Healthy pregnancy, birth and beyond

During pregnancy, your baby’s brain is growing very quickly and you can help this growth by taking some time out to relax and talk to baby, to stroke your bump and maybe play music. Encourage other close family members to do the same.

Have a look at this digital tool called Ready to Relate, which has lots of information about building your baby’s brain, bonding and relationship building.

All adults need to be active and that includes pregnant women. Just 30 minutes of walking a day can help keep you and your baby healthy.

Staying fit helps you keep your energy levels up in the day and makes it easier to sleep at night.

Pelvic floor exercises: Your pelvic floor muscles surround and support all the organs in your pelvis – your womb, bowel and bladder.
If these muscles become weak, you can leak urine when you cough or sneeze. This is called stress incontinence. Exercising the pelvic floor muscles helps to prevent this.
You can start doing pelvic floor exercises before, during and after pregnancy.

It is always a good idea to eat healthily and during pregnancy it matters even more.

You may also be aware there are foods that need to be avoided in pregnancy.

Protecting your baby from tobacco smoke is one of the best things you can do to give your child a healthy start in life. It can be difficult to stop smoking, but it’s never too late to quit. Every cigarette smoked contains over 4,000 chemicals, so smoking when you are pregnant harms your unborn baby. Cigarettes can restrict the essential oxygen supply to your baby. As a result, their heart must beat harder every time you smoke.

Stopping smoking will help both you and your baby immediately.

During pregnancy you may have trouble sleeping.

While coping with the physical changes in pregnancy, birth and beyond, your emotional wellbeing is important too. Many women feel anxious, unhappy, mentally distressed, depressed or even more severely mentally unwell during this time, which can be unexpected. Please speak to your midwife if you feel you need more support.

You’ll probably have a lot on your mind during pregnancy. Coping with your symptoms and changing lifestyle, as well as everyday life, can sometimes be overwhelming. Your mental wellbeing in pregnancy is just as important as your physical health, so try to take care of your mind as well as your body.

You’ll be offered vaccines during your pregnancy. These are the best way to protect your baby from serious illness. The antibodies you develop after getting a vaccine transfer from you to your unborn baby. This helps give your newborn baby protection.

• Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine – at any stage in your pregnancy during winter vaccine season
• Flu vaccine – at any stage in your pregnancy during flu season
• Whooping cough vaccine – from 16 weeks
• RSV vaccine – from 28 weeks

This is the care you receive while you’re pregnant to make sure you and your baby are as well as possible.

The midwife or doctor providing your antenatal care will:

• check the health of you and your baby
• give you useful information to help you have a healthy pregnancy, including advice about healthy eating and exercise
• discuss your options and choices for your care during pregnancy, labour and birth
• answer any questions you may have

You have lots of decisions to make during pregnancy, in labour and when you have had your baby. In order to make informed decisions about your care you can use a decision making tool like the BRAIN tool.

B Benefits. What are the benefits?

R Risks. What are the risks and considerations?

A Alternatives. What are the alternatives, and what are the risks and benefits of those?

I Intuition / Information. How do you feel? Do you need more information?

N Nothing / not now. Do I need to decide now? What if I do nothing?