Avoid standing or sitting with your legs crossed for long periods of time.
Rotate your ankles and wiggle your toes when you do sit down.
Stretch your calf muscles several times before you go to bed: Straighten your leg, heel first, and gently flex your ankles and toes.
Relax the cramp by massaging the muscle or warming it [...]
There are a few things you can do to keep your hands and feet from swelling during pregnancy:
Elevate your feet when possible. Keep a stool under your desk or table to put your feet up and lie on your left side when possible.
Drink enough water. Keeping hydrated helps your body retain less water.
Exercise! Walking, swimming [...]
Pre-eclampsia is swelling that happens suddenly, characterised by high blood pressure. It can be accompanied by rapid weight gain in the second half of pregnancy, and protein in the urine. Pre-eclampsia can be mild or severe and it can’t be cured, but it can be managed.
It can be dangerous for your unborn baby, since it [...]
Kegels are exercises you can do to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles. Those are the muscles that support your urethra, bladder, uterus, and rectum. Kegels also improve circulation to your rectal and vaginal area, helping to avoid hemorrhoids and speeding healing after an episiotomy or tear during childbirth.
This is how you do it:
Lie on your [...]
This depends on your body mass index (BMI) before you conceived.
If your pre-pregnancy weight was in the healthy range (a BMI of 18.5 to 24.9), you should gain between 11.3 and 15.9 kilograms, gaining 0.9 to 2.3 kilograms in the first trimester and a little less than half a kilo per week for the rest [...]
This is caused by your hormones. With some women the hair is quite dark, whereas for others it is light peach colored. Don’t worry, after the birth of your baby it will go back to normal.
It is called the linea negra. This is the dark line from your pubic bone to your belly button and is caused by hormones. It will disappear after birth.
Physical touch is a powerful healing tool. It can convey comfort and love, but can also alleviate pains. Benefits of massage may include: less stress, better blood and lymph circulation which can reduce swelling, eases labor pain, enhancement of the pliability of the skin and underlying tissues and relief from lower back, neck and leg [...]
This is the fatty substance on baby’s skin, which is still present at birth. Vernix forms around week 20 of the pregnancy.
This is the dark line from your pubic bone to your belly button and is caused by hormones. It will disappear after birth.
