Pregnancy is a proud moment for any lady and should never be viewed as a burden nor accepted reluctantly. No doubt the pregnant lady has to pass through a totally novel experience in her life and there could be multiple problems in a primipara (the lady who is going to deliver a child for the very first time) but, in a multipara, the problems are neither novel nor disturbing, for the simple reason that she is now an experienced lady who can weather any storm.
The pregnancy period has been divided into three parts—I trimester, II trimester, and III trimester.
Common symptoms of pregnancy
• Stoppage of menstrual flow.
• Hardening of nipples and change in color of nipples and area around nipples (areola).
• Heariness at the pit of (lower) abdomen.
• Occasional vomiting (though rare) and nausea (though quite common).
• Occasional fainting
• Pain in back and loins, dizziness, and headache.
• Water-brash.
• Cramps, particularly in the lower extremities.
• Varicose Veins, especially on and around the abdomen, legs, feet, etc.
• Dribbling of urine, or even scanty or suppressed urine—constipated bowels and heartburn.
• Lack or loss of sleep and general restlessness. Longing for clay or burnt earth.
• Piles—whether dry or bleeding.
• Dry and hacking cough.
• Gripes.
• Itching of external genitals.
• Discomfort due to fetal movements.
• Discharge from the vagina—generally white.
• Pain in breast and enlargement in size thereof.
• Mental disturbances.
• Fear and apprehension as to whether childbirth would be normal or not.
• Bleeding during pregnancy.
• Inflammation or/and ulceration of nipples that are sore to touch.
• Occasional fever (though rare).
• Anaemia.
As the pregnancy period advances, most of the aforesaid problems disappear. Further, a major chunk of pregnancy-related problems occurs during the I and II trimesters only.
Cough, nausea and vomiting, fever, bleeding, any type of unusual pain, anorexia (loss of appetite) mental symptoms, leucorrhoea, constipation, any cardiac or respiratory problem, loose motions, etc. need to be attended to without any delay and must be corrected by a qualified gynecologist, though rest of the symptoms, (though natural) should also not be ignored.
Most of the pregnancy-related problems emanate from the following factors:
• Sedentary lifestyle, easy-going way.
• Lack of a well-balanced and nutritious diet and too much adherence to prohibited dietary ingredients lack of fats, spices, and condiments or even tobacco use, smoking, alcohol, and drugs.
• Anaemia—poor quality of blood or deficient Hemoglobin and RBCs.
• Lack of even moderate and normal physical activity.
• Playing games, where jumping falls are involved, and injuries might be sustained.
• Leading a lazy life and excessive sex indulgence.
Cautions during the pregnancy
Duration of pregnancy is 280 days—that is nine calendar months and ten days, calculated from the last date of menstruation. During this period, a pregnant lady should take, at least, following precautions, so as to avoid complications.
Hygiene
Element and importance of personal hygiene are of paramount importance and should be a matter of habit. Lack of personal hygiene often results in various diseases which have already been detailed earlier. The lady should remember that if she tries to gratify all her longings, not only hers but also her child’s health and development will be adversely affected.
She should take a bath daily, keeping in view of weather conditions. Certain ladies have a fad of taking a bath daily despite their being indisposed. In this respect, no religious or other fads, or compulsions should ever take precedence over her physical capacity and health conditions. When there is reluctance or fear of precipitation of some symptom (like exposure to cold, pain, ache in body, fever, cough, etc) she should simply sponge her whole body with hot/cold water, as the case may be. Cleanliness and hygiene of private parts, armpits, thigh joints, the back part of hips, the back part of knees, feet, and spaces between fingers need to be kept clean.
Diet
Emphasis should always be laid on a well-balanced diet, i.e. diet must consist of wholegrain cereals, pulses, green and leafy vegetables, milk, and seasonal non-irritant fruits. She should avoid a fish and meat diet, and also diet over-loaded with fats, oils, spices, and condiments. If digestion is poor and weak, she may opt for juices of vegetables and fruits.
Further, she should neither starve herself nor ever overeat. Avoid extreme postures. The child gets his food out of his mother’s dietary intake. After the III or IV months, a pregnant lady should add 50% extra food to her daily diet, which would suffice to meet the requirements of the mother and her child. She shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that whatever she eats/drinks affects a child’s growth. If good food benefits both, harmful and prohibited food also harm both of them.
Diarrhea, dysentery, or constipation can cause even abortion, in addition to the disturbing whole digestive system. Never take any food item that may cause any of the above-mentioned problems. Her diet, as a rule, should be light, bland, easy to digest, helpful to her and her baby, and consist of milk, iron, folic acid, and calcium which should be derived from foods that are rich in these substances.
Before taking meals, ensure that your hands are thoroughly clean, and your nails properly clipped and trimmed. Your food should be freshly prepared— it should not be stale, exposed to dust, flies, and other harmful bacteria and germs, and should not give a foul smell. Never eat your meals in a hurry nor cultivate the habit of eating every now and then or whenever desired. You should take your meals at the nominated and fixed time. If you are ever mentally disturbed or mentally agitated, no meals should, then be taken.
A pregnant lady requires a high-calorie diet. Your attending physician will guide you in this respect, but, while chalking a dietary plan, based on daily calorie intake, should be as follows (as per generally accepted norms of dietary and calorie requirements.)
These parameters are not the last word in daily dietary recommendations but are based on the average need of a pregnant lady per day (a period of 24 hours). Individual cases need to be individualized in view of their physical fitness and health status, when a lower or higher-calorie diet may have to be prescribed.
