To ensure good health of your child, you should know that the care starts even before the child is born. In simple words, it means that every pregnant woman must take good care of herself. For your benefit, certain important points are emphasised here:
1. As soon as you think you are pregnant, get yourself registered at the earliest in an antenatal clinic (ANC) in the nearby hospital/dispensary/health centre/sub-centre.
2. Attend this clinic as advised by the health worker. You must go for atleast 3-check ups in this ANC . One at the time of registration, second in the 24-28 weeks and the third 3-4 weeks before the expected date of delivery.
During these visits, you will be examined thoroughly by the health worker, your height, weight and blood pressure will be taken and certain necessary investigations will also be carried out.
3. ‘High-Risk Mothers’ need to visit the ANC more frequently as chances of problems arising in pregnancy are more.
You are a ‘High-Risk Mother’ if you have even one of the following features :
- Age less than 18 years or more than 35 years.
- Height 140 cms or less.
- Bleeding through vagina or pain in abdomen during pregnancy (indicating threatened abortion).
- Anaemia (the tongue and nails look pale). Swelling of feet, high blood pressure and proteins in urine during pregnancy (indicating ‘pre-eclampsia’) or convulsions during pregnancy besides all above symptoms (indicating ‘eclampsia’)
- History of caesarean operation or forceps delivery.
- Malpresentations (i.e., the baby’s position in the uterus is abnormal).
- Pregnancy associated with general diseases, e.g., heart disease, high blood pressure, kidney disease, diabetes, tuberculosis and liver disease etc.
- Twins
- If you are over 30 years of age and becoming pregnant for the first time.
4. You must take injections of Tetanus Toxoid (T.T.) during pregnancy. If it is your first pregnancy, take 2 injections of T.T. with a gap of 4-6 weeks between them. These injections can be taken anytime during pregnancy and are very essential to protect you and your new-born against a deadly disease called Tetanus.
If it is your second pregnancy and it has occurred within 3 years of the first pregnancy, you need to take only one injection of T.T. provided you had taken 2 injections of T.T. in the first pregnancy. If not, you need to take 2 injection.
5. Don’t forget to take Folifer (Iron and Folic Acid) tablets. These tablets taken one per day after meals will prevent occurrence of anaemia in pregnancy. Anaemia means that haemoglobin in your blood is low. Iron tablets can cause constipation in some women and can also make the stools black. Do not worry about it. You may need to change the type of iron tablets if constipation persists. Consult the health worker.
If you already suffer from Anaemia, you will require two tablets every day taken 12 hours apart.
With this, take care of your diet as advised .
6. Take a nutritious and balanced diet.
Compared to your pre-pregnancy stage, you require atleast 50% more food during pregnancy. This is because of a rapidly growing baby inside your uterus. Remember if you eat well, the baby inside eats well and will be born with a good birth weight.
Increase your food intake by at least 50%. Do include lots of green, leafy vegetables (e.g., spinach, methi) for iron; fresh seasonal fruits for vitamins; jaggery for energy and gram (chana)/peas (matar) and pulses for proteins—the body building nutrients—in your diet. If possible, take atleast 2 glasses (total 500 ml) of milk and 1-2 eggs every day.
You should also remember that costly food items are not always more nutritious.
7. Have rest and sleep of 8 hours at night and if possible , 2 hours in the afternoon.
8. Don’t smoke or drink. Also make sure that others don’t smoke in your vicinity. Smoking—whether active or passive—is extremely harmful for your un-born baby.
9. Don’t take any medicines unless prescribed by a good, qualified doctor. Similarly, don’t get investigations like X-ray and Ultra sound done on your own. All these can be harmful.
10. Keep yourself neat and clean. Take a daily bath. Be cheerful.
11. Keep your breasts clean. Wash them daily. Pregnancy is also the time to learn from the health worker about the technique for proper breast-feeding. If nipples of your breasts are inverted (facing inwards), this also is the time to deal with this problem. Even before you consult a health worker for this problem, you can try to gently pull them out and hold them in this position for a few minutes. This procedure can be done 5-6 times every day. 12. If possible, sexual intercourse is better avoided in first 3 months and last 6 weeks of pregnancy. 13. Be vigilant. Report to the health worker/health facility, if you have any of these symptoms. These are danger signals and need immediate attention. A few weeks before the expected date of delivery, plan about your delivery in advance. It is important that your delivery is conducted only by a trained health worker in a clean and safe environment. It is also important to find out about the nearest hospital where you can be taken in case there is a problem during delivery. Also, don’t forget to arrange for a vehicle to be made available to you in case you are required to be shifted to a hospital.
