How to care for yourself while preparing to welcome a baby

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We present a few simple tips to follow during pregnancy to maintain good health for yourself and your baby.

You are currently in the most blissful state of mind. You are pregnant and awaiting the arrival of your precious bundle of joy! You can hardly wait to hold your baby in your arms. But wait! Before you do, you must take proper pregnancy care to ensure that both you and your baby are in the best of health before the happy day comes.

Consider the following easy tips:

Exercise daily. Keeping good health will ensure that you have a smooth pregnancy with minimum complications. Walking every day for 20 minutes, doing yoga and stretching your limbs every hour will keep your muscles and joints supple. Towards the later stages of your pregnancy, you can exercise to ease the growing pressure on your back, pelvis and bladder. But be mindful about overexerting yourself. Running on the treadmill, intense strength training and lifting weight is not advisable at all.

Eat the right healthy food. Your doctor will draw up a diet chart for you. Include fresh fruit and vegetables in your diet to get vitamins, calcium, protein, carbohydrates and minerals. Your diet must be a well-balanced one since whatever you eat affects your baby’s nutrition as well. Wash your hands with antibacterial soap before handling raw food. Keep away from excess oil, sugar, salt and fried goodies. Alcohol and smoking are a strict ‘No’.

Take your meds and follow your doctor’s advice. Some women face iron and vitamin deficiency during their pregnancy. This can affect the health of the baby and also lead to pregnancy complications at a later date. The doctor will prescribe appropriate medication to alleviate these deficiencies. Take them as prescribed and follow up with doctor-approved food supplements. Be mindful about taking herbal medicines and other ‘helpful’ potions and concoctions recommended by the elders in the family. It is best to consume only those foods and meds that are approved by the doctor.

Keep the house clean to prevent infection. You cannot afford to be ill during your pregnancy. Not only will it impact the baby’s health, it will also make your pregnancy a lot more difficult than it already is. Since you cannot prevent every infection from touching you, you can take steps to prevent illness for as long as you can. Apart from washing your hands with Dettol antibacterial soap during the day, you can keep Dettol multi-use wipes handy and use them every time you touch surfaces others have touched, such as doorknobs and computer keyboards.

Stock the house with antiseptic and antibacterial cleaners. This step is to be taken in preparation for the baby’s arrival. The adults in the house can make do with a slightly unclean home, but a baby cannot. Your baby will be delicate for up to one year of its life, and will catch infections from germs and bacteria quite easily. Hence, stock up on cleaning liquids like Dettol Multi-Use hygiene liquid, Dettol healthy kitchen gel,