A daily diet should consist of the following food items, as a normal practice:
Above food chart would suffice to meet a 24-hour requirement of a pregnant lady and her offspring. The total quantity of the above-mentioned food items should be divided and spread over a period of 24 hours. There are no hard and fast rules because food requirements generally vary for almost all ladies.
Pregnant ladies, living in poor and lower middle-class families are indifferent and callous in respect of their diet. These are the ladies, who give birth to weak, emaciated, underweight, diseased children. In certain traditional families, it is a myth and misplaced conception that the lady of the house should eat only after she has served all the males and guests in the family and also that she should eat whatever is left out (residue of food). If a lady falls ill, the entire edifice and management of the entire family would run into doldrums, as she is supposed to look to the comforts of the rest of the family members and even guests. If the lady of the house falls ill, nobody will come to her resume nor lend her a helping hand in her daily duties.
The more a pregnant lady works, the more she has to spend her energy. In order to enable her to compensate for the lost energy, she needs a higher calorie diet which, unluckily, is generally denied to her or she may have to blame herself. Food, and that too proper food, is a prime necessity for a pregnant and lactating mother. Let the elderly ladies remember that if they wish to have healthy grandchildren, they should themselves first learn and then advise and insist on the pregnant ladies on the importance of timely and nutritious diet intake.
For the convenience of our readers, detailed calorie-cooked raw, or processed (calorie) food items are given hereunder, so as to enable the ladies to chalk out a suitable diet chart, based on their health condition.
The charts indicate calories found in various food items, but an individual has to select the food items that suit her and also which of them have been actually recommended to her by the physician. Food calories are needed to maintain our basal needs.
In order to avoid monotony, food items should be exchanged and substituted by those foods which are able to yield the total calories required for a 24-hour period.
Exercise
Exercise means physical activity. Food intake generates energy, which is the resultant end of calorie intake. In order to burn and expend energy resort, to regular and proper exercise, by whichever means, hardly needs to be emphasized. If the diet is needed to sustain our body, exercise is meant to expend the generated energy—the two factors, of diet and exercise, being compensatory to each other and both should be accorded equal significance and status.
A pregnant lady, in order to ensure the proper health of herself own self as also the health and growth of her offspring, should ensure physical activity that can be attained by regular morning and evening walking. Morning -walk should be brisk, but not very fast, lest she slips or falls, thereby injuring herself and the child. It may even result in excessive bleeding and even, ultimate miscarriage. Evening walks should be simply a stroll. Walking entails the exercise of the whole body and also doesn’t exert any undue strain on body organs.
Avoid the following situations while doing exercises :
• Jumping, skipping, running.
• Do not walk unduly faster than the body can actually endure.
• Never exceed the limits of your physical capacity. At once stop the exercise as soon as you begin to pant or suffocate or tire.
• When you are getting fatigued it is nature’s initial warning signal, which must not be ignored and overlooked. ICU is a warning to you that you must not push your exercise any further.
• If ever there is any pain in the body, it may be due to the stiffness of joints which the complaint disappears with regular and sustained physical activity.
• No yogasana should be performed without the proper guidance of a yoga expert, who should be immediately consulted as soon as some discomfort is felt.
• Any exercise, which exerts pressure on the abdomen, must be given up.
• Never take to any exercise immediately after taking meals.
• Aerobic exercise pushes up blood circulation, hence perform them under an expert’s guidance only. Ladies suffering from high blood pressure, breathlessness, or any heart-related ailment, should be extra cautious in this context.
Rest
Rest means relaxation of body and mind, but never implies sleeping. When the body is tired and the mind is disturbed, simply relax to calm your agitated body and mind.
Never sleep after taking lunch, instead, you can enjoy a short nap or simply listen to the radio or watch T.V. and read some interesting magazines or daily newspapers. It will provide you with much-needed rest and also relax your body and mind.
After dinner never lie down. You may engage yourself with your family members’ common interests. Even a simple conversation, but not any heated argument, can serve as a nerve soother. Evening walks, preferably after dinner, will also provide much relief and relaxation. Rest is a great tonic. What you can achieve through rest, you may not achieve through tonics. If you enjoy sound sleep at night, your tired body will be able to make up for the lost energy.
Now, a word about rest and sedentary life. A sedentary lifestyle is an inert, inactive, and sloth way to rest the body.
A sedentary lady suffers from…
• Indigestion, dyspepsia, flatulence, belching, gas formation, colic, etc., and all those symptoms are off-shoots of absent physical activity.
• There could be dull headache symptoms, though such chances are quite rare, as there is simply a risk factor and not a question of suffering from diabetes. Diabetic mothers should control their diet, and take to regular exercise (without being sedentary).
• Proper exercise, rest and relaxation, a nutritious and balanced diet, and freedom from mental strain and physical fatigue are the basic factors that help a woman to give birth to a healthy child. If any complication surfaces, but is either neglected or not treated properly and in time, it may have ramifications of far, reaching consequences that are liable to affect the mother and her child.
• It is the duty of elder members and the pregnant lady’s husbands to ensure a cheerful and tension-free environment in the family. If tensions and disorders persist and the contributory factors are also not eradicated, it is not using expecting a healthy child from a pregnant lady. In a joint family, problems go on multiplying, but no effort is made to resolve the crisis—it is more so, where the husband is timid, economically dependent, or does not contribute to the joint family’s expenses. Social and economic factors should never tell on the mental and physical health of a would-be mother and her offspring. Let us not forget that only a healthy mother can deliver a healthy baby.
