Prospective on Healthy Prenatal Environment

When it is confirmed that you are pregnant and an estimated due date is selected, you need to begin thinking about some important issues. Safety, nutrition, exercise, rest, physical and mental health are all vital to both the mother and the developing infant in reducing risk in any pregnancy.

  1. Good Medical Care: Even a low risk pregnancy is put at high risk if prenatal care is absent or poor. Seeing a qualified doctor or nurse practitioner regularly, beginning as soon as pregnancy is suspected, is vi9tal for all expectant mothers.
  2. Good Diet: A diet geared to your personal needs should be carefully planned with your physician. One that is high in fiber and which includes plenty of folic acid is important for the developing fetus. Don’t fast or skip meals. Eating regularly is essential. A good diet may also help to prevent gestational diabetes, hypertension and other diseases.
  3. Fitness: Beginning pregnancy with a positive attitude and a good exercise routine will be less stressful and more body healthy. With regular exercise, you can reduce constipation and improve respiration, circulation, muscle tone and skin elasticity. All of these contribute to a more comfortable pregnancy and an easier, safer delivery.
  4. Sensible Weight Gain: A gradual, steady and moderate weight gain may help prevent a variety of complications. Theseinclude diabetes, hypertension, varicose veins, hemorrhoids, low birth weight or difficult delivery.
  5. Smoking: Stop as soon as possible. This reduces the many risks to both the mother and the baby, including prematurity and low birth weight.
  1. Alcohol Drinking very rarely or not at all will reduce the risk of birth defects, particularly of fetal alcohol syndrome,
  2. Drugs: So little is known about the specific effects of drugs on fetal development that it is best to avoid taking any during pregnancy that are not absolutely essential and prescribed by your doctor.
  3. Prevention and Treatment of Infections: All infection should be prevented whenever possible. When contracted however, infection should be treated promptly by a physician who knows that you are pregnant.
  4. Be Aware of the Superwoman Syndrome: Being highly motivated in everything you do is not wrong. Getting enough rest during pregnancy is far more important than getting everything done, especially in a high risk pregnancy. Some studies have suggested a higher incidence of premature delivery among women who work up until term, particularly if their job entails physical labor or long periods of standing.
  5. Water: Water ranks second only to oxygen on the list of things essential to live. It is true that water once posed a serious threat to the lives it sustained by carrying deadly typhoid and other diseases. Modern practices of water purification have eliminated such threats. In other words, you have more to worry about if you don’t drink the water than if you do.

During pregnancy you will be challenged to make intelligent decisions in dozens of situations while weighing risks and benefits. Each decision that parents make will impact the chance of you having a healthy baby. Just try to make decisions that will add to the total health of both mother and unborn child and the odds are very much in your baby’s favor.