To prepare for your pregnancy, you can start by putting the odds in your favour by banning cigarettes and alcohol from your daily life.
What You Should Avoid?
Tobacco
First, you should know that tobacco causes a decrease in fertility and an increase in miscarriages. And just like alcohol, tobacco increases the risk of preterm birth. And low birth weight babies. Smoking can increase the risk of genetic abnormalities.
Alcohol
Even if it takes excessive alcohol consumption to talk about fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), the first drink’s harm is felt. So do not be embarrassed at the idea of firmly refusing the cut, which nevertheless seems harmless.
What Foods to choose and Some are important to avoid
You hear and read everywhere that you have to eat a balanced diet. But concretely, what does this mean? The organism is nothing more or less than a machine requiring fuel to function. This fuel is broken down into three main categories of nutrients that go into its composition: proteins (or proteins, made up of amino acids), lipids (fatty acids) and carbohydrates.
It would help if you ate everything, but reasonably and not for two because the fetus will take only what it needs. Do not forbid yourself any authorized food.
The water necessary for basic physiological needs is your ally. The recommended minimum daily 1.5 litres helps prevent urinary tract infections favoured by pregnancy.
Our advice :
- Be careful not to consume unpasteurized raw milk cheeses or cheese rinds.
- In the charcuterie range, avoid the cut one; prefer prepackaged ham.
- Likewise, germinated soya-type seeds, as well as certain seafood (shellfish, trauma, smoked fish, surimi, etc.), should not be eaten raw.
These foods are likely to carry hazardous bacteria for the fetus: listeriosis ( Listeria Monocytogens ), causing an infection that sometimes goes unnoticed, similar to the minor flu.
Take Vitamins
As soon as you tell your doctor about your pregnancy, he will prescribe vitamin B9 (also called folic acid or folate), which increases during pregnancy. Although naturally present in certain foods (spinach, egg yolk, liver), it must be supplemented by external contributions because the human body cannot produce this vitamin.
The deficiency of folic acid can cause neurological problems in the unborn baby (a closed neural tube defect and a risk of spina bifida for families at risk). Vitamin B9 is also prescribed in some cases of miscarriages repeatedly.
You may also be prescribed a single dose of vitamin D at the start of the 7th month of pregnancy to reduce the risk of fetal rickets. Depending on your needs, iron, magnesium or other vitamins will be offered in various forms.
- To read: Foods rich in vitamin D
Note that some doctors also often prescribe iron and sometimes a little iodine as a food supplement.
Warning: There is nothing trivial about taking vitamins indiscriminately. In principle (unless you have a deficient diet), this is unnecessary; the superfluous will be eliminated in your urine anyway. You should not take specific vitamins without medical advice, particularly vitamins A and D and their derivatives.
Avoid Nausea
Perhaps you will be sickened by certain foods for which you would have damned yourself, or on the contrary; you will want a dish that would have made you flee.
It may be that nausea compounded by an empty stomach, disrupting the early months of pregnancy. To remedy this, there are practical as many solutions as there are pregnancies.
Our advice against nausea:
- It is advisable to eat quickly when waking up in the morning and to avoid having an “empty stomach”: try to eat as soon as you wake up, in bed, before even setting foot on the ground.
- Try to eat small amounts several times a day. Another tip is to split the three main meals.
- Avoid anything that tends to cause the feeling of disgust: whether it is strong smells (tobacco, perfume, fried food) or certain foods (in this case, they must be replaced by foods with equivalent nutritional contributions. ).
- Avoid foods that are too fatty, too sweet and too spicy.
- Among the natural methods to combat nausea in early pregnancy, the High Authority of Health (HAS) also recommends the consumption of ginger in gel or acupuncture (stimulation of the acupuncture point P6).
- The Vitamin B6 prescribed by your doctor can also help you overcome these crippling heartaches. If all of this is not enough, talk to your doctor. He may be able to prescribe a drug for you, but above all, do not take one without medical advice. If you are concerned about acid reflux, avoid spicy and heavy dishes.
Hygiene Advice
Essential hygiene advice is even more valuable when you are pregnant.
- Wash your hands regularly, especially after petting a cat or changing its litter box, and if you are not immune to toxoplasmosis.
- Wash fruits and vegetables before consuming them, and do not eat raw meat or fish.
What about the teeth?
Pregnancy is a good time for gingivitis and cavities. Contrary to popular belief, we do not pay for a pregnancy with a tooth:
- Do not hesitate to consult your dentist, who can treat you (dental care is not contraindicated during pregnancy). Only he will be able to advise you on the relevance of a treatment.
Medications You should Avoid During Pregnancy
Once you have decided to enter the period of conception, you cannot be sure if you are pregnant before the end of your cycle. This period during which we do not know if we are pregnant prompts us to wonder if we have taken any medication.
Our advice :
- Therefore, you should avoid taking any medicines, including those that seem harmless to you, such as ibuprofen. However, do not be alarmed if you have taken it.
- Talk to your doctor as you would if you have a fever or feel sick.
- Finally, know that you can buy paracetamol without a prescription. It can be taken during pregnancy.
- If you are already taking medication for chronic disease ( asthma, diabetes), do not stop them on your own without medical advice, keep taking them, and your doctor will tell you what to do during your pregnancy.
Also Read: Body Care During Pregnancy