A Guide for Your Wellbeing During Pregnancy

Your well-being during pregnancy is vital to be comfortable and healthy throughout the nine months. Apart from concentrating on health, you need to pay attention to your comfort and well-being.

Pregnancy brings along a lot of discomfort with it. However, you can take some measures to stay healthy, comfortable and happy during this exciting period. The following tips will help make your pregnancy little easier and comfortable for you.

Tips for Staying Comfortable:

• Accept Your Body: Pregnancy is an exciting time when you eagerly wait to welcome your little bundle of joy in your lives. However, the dramatic changes in the body can be frightening and frustrating for many women. In pregnancy, your belly keeps growing with every passing month, your legs and feet swells up, your skin becomes flaky at times, your breasts swells up, your uterus expands, and you may even loose hair. However, some women even feel very feminine and sexual during this period with their bigger and fuller breasts and curvy stomach.
• How you feel about your body affects your state of mind during the pregnancy period. Many women have an internal emotional war with the way they look from outside, which makes them feel frightened, frustrated, irritated and out of control. To be happy during this period you need to accept the changes in your body and emotions gracefully and feel good about your body.

Tips on Accepting the Changes in Your Body and Emotions:

• Focus on the health and well-being of your baby. Keep reminding yourself that these changes are taking place to help your baby grow and for his/her health.
• Try to emphasis on your one body part that you like the most. This will boost your confidence and will help you feel comfortable in your own skin.
• Talk to your partner, friends or family how you feel about these changes. Interacting helps to take out the bottled up negative feelings.
• Gain knowledge and read as much as possible about different stages of pregnancy and the changes in body, which takes place during each stage. This will help you accept your body changes and will make you ready to accept the future changes that will take place in each stage of pregnancy.

• Stay Cool During Your Pregnancy: Staying cool during pregnancy is very essential as over heating of the body can harm the unborn child and complicate the pregnancy. Following are few tips to keep yourself cool:

• Avoid direct and harsh sunlight. Avoid going out in the sun between 12 to 4.
• Guzzle down lots of liquid throughout the day. Drink at least eight glasses of water or other refreshing liquids like cold mint tea, fresh juices, etc.
• Wear loose fitted, light coloured and cool fabrics like cotton.

• Have a Sound and Comfortable Sleep: having a good sleep during pregnancy is a tough task and an occasional pleasure, especially in second and third trimester when your abdomen starts increasing. However, a sound sleep rejuvenates and relaxes the body. A sleep deprived expecting mother can become weak, fatigued and irritated throughout her pregnancy. For the well being of the expecting mother and for a healthy a baby, a sound sleep is necessary. Following are tips to get a good night sleep in your pregnancy:

• If you feel dizzy and sweaty then quickly change your sleeping positions. This happens due to the increased pressure from uterus on vena cave, the vein that transports blood from the lower body to the heart. If ignored, you may loose conscious.
• Try to sleep on your left side to reduce pressure on the liver.

• Reduce Swelling: One of the major discomforts that pregnant woman face is swelling of the body, especially thighs, legs and feet. This happens due to the pressure exerted on the body due to the increase in weight that the body has to support. Following are tips to combat this discomfort:

• Do not stand for long periods.
• Avoid dangling your legs mid air for long periods. Try to rest with your feet elevated often.
• Wear flat or comfortable shoes.
• Sleep with your legs elevated by keeping a soft pillow under your feet.
• Reduce salt intake.
• Soak your water in warm saline water at night to reduce the swelling in ankles and feet.

• Swipe Away the Blues: for many expecting mothers, the best phase of their life gets over shadowed by the dark clouds of depression. Pregnancy is like a rollercoaster ride, which has its own ups and downs. With rapid and drastic changes in the body and emotionally, many pregnant women, feel nervous, anxious, terrified and stressful at times. This is termed as ‘Prenatal Mood Disorder’ (PMD). Pregnant women are prone to this disorder in all the three stages of pregnancy:

• During Pregnancy: At this stage, the common symptoms are extreme and sudden mood swings like overwhelming sadness, excessive anxiety, hopelessness, loss of appetite and sleep, etc.
• Post Pregnancy: 80% of women go through this experience immediately after birth or until few days after delivery. Symptoms are sudden fearfulness, anxiety, tearfulness, frustration, etc.
• Post Partum: this is mostly caused in the first three months after delivery and is sue to a history of sour relationships, conflicts, unpleasant events, etc.

Tips to Avoid PMD:

        Thankfully, there are ways to cure and prevent this disorder.

• Seek professional help if you experience even slightest of the above-mentioned symptoms. Do not be ashamed or embarrassed to discuss this with partner, family or doctor.
• Share your feelings instead of suppressing them. It is a common disorder seen in many expecting mothers.
• Do not feel hopeless. There are many effective medical treatments available to cure this disorder.
• Be receptive in nature and accept help and advices.
• Get as much rest as possible. If possible, sleep with the baby after delivery.
• Do not compare yourself with other women. If possible, interact with other mothers who have gone through this experience. Talking always help. Other alternative is to browse and read experiences of other mothers on the same.
• Exercise daily. This helps in spending out all suppressed energy, which has the potential to be converted into negative energy and thoughts.
• Accept the ups and lows of a family life. Settle your conflicts or misunderstandings with your spouse or other family members.

• Dress Good To Feel Good: when the belly grows bigger and bigger with every trimester, many pregnant women are not confident about their changing body shape and tend to dress shabbily in pyjamas and tracksuits to hide their baby bump. However, our dressing sense influences our state of mind. It can be bogging for you to be always dressed in pyjamas and tees and may make you feel lazy and inactive all the time. Therefore, dress good even in pregnancy and show off your voluptuous and fuller figure, to feel confident, comfortable and good about your pregnancy.

        Tips on Maternity Clothes:

• Buy specially designed maternity clothes to feel comfortable. If not available or very expensive, then you can also go in for plus sized clothes.
• Opt for lively patterns like bright floral prints or childish prints like teddy bears.
• Choose light fabrics like cotton.
• Try to wear more comfortable and loose clothes like middies. You can even continue wearing jeans.
• Wear cotton undergarments. Buy new cotton under wears as in pregnancy you are prone to vaginal infections. Buy nursing bras to support your tender breasts.
• Put the same amount of time and efforts to look beautiful as before.