5 bad habits that can affect your pregnancy

Pregnancy tip: Enjoy a healthy pregnancy and safe delivery by following certain basic guidelines and avoiding these 5 factors.

Pregnancy is a crucial time when a lot of care is needed to ensure a safe delivery. And the mother’s health and habits plays a huge role in determining the well-being of the baby. Certain things can help to give them a boost, such as mothers eating a good diet, maintaining a healthy weight, and getting enough rest. But there are certain things that can be harmful for the pregnancy as well.

The mother’s health and habits during pregnancy plays a huge role in determining the well-being of the baby. (Shutterstock)

Here are 5 things to watch out for and avoid:

* You take a lot of stress.

A study done by the Weizmann Institute in Israel shows that stress during pregnancy may cause female children to exhibit binge-eating-like behaviour in adulthood. The study done on mice shows that although stressed mothers passed along binge eating-related epigenetic tags on their DNA, the mouse pups’ tendency to binge surfaced only when they too were subjected to stressful situations.

Not getting enough sunshine can hamper chances of conception. (Shutterstock)

* You don’t get enough sunshine.

A study conducted by NIH shows that among women planning to conceive after a pregnancy loss, those who had sufficient levels of vitamin D were more likely to become pregnant and have a live birth, compared to women with insufficient levels of the vitamin.

* You don’t eat healthy food.

What you eat can profoundly influence your child’s growth. A study conducted by the Oregon Health and Science University pinpoints the link between a mother’s nutrition habits and metabolism, and its impact on the growth of the child.

Women must exercise during pregnancy, as it is good for both the mother and the child. (Shutterstock)

* You don’t exercise enough.

A Spanish study is encouraging women to exercise during pregnancy, after finding that working out can have clear advantages for both mother and baby. This goes against earlier beliefs questioning whether women can safely work out while pregnant.

* You have gained a lot of weight before the pregnancy.

Your BMI before pregnancy is crucial to the health of your future child. Research links a mother’s body mass index (BMI) before pregnancy and the metabolic traits of her children. Researchers believe obesity might lead to metabolic disruptions in offspring. Previous research showed a link between obesity in pregnancy and cerebral palsy, epilepsy and other major birth defects.

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