Now that you are pregnant, taking good care of yourself is highly important at this stage of life. Here is how you can keep yourself & your little one healthy.
Look After Prenatal Health Care
Main thing to protecting your child health is getting right birth and pregnancy products. If you think you are pregnant, first you must call the health care provider for scheduling the first prenatal appointment. Lots of health care providers will not schedule their first visit before eight weeks of the pregnancy, till there’s the problem.
See Your Baby Grow Within You
At the first visit, your medical provider may probably do the pregnancy test, and can know number of weeks you are pregnant based on the physical examination and date of the last period. They may use the information to predict the delivery date (ultrasound done later in the pregnancy can help to check the exact date). Suppose you are healthy and there’re not any complicating factors, many health care providers would like to see you:
1. In every four weeks till 28th week of your pregnancy
2. Every two weeks till 36 weeks
3. Once in a week till delivery
Throughout the pregnancy, your medical provider may check your weight as well as blood pressure whereas checking the development and growth of your child (doing things such as feeling abdomen, listening for fetal heartbeat during second trimester, or measuring belly). During this span of the pregnancy, you will have the prenatal tests, which includes urine, blood, and cervical tests, probably one ultrasound.
When you are selecting the health care provider for treating you during the pregnancy, your choices include:
1. Family practitioners: These are doctors who offer a complete range of the services for the patients of various ages — in many cases, it includes the obstetrical care
2. Certified nurse or midwives: The advanced nurses that specialize in the women’s health care requirements, which includes the prenatal care, and delivery, or postpartum care for the uncomplicated pregnancies. Also, there are other types of the midwives; however, you must search for one with the formal training who is certified in this field.
3. Obstetricians or gynecologists (OB/GYNs): The doctors who have done specialization in pregnancy & childbirth, and women’s health care
This is the best choice if you are healthy and there is not any reason for you to anticipate the complications with the pregnancy & delivery. But, nurse-midwives require doctor available for delivery if any unexpected problem comes or cesarean section is needed.
Nutrition & Supplements
Now you are eating for two, it isn’t the right time to cut down on calories and go on diet. Actually, it is just opposite — you require around 300 more calories in a day, particularly later stage of the pregnancy when baby grows fast.
