Pregnancy is a fantastic, amazing miracle. Even people who are totally faithless, and not interested in religion at all, will likely be speechless when having their first child. There’s a magic about it that is hard to put into words. However, while being pregnant and carrying your child to term is perhaps the most natural process you can go through, it’s certainly a wild ride, and can be quite hard on your body.
For this reason, it’s important to know how to take care of yourself while pregnant. It’s essential to feel comfortable in self-care, and to put your needs first. This isn’t selfish, because you have a little one to think about. For this reason, knowing what boundaries to set, what disciplines to follow, and what personal considerations can make will be a worthwhile use of your time.
So - how can you take care of yourself while pregnant? And should this be a battle you fight totally alone? In the following article, we hope to discuss this topic with some friendly guidance geared to help you:
Stop Your Vices
When you know that you’re pregnant, it’s important to do your utmost to lessen your vices that could harm your physical health, and the health of your baby. This means truly limiting your alcohol intake through and through (the absolute max is one or two units of alcohol a week), but ideally to the point where you don’t drink at all.
Furthermore, asking for help stopping smoking is perhaps one of the best moves you can make at this time. It will help you not only care for your health, but it will prevent your child from being exposed to any unwanted toxins in utero. This can be a hard ask, as if pregnancy wasn’t hard enough, but of course, it is truly worth it. Better make those sacrifices now, as you have made them in order to become pregnant and raise a child, and ensure they have the best possible start on life with the best possible health they can get.
Enlist Help If Necessary
It’s important to enlist help if that’s necessary. Pregnancy is extremely draining and can also be quite hard to care for yourself during, and so for that reason, asking for help from family or friends is important. But you need to know how to ask for help. Ask people what their limits are, how their schedules can fit around you without having to ask too much from them, and truly make it known when you need help without appearing overly polite. Pregnancy is a fantastic measure in that it gives us the chance to more easily understand who our best friends and closest relatives are.
Furthermore - they no doubt WANT to help you. Let them. Many strong women, with hardly imaginable limits to their strength, can stoically try to do everything themselves. This is especially true if their relationship with the biological father is not as strong as it might have been. There is no shame in asking for help ever, and that goes tenfold when you’re pregnant. There’s a place for stoicism, but it might not be here.
Take Care Of Your Stress
It can be easier to feel stressed when you’re pregnant, and that’s often because you’re now sensitive and your body is sending you a range of signals that can be hard to interpret. So, to the extent that we can, we need to care for our mental turmoil, and even seek help for it if necessary.
Stress can sometimes be expressed in the form of depression, or anxiety, or a sense of real dread. Sometimes, it can feel like you’re a pressure valve just waiting to explode. Meditation, reducing your caffeine intake near-completely, catching up on your sleep to the extent that you can, voicing your struggles to someone willing to lend a friendly ear, and generally keeping track of your moods are crucial strategies here. Be sure to speak to your Doctor or Midwife if things get too taxing.
Stay In Close Communication With Your Doctor & Midwife
You don’t have to be the perfect, most ideal pregnant woman to have a great pregnancy. Too many would-be mothers put undue stress on themselves, thinking they should know everything about this highly complex process and how to manage it.
If you’re overwhelmed, don’t be afraid to admit it. It doesn’t mean you’re weak. It means you’re strong and willing to work towards a solution. Staying in close communication with your doctor and midwife can help you get the answers to questions you have. Sometimes, it can help to join certain online communities to help you speak to those in your situation, as long as you take advice with a huge grain of salt, as the internet is not always the most valuable resource, despite all appearances. If you feel connected, you’re sure to feel less alone.
Read Books & Common Wisdom
Pregnancy books are prized by some and denigrated by others, but you’re able to come to that conclusion yourself. Even if a book doesn’t give you a complete and total understanding of how your particular pregnancy may go, you can certainly feel comforted seeing how other people interpret it, common solutions to issues that may come up, and mindsets to curate.
After all, there’s perhaps nothing more natural than being pregnant, as it’s the metronome from which all life continues and is paced. That being said, it can’t help to read up on some theory from time to time, however anecdotal.
Enjoy The Process
Don’t be afraid to have fun with your pregnancy! Decorating your child’s bedroom, going for regular checkups, throwing a gender reveal party (without fireworks or smoke-emitting devices) can be a lovely idea. This is a beautiful occasion, a miracle, and an experience you won’t be able to repeat forever, and so don’t be afraid to enjoy it.
With this advice, we hope you can take care of yourself and your little one while pregnant, in the best possible sense.
