PRECAUTIONS DURING PREGNANCY
The need of the hour is complete care, proper guidance regarding complications and problems, constant sympathy, a balanced diet, periodic check-ups, and corrective and preventive measures to pre-empt odd and agonizing symptoms. All such and other related matters would be taken up later on.
• When menses do not appear after the last cohabitation, it is considered a sure sign of the onset of pregnancy. But, menses may also not appear due to other causes that need investigation. Stoppage of menses is not a firm indication of pregnancy. Hence, to be sure, a pregnancy test may be done by examining the urine of the pregnant (!) woman, which will confirm (or otherwise) taking the place of pregnancy. Nothing should, in fact, be left to chance and conjectures, the reason being that when pregnancy is confirmed through a urine test, the prospective mother is required to be given special care, diet etc.
• If there is confirmed pregnancy, the lady would not like to work, will get a bit inactive, prefer to have a resting—bed, and discharge more saliva.
• There may be occasional nausea and a tendency to vomit tendency to yawn, which lasts up to 3rd or even 4th month. Though nausea, vomiting and yawning are natural consequences of pregnancy and no medicine is called for to quell such symptoms 3 16, which often subside /disappear after the 3rd /4th month, when vomiting persists. There are repeated vomits, and the same must be controlled; otherwise, there is every likelihood that she may even abort at an early stage.
• If there is premature abortion, the lady should be given complete rest-in-bed, and if there is bleeding, it must be controlled within the minimum possible time, apart from attending to other fall-out symptoms.
• After two months, breasts start enlarging, and there is slight pain and tenderness. Even an ordinary touch/contact will be painful.
• Nipples and areola (the area around nipples) will get darker; that is, there will be redness around them.
• Some sticky white fluid may emerge when nipples are pressed, but the same would disappear during the last days of pregnancy.
• The lady does not feel the presence of the uterus during the first three months but in the fourth month. it could be felt under the pubic region. In the sixth month, the uterus touches the navel portion. Thereafter, the navel also erects, smarts and protrudes, with a gradual increase in weight, size and shape of the abdomen, whose veins get distended and abdominal pressure tends downwards.
• In the ordinary course, the pregnancy period lasts for 280 days (that is, roughly 9 months and 10 days ), but the child may be born 2-3 days earlier or later than the span of 280 days, which is not considered unnatural or abnormal. But if there is too early delivery, the born child may be weak and underweight, or else if there is an inordinate delay, the doctor may have to affect delivery through an operation; the reason being the life of the mother and child ought to be saved at any cost, lest there is a danger to the life of either or both.
• If, for any reason, a child is born before the seventh month, the same does not survive in most cases, but a child born after the seventh month often survives.
• It is not easy to predict and pinpoint the exact day of a child’s birth. The general rule is that the date should be reckoned from the day of stoppage of the last menses. For example, suppose a woman had her last menses on the 10th of January. In that case, the exact date should be reckoned from the 11th of January and 280 days added to the said date—though actual delivery may occur ahead of the scheduled time or even slightly later. This variation can also be attributed to the fact that the lady might have forgotten the day when her menses had ceased. But, all such rules are mere academic interests due to certain variations.
POINTS TO REMEMBER
This is a highly risky and critical period for the baby and mother. If safeguards are not taken properly and timely, the life of either or both can be endangered, not to speak of irreversible developments and symptoms.
• First requisite is proper education, guidance and care. People around her must ensure proper rapport, mutual understanding, integration, frankness, and alertness.
• Inhibitions, social and religious beliefs and taboos must be relegated to the back seat, as the foremost aim is to provide mental relief, peace, and tranquillity to the mother,
• She should take to morning and evening walks or stroll on even grassy land. She should inhale fresh and pure air and try to stay away from polluted and contaminated environments.
• During walking, either in the house or outside, she must avoid walking fast and jumping and must avoid falls which can result in abortion and/or bleeding.
• Personal hygiene ought to be a matter of habit and not merely a social or religious ritual. She should take a bath daily, if only health permits, and use cold water in summer and lukewarm or hot water in winter, but exposure to cold and cold conditions must be avoided. While bathing, she should wash daily (preferably with diluted Dettol or Savalon lotion) her private parts, armpits, hair, thigh joints, navel and pubic region while bathing. Teeth should be brushed in the morning and at night.
• She should wear neat, clean, light-coloured and loose clothes. There should be no burden of clothes around the abdomen and over the shoulders. The bra’ should also be worn slightly loose so as to accommodate the bulging size of breasts. In all situations, a house-gown during the day and a nighty at night will meet most of the requirements.
• She should avoid using any towel, linen bed/pillow sheet, blanket or underwear etc., of any other lady. Always use your own clothes.
• A pregnant lady should enjoy rest for 8 hours; a nap for an hour or so in the summer would be an ideal rest, apart from usual rest.
• She should not lead a sedentary life but must attend to her daily chores as usual and her family jobs. Too much rest or too much work should always be avoided.
• Any health problem should be got attended to without hesitation and delay. Some ladies fear divulging their health problems, as it won’t benefit either the mother or the foetus. Even the slightest delay in treatment can spell disaster.
• Do not ever lift anything heavy. Avoid injury, fall, and trauma in any case
• Take only an easily digestible, well-balanced and nutritious diet. Take plenty of green and leafy vegetables, milk, curd, fats (in moderate and requisite quantity only), vitamins, minerals etc.
• Ensure that you do not have constipated bowels and that constipation should be removed through natural means and never through harmful purgative. Isabgole husk (5-10 gms) mixed with a glassful of hot milk will not only remove constipation but will also prove to an aid to general health. 8-10 raisins boiled in a glassful of milk will also serve the same purpose but, in addition, would strengthen the body and purify the blood also.
• Do not climb stairs in a hush. Remember, if you fall or slip during alighting or going upstairs, you are inviting trouble for your child and yourself too.
• Similarly, do not drive or be seated in a vehicle that generates/causes jerks. Also, never tread on uneven or stony paths. So, avoid using rickshaws, tongas, horse riding, climbing, running, jumping, and skipping.
• Yogic exercises are an excellent device for mental and physical health. But, all yogic asanas (postures) do not suit all pregnant ladies. Hence always seek advice and guidance from a qualified yoga teacher.
• Remain free from tension, worries and anxieties. Any stressful situation will have an adverse effect on your health. Try to remain happy, cheerful, carefree and smiling. Happiness is the best tonic that would handle most of the problems surfacing during this period. Other housemates should also ensure that they do not say or do anything that might cause tension in the confined lady.
• If you cannot do any exercise, you should at least do Pranayama (breath control), which will improve circulation of the entire body and impart tone, suppleness and energy to the body. Your entire respiratory, circulatory, and digestive systems will be rejuvenated and toned up. It will also increase the general resistance of the body.
• Any exercise that causes fatigue, pain in any part of the body, exhausts, causes dyspnoea (breathlessness), or exerts pressure on the abdomen, must never be undertaken. Exercise of any kind must not cause any physical problems.
• During the exercise and after, it must be ensured that you do not exceed your capacity or overdue what your body cannot actually endure. Avoid jerk, fall, and trauma in any case.