Getting Healthy Before You Get Pregnant Leads to a Healthier Pregnancy and Baby

Pregnancy

I have found many teenage girls being choosy and sulky over food and I include myself in this category. But once they start learning how to cook, the mother’s wacky old recipe tastes interesting if the young lady cooks it herself. Some women start eating all the veggies and fruits which they once hated as soon as they get pregnant. This gives rise to an interesting fact that if young ladies can cook their own food in a healthy way and start consuming it, they can be in a healthy state even before they get pregnant. I don’t know how far the idea holds true but being healthy by the time you get pregnant is very essential to have a baby as per experts in the healthcare domain.

It is just not that consuming healthy food is sufficient to conceive but you need to follow a series of steps to get healthy before you give birth to a healthy baby as it is evident that 1 in every 33 babies born in the USA have some sort of birth defect which can be fatal at times in the first year of the child birth. As it is apparent that healthy mothers have healthy babies, the women have lesser chances of having miscellaneous issues in their pregnancy such as miscarriages, premature labor, GD (Gestational Diabetes). The babies also are not vulnerable to premature birth, still birth or low birth weight.

PCH (Pre-conception health): Let us first understand about the pre-conception health as by the virtue of nature, womenhood is deployed with patience and they are ready to transform themselves for the new role with all the necessary sacrifices. PCH emphasizes on screening for diseases before pregnancy and encourages medical care for women in their child bearing age of 18 to 44 years. This feat improves their health and caters to the elements that might influence their pregnancies in future.

· Increase folic acid in diet: Studies revealed that women need to take B vitamin throughout the pregnancy and at least once a month before pregnancy as this vitamin helps preventing massive birth defects related to the spine and brain of the babies. Dark green leafy veggies are external sources of folic acid. Fortified whole grains and cereals and citrus fruits are also good sources to this prenatal vitamin.

· Balance your BMI: Obese women tend to have an increased risk for pregnancy complications such as type 2 Diabetes, heart problems and few types of cancers. Similarly, underweight people are also prone to serious issues in pregnancy. It is important to maintain the BMI (body mass index) before you are planning for a pregnancy. Regular exercising and consuming healthy food can get your BMI in place.

· Quit alcohol, smoking and drugs: Alcohol, smoke and drug abuse may turn your pregnancy disastrous. It is recommended to quit these habits much before conception as they apparently cause birth defects in the child and often cause intra uterine deaths as well. Seek assistance to quit these habits to have a healthy baby.

· Oral health is important too: People may wonder to know the relation between pregnancy and oral health. However, your oral health condition speaks volumes about your overall health as the inconsistency in your hormones in pregnancy causes bleeding and swelling gums. So, it is important to keep monitoring the oral health before and during pregnancy.

This caring is supposed to continue even after the delivery as you need to feed the baby and staying healthy is the key to having healthy and ample breast milk. As maintaining healthy habits stretches for a long time from pre-pregnancy to post-delivery, staying healthy should become a habit for life time. It is just not important to stay healthy for your baby but it is essential to stay healthier for yourself!!