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Pregnancy is such an important time in anyone’s life. You want to do everything in your power to give the baby the best start you possibly can. The best way to do this is to take care of mama while she’s carrying the baby.
Looking after mum is a great way to give baby a boost. A well-cared for mother will go a long way towards giving the little one the best start in life.
After having three babies myself, I know how important self-care is in pregnancy. In fact, I’ve never taken better care of myself than when I was expecting.
These are my top tips for taking great care of yourself in pregnancy.
Eat a Balanced Diet
Between cravings and morning sickness, I’d be surprised if you managed to eat any normal meals at all. In my pregnancies all I ever fancied were steak pies! Delicious, but certainly not a balanced diet. That doesn’t mean to say you shouldn’t give in to your cravings (especially if there are only a few windows in the day when you don’t feel nauseous), but it’s worth trying to switch things up to include a selection of nourishing foods in your meals.
Sneaking a bit of broccoli onto you plate might not make you look forward to a meal, but it’ll definitely do more good than harm!
Take Supplements
However good your diet is, pregnancy vitamins are always recommended. When you are pregnant, your body needs very specific things, and no matter how well you eat, a supplement is almost always needed. Most pregnancy vitamins will contain folic acid, which is thought to be essential (especially in the first twelve weeks of pregnancy).
Exercise
I’m not suggesting you start running marathons, but exercise is definitely one of the factors that can keep you healthy in pregnancy (unless you’ve been specifically advised against it). If you’re already active, it’s likely you’ll want to keep that up, but if you’re not, you might be put off. Luckily, you only really need a small amount of light exercise to make a difference.
Midwives always advise going for a daily walk, but I found the later stages of pregnancy caused me too much back and hip pain. As an alternative, I went swimming. The water tends to make your bump feel weightless, which in turn (for me, at least) relieved a lot of my back and hip pain caused by the extra weight I was carrying around.
Get Enough Sleep
You cant bank sleep, so however much you get during pregnancy isn’t going to leave you in credit for those sleepless newborn nights. Despite this, you still need more sleep in pregnancy. After all, your body is growing another body! In order to make sure you don’t get run down, aim for early nights and plenty of lie-ins. This is especially important later on, as it’s likely your bladder will wake you during the night, even if your kicking baby or pregnancy back pain doesn’t!