By Dr. Anagha Karkhanis
It is a fact that almost everything in a woman’s world tends to alter the moment she gets to know about her pregnancy. Whatever she does subsequently is in the direction of the benefit of her baby’s and her health and well-being. To enable a smooth pregnancy, a soon-to-be mom needs to ensure that the period of nine months is filled with immense happiness.
However, the on-going situation of the global crisis has managed to stress out many moms-to-be as well as aspiring mothers too. The risk of transmitting the COVID 19 virus to the fetus has been triggering bouts of anxieties in many couples. In such a situation, you must comprehend that all you require to prioritize at present is your psychological and physical health.
This is because the first leg of your pregnancy is the most crucial phase where the baby is still developing and any kind of anxiety during your first trimester can have an impact on your child’s growth. In fact, now is the time you must start focusing on what you should do and what you must avoid.
Useful Tips for Expecting Women in Their Early Pregnancy During Coronavirus:
Make sure you are consuming a healthy diet:
Throughout your pregnancy and especially during the early days you must focus on consuming optimum nutrition and wholesome diet on a day-to-day basis to facilitate proper growth of the foetus. You must concentrate on what is right for you to consume rather than what you desire to eat to satisfy your taste buds. While the former will help in enhancing your and your baby’s well-being, the latter will only keep you content for a brief span of time. A pregnant woman tends to have an immunocompromised immunity and eating a healthy diet will help in fortifying the body strength and immunity levels which can help in making the women resilient to combat any infections.
Amidst the virus totally avert eating any edibles that can further contribute to hampering your health. You must consume a balanced and nourishing diet rich in proteins, vitamins, and minerals which will play a major role in safeguarding your health. Additionally, hydration and enough rest are also of prime importance to safeguard optimum health which will help to uphold the health of your immune system.
Keep a check on your weight:
In pregnancy, every woman will put on a certain amount of weight because of the growing baby, placenta, and the water of the pregnancy. In addition to these aspects, she puts on weight to support the pregnancy and give it nourishment for nine months. Therefore, a certain amount of weight gain in pregnancy is healthy and is equally necessary. If your weight gain is not adequate for pregnancy, then it can be an issue and hence your diet would need to be monitored. Also, if you have been putting on too much weight, you need to be checked to rule out aspects like water retention, development of diabetes in pregnancy which might lead to weight gain or to see whether the baby is too big as compared to its appropriate size. There also could be other factors that might make you put on excess weight. You must eat healthy in pregnancy, but make sure that you are not overeating and indulging in your cravings or eating unhealthy edibles.
Practice Hygiene:
The exceptional and the most foremost way to ensure good health during the pandemic is to maintain exceptional hand hygiene. Consider cleaning your hands properly and quiet often immediately post stepping out, using the bathroom, or even after you have touched any surface. Washing hands and legs with a disinfected soap is a must for all. This will ensure to kill any possible germs that you may have contracted. Disinfecting almost all the touched surfaces at home is a must during your quarantine phase. This includes sanitizing commonly used objects like a laptop, television remote control, table-tops, dinner table, utensils, and even kitchen counter. This is because, even when you are at home during the lockdown, we are humans and hence we tend to cough, sneeze, and most importantly talk. The respiratory droplets keep paving their way to the objects surrounding us. Hence sterilizing commonly touched surfaces is of prime significance.
Ensure you are physically active:
Because of the lockdown, pregnant women have not got a chance to go out anywhere, but being reasonably active in pregnancy is important for the health of the baby and also helps to make normal labour easier. Hence, it is recommended that you must take walks on your terrace or rounds around your building complex, but considering the current scenario if that seems impossible you must consider walking inside your homes. This is the least form of physical activity that you can try and catch up on. Overdoing work is not recommended, you must try and take breaks in order to catch up with your household chores. Don’t overtire yourself, instead you must try and get help from your family members because in pregnancy, as it is important to be active, it is also vital to catch up on enough rest so that you are not exhausting yourself.
Get a good night’s sleep:
Ensuring proper sleep is as vital as staying physically active for every pregnant woman. Ensure to sleep for a good seven to eight hours during the night. A good sleep will keep your mind and body relaxed leaving less scope for the pandemic anxiety to affect you.
Lessen your news media intake:
A lot of news gets floated in the media, some of which is scientifically accurate and some of it is not. Therefore, if you read too much, it can just increase your level of anxiety, especially with regards to your pregnancy and delivery. So, it is best to try and avoid news that is not hundred percent scientifically authenticated. It is strongly recommended to discuss all your queries or worries with your healthcare provider to enable yourself to understand how exactly things stand.
You must do your best to put the solitary focus on what matters to you most at the moment which is staying healthy and safely delivering a healthy baby. Instead, you can consider spending your initial pregnancy phase by reading interesting novels, an informative book, poems, and magazines or can also join motherhood communities to get more ideas about child care, exercise, or listen to good soothing music.
Daily Meditation:
Insomnia during pregnancy is quite a normal occurrence. Hence, you must introduce relaxation ways. It does not matter how challenging now the situation may be in the external world at the current time, remember it is significant for you to stay calm and composed for your baby to stay relaxed. There is no better way than practising yoga or meditation in the early morning.
Expecting amidst coronavirus may have familiarized your mind to plentiful of concerns, but you must bear in mind that you can do nothing to modify the current situation. If there is anything you can work upon is being optimistic, confident, and practicing ways to guarantee emotional and physical health.