If you are a first–time mom, you must be overwhelmed with emotions. Naturally, you will also be wondering how to keep yourself and your baby healthy and happy. This kind of worrying is quite natural as the experience of being a first-time mother comes with loads of responsibilities.
Here are some tips that new moms should follow as a first-time pregnancy can come with loads of challenges.
Avoid Alcohol
Understandably, you should never consume alcohol, nicotine, or caffeine during pregnancy. While women pay special attention to avoiding alcohol and tobacco, they don’t understand the importance of avoiding caffeine.
The thing about consuming coffee is that the caffeine gets absorbed into the system slowly. It also passes through the placenta before reaching the unborn baby’s bloodstream. While coffee might promote mental alertness, it might as well increase blood pressure and energize the nervous system.
While your adult body might take caffeine differently, it can cause serious side effects to your baby. Resultantly, it can lead to a miscarriage. Even small caffeine amounts can increase your baby’s risk of low birth weight. We recommend that you switch to herbal teas instead and pay regular visits to your obstetrician to ensure that everything is going well with the pregnancy.
Move Your Body
Another tip to have a smooth pregnancy is to keep moving your body – and the best way to do so is by exercising regularly. As you might already be experiencing, pregnancy comes with its own mood swings and pain in different parts of the body.
With regular exercise, you can overcome back pain and stabilize blood circulation. Besides, exercise also works as an excellent mood booster. As you regularly move your body, you will strengthen your muscles and prepare your body for the upcoming labor.
However, you don’t have to exert yourself overly – all you need to do is go for a swim or go for a walk in the nearby park. Besides, yoga is an excellent way to relieve your body from stress and curb restlessness. You might also want to try putting on prenatal yoga poses, as this helps open up the hips and prepare your body for labor.
As long as you don’t exert your body, you are all good. Abstain from lifting heavy weights or indulging in intense physical workouts.
Stay Hydrated
Your doctor might have already told you about the importance of staying hydrated as a first-time mother. The truth is that as a first-time mom, you will be expected to stay more hydrated than before. The underlying reason is your body will require more water than usual as the consumed water will become part of the amniotic fluid surrounding your baby.
Dehydration will lead to low fluid, which will eventually lead to birth defects as well as miscarriage.
To stay hydrated and avoid complicated labor, we recommend consuming at least ten glasses of water daily. By staying hydrated and drinking enough water, you can also relieve swollen joints, a typical part of pregnancy.
