Most people will agree that having good nutrition is important during pregnancy. However, not much attention is given on nutrition and care before pregnancy. According to research done, body weight of women before pregnancy is closely related to newborn's body weight. A lot of underweight babies are related to underweight mothers before pregnancy or minimal weight increase during pregnancy. There are incidents of giant babies due to improper or unbalanced nutrition before pregnancy. Thus, nutrition and care before pregnancy is also very important.
Quitting smoking
Smoking will lower the chance of getting pregnant and affect fetus growth causing babies to be underweight, less developed (if lungs are affected, babies are at higher risk of getting asthma and bronchitis), poorer intelligence. In fact, the possibility of having difficulties during birth is always higher. Thus, smoking husband should quit smoking as the second hand smoke affects both wife and baby.
Staying away from pets
With the increased level of living standard, a lot of women like to keep pets such as cats and dogs. Some even sleep and bathe with pets. However, these pets possibly carry source of disease that is harmful to babies. If you are planning to get pregnant, it is good to be away from pets and get doctor to check for any possible infection with toxoplasma gondii and rabies.
Paying attention to medicine
If, because of certain reason, you have to take medicine, you should consult your doctor to see if the medicine has any complication to pregnancy and the development of fetus. If possible, change to medicine that will not give complication to pregnancy or best yet, do not take medicine whenever possible. Most medicine contains caffeine and alcohol that are harmful to fetus.
Maintaining balance nutrition
Different foods give different nutritions. Do not be picky eater, eat variety of nutritious foods in order to have balanced nutrition. For those women that are prepared to have baby, more attention should be paid to protein, minerals, and vitamins. Take more protein rich foods such as beans, eggs, lean meats, fishes as well as iodine rich foods such as kelp, seaweed, jellyfish. Zinc, iron, vitamins are also important. Avoid taking spicy, highly sweetened, preserved foods and stay away from coffee and tea. Use stainless steel cooking utensils; do not use aluminum or any colored clay pot to prevent contamination of lead that is harmful to body cells.
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