Expecting a baby can be an exciting time. Healthy babies begin with healthy parents. Prenatal care helps prevent complications and protects expectant mothers and their infants.
Prioritizing nutrition with a well-balanced diet rich in essential nutrients before and during your pregnancy is crucial for a healthy and prosperous journey to motherhood and encourages optimal development of your baby.
Here are tips for healthy habits during pregnancy
- Stay active with low-impact exercises to help to keep blood sugar levels down. Types of healthy exercise include walking, yoga, and swimming.
- Fill half your plate with non-starchy veggies, such as leafy greens, tomatoes, zucchini, and cucumbers. Fill the rest of your plate with whole grains and protein. This will ensure you eat enough fiber and nutrient-packed vegetables while balancing proportions for grains and protein.
- Lean proteins help your baby grow strong. A good mix of plant-based and animal-based protein is ideal. Try plant-based proteins like lentils, beans, chickpeas, tofu, tempeh, and edamame.
- Aim for low-fat animal-based protein options such as chicken breast, lean turkey, or low-mercury fish, including salmon, rainbow trout, and cod. Eggs are a great source of protein and choline, which are good for the baby’s brain and spinal cord.
- Choose whole grains, legumes, and veggies while limiting high-carb foods such as bread, tortillas, rice, pasta, fast food, chips, candy and ice cream. Opt for complex carbs like brown rice, popcorn, whole wheat bread, oatmeal, beans, nuts, lentils, and veggies.
- Cut down on sugary and processed foods. Pick natural sweeteners and whole fruits instead. Limit sugary drinks, which can disrupt your metabolism, causing energy crashes.
- Drink about 8 to 12 cups (64 to 96 ounces) of water daily, and avoid drinks with caffeine like coffee, black tea, and many sodas. Water helps to digest foods, is better for the baby, and helps to circulate nutrients throughout the body.
- Too much salt can increase your blood pressure and cause your body to hold water, swell your feet, lead to headaches, or change your vision. One teaspoon of salt is recommended daily for a healthy pregnant woman. Mothers with diabetes or kidney disease should have even less salt.
- Take prenatal vitamins, which include calcium needed for strong bones, magnesium for muscle, iron to prevent anemia, and folic acid (a form of Vitamin B) that helps develop your baby’s brain.
- Pregnancy might come with unexpected challenges, which healthy habits can help prevent or manage.
Some of these conditions include:
Hypertension (high blood pressure) can arise at around 20 weeks of pregnancy, even if you’ve never had high blood pressure before. It may cause uncomfortable symptoms like swelling in your hands, feet, and face. Regular check-ins and close blood pressure monitoring can lower the chances of any potential complications.
Pre-eclampsia can happen to any woman during the second half of her pregnancy or up to six weeks after delivery. While there may be no symptoms, high blood pressure and protein in the urine are key indicators. Other symptoms can include headache, severe abdominal pain, seeing spots, nausea or vomiting, swelling of the hands and face, and/or gaining more than 5 pounds in one week.
Gestational diabetes can occur during pregnancy, even if you don’t already have diabetes. It can increase the size of the baby and lead to the mom developing Type 2 diabetes later in life. Pregnancy brings significant changes to your body and hormones that can affect your body’s ability to regulate blood sugar levels. Monitoring your weight and blood sugar throughout pregnancy can help lower the risk of complications.
By closely working together and monitoring your pregnancy, doctors can reduce the chances of complications and improve health outcomes for you and your baby. They check your blood pressure and urine, and listen to the baby’s heartbeat, and check developmental markers to ensure there areno concerning symptoms.
John Carini, MD, is the medical director of women’s health for Healthcare Network. In addition to in-office prenatal visits, Healthcare Network’s OB (Obstetric) Telehealth Program offers personalized support for high-risk pregnancies through virtual appointments and monitoring devices that may include a glucometer (measures blood sugar), blood pressure cuff, and weight scale. To schedule an appointment, visit healthcareswfl.org or call 239-658-3000.
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