Are you planning to step into the exciting phase of motherhood? It can be the most blissful moment in your life to give birth to a baby but at the same time, it can be fraught with challenges. Hence, it is advisable that you are equipped with the right knowledge about pregnancy care beginning from the prenatal stage to post-pregnancy care for bringing up a healthy child in the most delicate phase of his/ her life.
Prenatal Care for new mothers
Nutrition and healthy habits are indispensable for would-be mothers. Inculcate healthy habits in you from maintaining sound and routinely sleep patterns to avoid bad lifestyle habits such as smoking. Give special attention to diet and nutrition during planning pregnancy or just after entering the phase of pregnancy. You should include in your diet a minimum intake of 0.4 mg of Folic Acid every day. Folic Acid is vitamin B9 and is available in plenty in dark green vegetables such as spinach, broccoli and legumes. Also, avoid any recreational drugs or alcohol during your pregnancy. It is advisable to only go for doctor-prescribed drugs and not any over the counter medicines during the delicate phase of your pregnancy.
Your prenatal visits to your doctor or pregnancy provider are divided into trimesters depending on the month you are down in your pregnancy. Generally, it’s divided as first-trimester care, second-trimester care and third-trimester care during your pregnancy. Depending on the trimester you are in your pregnancy, the doctor will advise you tests such as ultrasounds, fetal echocardiography, amniocentesis etc, to ascertain the development of the child in your womb, check for genetic issues, check the baby’s heart, blood type testing, sexually transmitted diseases and others. Depending on your family history you may also screen the child for genetic problems.
Pregnancy Care
Every pregnancy varies from person to person. For some, it could be a near to normal experience of being able to carry on with their daily work schedule and others may develop some kind of complications. However, developing complications does not in any way suggest that you are not going to have a healthy baby. So, you should never worry about such issues and rather focus on getting the right diagnosis and best of care from your care provider or in some cases, get care from a home nurse. Common pregnancy problems include diabetes, high blood pressure, growth issues with the baby, early labour, vaginal bleeding etc. In such cases try to take special care of the baby with routine monitoring of your health condition. Would-be mothers with health complications are advised bed rest even before their term and take services of a professional home care nurse.
Labor Pain and Delivery
Labour pain is painful but it can be managed by having frequent consultations with your doctor or a nurse to attend to you can be handy in mentally counselling you about it. Especially for first-time mothers. Not just would be mothers but other family members and your spouse attending to you should have some knowledge about this condition or physiological state of yours for not to panic and be your support during the need of the hour. You should consult your doctor whether to go for the epidural block to manage the labour pain better? You should know about medical terms and procedures like episiotomy. What is the procedure of C section and how you should prepare for it mentally? Your home nurse or maternity nurse can assist you with first-hand knowledge about your pregnancy-related queries and for details on the matter, you can always approach your gynaecologist.
After Delivery Care
The first few weeks after delivering a child you need to take complete rest and take care of yourself. The degree of care required will depend on the procedure of your delivery. Mothers who have gone for C section delivery may require the assistance of a maternity nurse for wound dressing to taking care of daily chores. New mothers can learn how to properly breastfeed a baby from a maternity nurse. Breastfeeding is advisable to every mother as that helps her reduce the extra body weight gained during her pregnancy. There can be a lot to learn in breastfeeding your baby. From learning the right positioning of breastfeeding a baby to take care of your breasts to the timing of breastfeeding.
You may need to call your provider for any kind of health complications that you may develop in the weeks right after delivering your baby.
Luckily today there are no dearths of pregnancy care agencies in a city like Dubai, who can always provide you with a competent maternity nurse to take care of you during the prenatal to a few weeks after delivering your baby and make the entire process smooth for you and your family. All you need to exercise is applying caution while selecting a home healthcare agency.
