How to Avoid Pregnancy Complications: Simple Tips for All Women

Pregnancy complications are conditions that threaten the life and health of the mother, the baby, or both. The most common complications are pre-eclampsia and eclampsia (high blood pressure), miscarriage, premature birth, frozen pregnancy, and fetal malformations. Prevention of pregnancy complications begins at the stage of planning for conception. However, it’s now recommended that providers offer non invasive prenatal screening to all pregnant people, regardless of risk.

Take Care of Your Health

It is necessary to be tested for sexually transmitted diseases. The presence of a sexually transmitted infection during pregnancy almost always leads to complications. For example, chlamydia becomes the cause of amniotic fluid, abnormalities of the placenta, and damage to the internal organs of the fetus.

Prevention of complications necessarily includes an examination of women by specialized specialists in preparation for conception. Intensive metabolism, weight gain, changes in the location of internal organs and other changes in the body that occur during pregnancy can worsen the health of women with chronic diseases. The opposite is also true: diseases of internal organs affect pregnancy. For example, pyelonephritis can lead to premature birth, premature rupture of fetal membranes, acute respiratory failure syndrome in the newborn. Hypertension is a frequent cause of delayed intrauterine development and preeclampsia. Insulin-dependent diabetes often leads to fetal death, gigantism.

Besides, drugs taken for chronic diseases can cause complications in pregnancy. Some antimicrobial drugs have a toxic effect on the fetus, and taking anti-tumor drugs during pregnancy can lead to fetal growth retardation, skull abnormalities, and even death. To prevent pregnancy complications, reread the instructions for the medications you take on a regular basis. If pregnancy is listed as a contraindication, talk to your doctor about which medications you should switch to during this period.

In some cases, consultation with a geneticist is required to prevent pregnancy complications and fetal malformations. It’s recommended for women who have had two or more miscarriages in the past or have had a miscarriage (fetal genetic abnormalities could have caused the miscarriage). 

Stabilize Your Emotions

Stress is another cause of miscarriage, premature birth. Stress seriously changes the hormonal background and leads to uterine hypertonicity. Adrenaline, which enters the blood during stress, constricts blood vessels, so hypoxia occurs. Chronic hypoxia leads to organ abnormalities, delayed intrauterine development, neurological problems. Besides, stress is the cause of low birth weight babies.

You should monitor your emotional background throughout pregnancy. Take your mind off your worries and react more easily to negative events:

• Walking in the fresh air. This is a great example of moderate physical activity.
• Full-fledged sleep (at least 8 hours a day).
• Breathing exercises. They enrich cells and tissues with oxygen, normalize blood pressure, and relieve tension.
• Quiet classical music.
• Activities that give pleasure (e.g., sewing, gambling at Hellspin, watching Netflix movies).
• Aromatherapy. Soothing and relaxing effects are achieved by essential oils of pine, sandalwood, citrus, mint, and melissa.
• A massage of the neck, head, hands and feet calms and relieves stress.
• Communicate with positive, friendly people.

Make up for Micronutrient Deficiencies

For proper development, the baby needs vitamins and minerals. At the same time, a woman’s body also needs them to support its own vital functions. However, many women enter pregnancy with a deficiency of vitamins and minerals. What complications may arise in such a situation?

• Lack of folic acid leads to neural tube defects, can cause placental abnormalities and premature birth.
• Iodine deficiency leads to goitre in a woman and the fetus, and may cause malformations of the child (deafness, cretinism), and in severe cases, even spontaneous abortion.
• Iron deficiency leads to anemia, which often results in hypoxia, miscarriages, premature births, and delayed intrauterine development.
• A deficiency of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids interferes with the normal development of the fetal brain, nervous tissue, the immune system, and causes apathy and depression in women.

Normalize Your Weight

Being overweight can lead to preeclampsia, hypoxia, and weakened labor. So, a woman should normalize her weight before conception. The main tools are diet and exercise.

Don’t use starvation or diets aimed at rapid weight loss, as the chances of conception with a sharp decrease in weight are markedly reduced.

You should exclude from your diet sweets, cakes, cookies, fast food, and products that increase your appetite. Remember to increase the volume of fresh vegetables, fruits, and to follow a drinking regime. Experts advise to eat 5-6 times a day in small portions, and use fruits and vegetables as a snack. Recommendations for proper nutrition will give a nutritionist.

Physical activity should be moderate. Suitable walks, swimming, biking, skiing. Good results show therapeutic exercise. It’s often combined with training on simulators, breathing exercises, and massage.

Give up Your Bad Habits

Harmful substances in alcoholic beverages negatively affect the fetus. For example, it can cause damage to the brain, the central nervous system. Other complications of drinking alcohol include spontaneous abortion and premature birth. You need to give up alcohol at the stage of planning a child – a few months before trying to conceive.

Nicotine is no less harmful. Smoking doubles the risk of premature birth, or having a baby with low birth weight. It also doubles the risk of stillbirth. Expectant mothers should not only smoke on their own but also be near a smoker, in a smoky room.

Complications aren’t a necessary companion of pregnancy. If you have health problems, you often experience stress, then the prevention of pregnancy complications will help you to bear and give birth to a healthy baby.