Healthy Behaviour During Pregnancy

Vitamins and immunizations aren't the only
things that can help promote a healthy pregnancy. Things like diet,
physical activity, medications, smoking, alcohol or drug use, and
environmental factors can all affect pregnancy.
A healthy diet, weight level, and regular physical activity level can
help to reduce problems for both mother and fetus during pregnancy. For
this reason, many health care providers suggest that women who are
thinking about getting pregnant take steps to improve or maintain their
own level of health before they get pregnant. A healthy diet helps to
ensure that the fetus has all the nutrients it needs to grow and develop
normally.
Maintaining a healthy weight, both before and during pregnancy, can help
to reduce stress on the mother's body and lower the risk of certain
disorders of pregnancy.
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Backache During Pregnancy

What causes back pain in pregnancy?
Back pain in pregnancy can be divided into:
True back pain
: This occurs when ligaments (the tough,
flexible tissues that connect your bones), muscles, discs and joints are
strained by poor posture, bad lifting technique, weak or tight muscles
or injury. If you suffer from this, you are likely to have had it before
you became pregnant.
Back pain often gets worse towards the end of the day or if you have
been on your feet for a long time. This is because your muscles get
tired and your ligaments stretch slightly from the weight of your body
and baby.
A few women (less than 1 in 100) will have
sciatica
during pregnancy. Inflammation or pressure from the back causes pain in
the sciatic nerve (which runs from your lower back to your feet). This
can then send pain down your leg, or cause weakness or pins and needles.
Contrary to popular opinion, sciatica is not caused by your baby
pressing on a nerve. The chances are that if you have sciatica, it would
have developed whether you were pregnant or not.
Pelvic girdle pain(PGP)
:
This occurs as a result of pregnancy and needs to be managed very
differently to back pain. Standard treatments for back pain usually
don't work for PGP and can even make the pain worse.
If you feel pain on or around your pubic bone at the front, you may have
symphysis pubis dysfunction(SPD). This is sometimes called a separated pelvis
Can I prevent back pain?
You can help prevent back pain by making
sure you are as fit as possible before becoming pregnant. If you are
already pregnant, it's not too late to work on your fitness. Regular exercise will cut your chances of suffering back pain.
If you are not used to taking exercise, start slowly. Check your
posture, avoid heavy lifting and follow some simple back care advice..
If you do have to lift anything, hold it close to your body, bend
your knees rather than your back and try not to twist. See our article
on
protecting your back and pelvis.
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