to look out for.
Allowing yourself to get comfortable with your pregnancy and learning to deliver your child smoothly can make you feel less pressured. You may also feel less anxious as your due date gets closer since you know what you need to do.
⦁ Visit Your Doctor Routinely
From the moment you learn about your conception, you need to have a good OB/GYN at your beck and call. A doctor is instrumental in the delivery of your child. This medical practitioner will ensure that your pregnancy is progressing as it should, and you have nothing to worry about regarding your baby’s health. You also learn if your baby’s weight is healthy enough to have a normal delivery or if you are consuming too much food causing your child to become far healthier than expected. For this reason, try not to miss your appointments.
Until the 28th week of your pregnancy, you will be expected to see your OB/GYN every four times in six weeks. By the 36th week of your pregnancy, you may need to go every two to three weeks. Thereafter, your visits will become more frequent. Your doctor may call you every week as your due date gets closer. Monitoring fetal health is very important. Your baby’s movement is crucial in determining whether you’ll have a normal birth or need to get rushed into emergency care.
As you prepare for your pregnancy, try to tell your doctor about your birthing plans, mention how you want a natural birth, and heed any advice your doctor provides you to ensure you end up going down that route.
⦁ Improve Your Diet
What you eat impacts your baby. Hence, try to have a healthy and nutritious diet. Sometimes you crave unusual food items and combinations like jalapeños and peanut butter. Indulging in them occasionally is fine. But try not to give in too much to these urges. If you end up overeating or consuming too many greasy meals, it can make you sick and lead to incredible weight gain, which you may have trouble shedding off.
A nutritionist can help you develop a balanced diet plan, but you need more vitamins, water, and minerals in your meals. It will help if you invest in supplements like folic acid, as it prevents your baby from having congenital disabilities in their spine and brain.
Make sure you have a selection of dairy products, legumes, fruits, and vegetables in your diet. You should avoid cold-cut meats and unpasteurized milk. These products contain bacteria detrimental to your health and can harm your baby. You can also try to have more antioxidants found in items like green vegetables and black tea.
On the other hand, citrus fruits and spinach can give you the essential vitamin C you need for your child’s skin. The only factor you should worry about is while you eat, try not to overdo it. Even though you’re eating for two, overeating can lead to other health problems which may take a long time to control.
⦁ Exercise When You Can
Your physical fitness matters immensely during your pregnancy. Exercising allows your body to become flexible, making giving birth easier. Make sure you start slow. Don’t do rigorous activities that can hurt you but focus on strength-building exercises. If you’re a regular jogger, you must stop and return to running once your doctor clears it. Try routines like aerobics, yoga, Zumba, and brisk walking. However, consult your doctor to know if you can use the treadmill. Work with coaches who specialize in caring for pregnant women so they can guide you on what techniques are safe for you.
Final Thoughts
Pregnancy is a monumental phase of life. It is a chance to expand your family and enjoy the joy of being a parent. However, pregnancy can also be a difficult time. There is so much that can go wrong during this period that you must avoid at all costs. Pregnancy requires work. You can’t use shortcuts to ensure you have a healthy birth. That is why you must consider joining a birth class. The coaches and the people present will help you prepare for your special day.
Furthermore, develop a relationship with your doctor, allow them to care for you, and guide you through this journey. Maintain a healthy diet and avoid getting carried away with your meals. Finally, get into the habit of exercising and challenging your body to stay fit no matter how you feel.
