Keeping Healthy While Pregnant: 6 Things You Must Do

Pregnancy is an ideal time to start taking really good care of yourself both physically and emotionally. If you follow the few simple guidelines below, you should give yourself the best chance of having a problem-free pregnancy and a healthy baby.

1. See your doctor or midwife as soon as possible

As soon as you find out you're pregnant, get in touch with your GP or a midwife to organise your antenatal care. Organising your care early means you'll get good advice for a healthy pregnancy right from the start. You'll also have plenty of time to organise any ultrasound scans and tests that you may need.

2. Eat well

Aim to eat a healthy, balanced diet whenever you can. Try to have:

• At least five portions of fruit and vegetables daily.
• Plenty of carbohydrates, such as bread, pasta and rice, as the basis of your meals. Choose wholegrain carbohydrates rather than white, so you get plenty of fibre.
• Daily servings of protein, such as fish, lean meat, eggs, nuts or pulses, and some milk and dairy foods.
• Two portions of fish a week, at least one of which should be oily. Fish is packed with protein, vitamin D, minerals and omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 fatty acids are important for the development of your baby's nervous system.
  
  

You don't need to eat for two when you're pregnant. You don't need extra calories for the first six months of pregnancy. In the last three months you'll need about an extra 200 calories a day. You can keep up your energy levels with healthy snacks.

See our pregnancy meal planners for each trimester.

3. Be careful about food hygiene

There are some foods it's safest not to eat in pregnancy. This is because they can carry a health risk for your baby.

Listeriosis is an infection caused by listeria bacteria. It's rare and doesn't usually pose a threat to your health. However, it can cause pregnancy or birth complications. Listeriosis can even lead to miscarriage.

The following foods may harbour listeria and so are best avoided:

• pate of any type
• unpasteurised milk
• undercooked ready meals
• soft, mould-ripened cheeses, such as brie
• blue-veined cheeses, such as roquefort
  
  

As listeria bacteria are destroyed by heat, make sure you heat ready meals thoroughly.

Salmonella can cause food poisoning. You can catch it from eating:

• undercooked poultry
• Is it safe to eat soft-boiled or raw eggs during pregnancy?
  

Cook eggs until the white and yolk are solid. Thoroughly wash utensils, boards and your hands after handling raw poultry. Food hygiene is especially important now you're pregnant. Toxoplasmosis is an infection caused by a parasite. It's also rare, but it can affect your unborn baby. You can cut down your risk of catching it by:

• cooking meat and ready meals thoroughly
• washing fruit and vegetables well to remove soil or dirt
• wearing gloves when handling cat litter and garden soil

4. Exercise regularly

Regular exercise has many benefits for mums-to-be. It can:

• Build your strength and endurance. This may help you to cope better with the extra weight of pregnancy and the hard work of labour.
• Make it easier for you to get back into shape after your baby is born.
• Boost your spirits and even help to ward off depression.

If you play sport, you can continue as long as it feels comfortable for you. However, if your particular sport carries a risk of falls or knocks, or extra stress on your joints, it's best to stop. Talk to your GP if you're unsure.

5. Cut down on or cut out alcohol

Any alcohol you drink rapidly reaches your baby via your blood stream and placenta.

No one knows for sure how much alcohol it's safe to drink while you're pregnant. That's why many experts advise you to cut out alcohol completely throughout pregnancy, or at least for the first three months.

If you do decide to drink, stick to no more than one or two units of alcohol, no more than once or twice a week, and never get drunk.

Drinking heavily or binge drinking during pregnancy is dangerous for your baby. Mums-to-be who drink heavily on a regular basis are more likely to give birth to a baby with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). These are problems ranging from learning difficulties to more serious birth defects.

6. Get some rest

The fatigue you feel in the first few months is due to high levels of pregnancy hormones circulating in your body. Later on, it's your body's way of telling you to slow down.

If you can't sleep at night, try to take a quick nap in the middle of the day to catch up. If that's impossible, at least put your feet up and try to relax for 30 minutes.

If backache is disturbing your sleep, try lying on your left-hand side with your knees bent. Placing a wedge-shaped pillow under your bump may help ease the strain on your back.

Exercise may also give you some relief from backache. It can help with sleep problems, too, as long as you don't exercise too close to bedtime.

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