From the minute you find out that you have a baby on the way, your life turns around completely. There are myriad emotions that to-be moms experience with a baby on the way, and there’s no doubt that this is one of the most memorable moments of their lives. Although pregnancy is incredibly daunting, it can give you a newfound appreciation for your body and the miracles it has to offer. However, this can also be an incredibly fragile period, not just for you, but for your child too, and you need to ensure you’re in optimal physical and mental health.
Habits that are harmful to your health can also be dangerous to the health of the baby. Those are the things that you need to avoid. If you’re interested in learning more about how you can protect your baby from harm during pregnancy, keep on reading.
Stress
Our knowledge of things that we need to avoid during pregnancy is usually vague and fuzzy. That’s the reason why we often have no idea of how harmful emotional stress can be. Emotional instability and stress can have huge impact on the baby. If you’re stressed out, building that maternal bond with the baby becomes challenging. Added to that, stress may cause you hypertension, headaches, change in appetite, and many more physical and psychological conditions that can have a bad influence on the baby.
Pregnancy is scary, especially if it’s your first time. A way to soothe your overwhelming anxiety is to bond with your baby. Why not take a look at your baby? Seeing your baby growing inside of you is an extraordinary experience.
4D scans allow you to have the best possible visual experience, and the 4D Scan near Runcorn is a highly recommended scan center that offers gender scans and body scans in ultra-HD definition.
The 4D scan lets you look at the baby in real-time as it rests in the womb. Once you have seen the baby, the overwhelming feelings will subside. Your stress might lower, and that could lead to protection of the baby from bad hormonal effects.
Don’t be too active
Staying moderately active during pregnancy is an excellent way to prepare for your baby’s arrival, and it can help alleviate a lot of the aches and pains you’ll experience as the baby grows. As you enter your third trimester, the baby would have grown bigger. Therefore, there will be an increased stress on your back, joints, abdominal wall, and other areas due to the growth of the baby.
Moving about may get difficult. Although moderate activity is recommended, your movement will get restricted as your womb grows. That is when too much activity could cause more harm than good.
In general, sports where there is a lot of physical exertion required are off the table in your pregnancy. Soccer, basketball, or other contact sports are strictly off limits. Even intense gym sessions can cause hypoxia, hyperthermia and elevated heart rate. It’s better to be on the safe side and opt for lighter activities such as yoga, walking, or jogging in your pregnancy.
Coffee
If you’re like most people, you’ll find it hard to get on and about in the morning without your morning cup of coffee. However, when you’re pregnant, it might be better to skip the coffee, altogether. But you should remember that caffeine is not only found in coffee, and you’ll have to eliminate other food items that have caffeine in them, like sodas, chocolate, tea and energy drinks.
Caffeine intake can have several detrimental effects on your baby’s health. Too much caffeine can affect your baby’s sleeping and movement patterns. In serious cases, caffeine is also known to be the cause behind birth defects, miscarriages, premature labor, lower birth weight, and various other birth-related problems that you’d be wise to avoid. Taking too much coffee can impact your health, too, increasing your heart rate, blood pressure and causing dehydration. So, you should consider quitting coffee altogether in your pregnancy to keep you and your baby safe.
Substance Use
No matter how strong your cravings may be, smoking or substance use during pregnancy is a big no. Smoking and taking substance can leave damaging effects on your child and can lead to not just short term but long-term medical and psychological complications for the baby after birth. When you find out that you are pregnant, you must begin preparing for the challenge by first seeking help with quitting. Whether you want to join therapy or not, either way, you’ll have to quit for the baby’s health.
Some of the drawbacks of smoking or using substance while you’re pregnant include preterm labor, lung problems, sudden infant death, miscarriage, and birth defects. The effects of smoking during pregnancy for the baby also create problems down the line as the baby grows up.
Hot tubs
Pregnancy makes you prone to aches and pains, and you might feel yourself worn out. Hot tubs can be an enticing option to relieve yourself of the body aches, but prolonged use of a hot tub in your pregnancy can be harmful for your baby’s health.
Your baby could experience a neural tube defect, such as brain or spinal cord-related defects, as a harmful consequence of prolonged hot tub use. Sauna, too, should be avoided, and you should limit your time spent in both to not more than 10 minutes at a time. A shower bath is a better alternative to bath tub in this case.
Conclusion
Numerous things may seem inconsequential but have a huge impact on your baby’s health during pregnancy. New mothers are unclear about what they should and should not do, and this guide is supposed to give you clarity on the things that you need to avoid. Staying away from of these won’t just protect the baby’s health, it’ll make pregnancy a much more comfortable experience for you too
