What Is a Healthy Pregnancy?
Before we offer advice on how to ensure a healthy pregnancy, let's first define what a healthy pregnancy is.
A healthy pregnancy is one in which you stay physically and emotionally well throughout your journey. Our guidelines for a healthy pregnancy below can help prevent health problems that threaten your health and your baby's health.
Health problems that can occur during pregnancy include:
- Giving birth before 37 weeks (preterm birth).
- Congenital disabilities.
- High blood pressure during pregnancy (preeclampsia).
- High blood sugar during pregnancy (gestational diabetes).
These pregnancy-related health problems can harm your health or your baby's health. Not all pregnancy problems are preventable by your actions, but some are. Here's our guide to a healthy pregnancy.
What Are Pregnancy Dos and Don'ts?
To make sure your pregnancy is as healthy as possible, follow these pregnancy dos and don'ts. They can also help protect your baby from toxins or infections that could hurt their development.
What you should do during Pregnancy
- Do take prenatal vitamins with 0.4 mg (or 400 mcg) of folic acid throughout your pregnancy. Research shows this can prevent some congenital disabilities. Ideally, you should start prenatal vitamins when you're planning to get pregnant.
- Do wear your seatbelt every time, positioning it below your belly. During pregnancy, your seat belt protects you and your baby from injury.
- Do take pregnancy, childbirth, and newborn care classes. These classes offer expert advice and prepare you for what to expect so you can feel more reassured. They're also a great opportunity to meet other pregnant people who may be going through similar challenges.
- Do tell your health care provider about any medicines or natural health products, such as supplements, you take. Your provider can ensure that they are safe for pregnancy.
- Do check with your doctor before taking any new medicines, including over-the-counter medicines.
- Do limit stress. Say no to extra work demands. Go on calming walks, and try yoga or meditation if you're feeling anxious.
- Do get enough sleep. Aim for 6 to 9 hours every night. You may need more sleep than usual if you're up a lot in the night to pee or reposition yourself due to pregnancy-related discomfort.
- Do attend your routine prenatal visits. This way, your health provider can recognize early warning signs before a health problem threatens your health or your baby's health.
- Do get vaccines recommended during pregnancy, including the flu shot, the COVID vaccine, and the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine. You're at a higher risk of getting very sick from respiratory infections when you're pregnant. These infections can also harm your fetus. Vaccines during pregnancy help you and your baby stay healthy.
- Do take steps to avoid foodborne illness. (See our guide to eating well during pregnancy below).
- Do let your other health providers, including your dentist, know you're pregnant. This way, they can avoid procedures and treatments that may not be safe for pregnancy.
What to avoid during pregnancy
- Don't consume more than 200mg of caffeine, which is about the amount in one 12-ounce cup of coffee. Too much caffeine in pregnancy can increase your risk of miscarriage, low birth weight, and other fetal health problems. In addition to coffee and tea, various cold drinks may contain caffeine, so check the label.
- Don't take ibuprofen (Advil or Motrin), aspirin, or naproxen (Alleve) during pregnancy. Acetaminophen (Tylenol) is safe in pregnancy, but you should take the smallest dose you need to treat your pain. Do not exceed 4 g of acetaminophen in 24 hours.
- Do avoid exposure to pesticides, lead, and mercury.
- Don't smoke or vape tobacco or marijuana, drink alcohol, or use illegal drugs during your pregnancy. If you face addiction or substance use challenges, tell your pregnancy health provider. They can help you to quit and connect you to support groups. If you use opioids, your provider can connect you to opioid replacement therapy that is safer for you and your baby.
- Don't handle cat feces. It can cause an infection called toxoplasmosis that could be harmful to a fetus. Ask someone else to clean the litter box. The parasite that causes toxoplasmosis lives in dirt, so make sure to wash your vegetables and your hands well after gardening.
- Don't expose yourself to dangerous chemicals, like cleaning solvents and secondhand cigarette smoke. At home, use cleaning products labeled natural or nontoxic. If your workplace involves industrial chemicals, let your workplace know you are pregnant so they can accommodate you.
- Don't use hot tubs, take hot baths, use saunas, or take hot yoga classes. High temperatures can be harmful to the fetus.
- Don't get x-rays, CT scans, or other tests that use radiation when you're pregnant.
- Don't lie flat on your back in the third trimester if it's uncomfortable. Your body will tell you what positions to avoid while pregnant.
Eating Well During Pregnancy
It's especially important to eat well during pregnancy. Food provides the nutrients your baby needs to grow healthy and strong.
Aim for a balanced diet rich in fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and healthy proteins, like lean meat, tofu, beans, and legumes. Limit highly processed foods, which often are high in fat, sugar, and salt and low in nutrients.
Fish contains many nutrients that support a baby's brain development, including omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals. But you should avoid eating certain ocean fish, as they are high in mercury. Exposure to high amounts of mercury can cause cerebral palsy and other developmental problems.
Fish high in mercury include:
- King mackerel.
- Marlin.
- Orange roughy.
- Shark.
- Swordfish.
- Tilefish from the Gulf of Mexico.
- Bigeye tuna.
You can consult the Food and Drug Administration guidelines on which types of fish are safe for pregnancy.
You should also avoid eating a lot of processed meat, which contains nitrates. Examples include bacon and hot dogs. Research has linked excessive nitrate consumption to preterm labor and other health complications.
If you frequently vomit or feel nauseated from morning sickness, it can be more challenging to ensure you're getting the nutrients you need. Try eating six small meals instead of three large meals, as this can help you keep food down.
If your morning sickness lasts into the second trimester, you may have hyperemesis gravidarum. This extreme, persistent nausea and vomiting continues throughout pregnancy and can lead to dehydration.
If you have severe morning sickness at any point in pregnancy, talk to your pregnancy care provider.
Avoiding foodborne illnesses in pregnancy
In addition to eating a healthy diet and avoiding toxins, you should avoid foods that are more likely to carry bacteria or parasites.
Due to immune system changes during pregnancy, pregnant people are at greater risk of becoming very sick from foodborne illnesses, which can also harm fetuses.
Take the following precautions to avoid foodborne illness:
- If you eat deli meats (cold cuts), heat them to 165°F to kill any bacteria that may be present.
- Cook all meat products, including fish, chicken, pork, and beef, to a safe internal temperature. Ground meats should be cooked to 160°F; chicken and other poultry to 165°F; and fresh meat steaks, chops, and roasts to 145°F.
- Don't consume unpasteurized milk or other dairy products.
- Avoid feta, brie, blue cheese, and other soft cheeses unless the package states that the milk has been pasteurized.
- Avoid raw sprouts, like alfalfa and bean sprouts.
- Always wash fruits and vegetables before consuming them, including lettuce and greens.
- Don't eat cut, peeled, or cooked fruit or vegetables left out at room temperature for over two hours.
- Avoid eating raw or undercooked eggs. Ensure there is no runny part of the egg.
- Avoid raw fish and shellfish, including sushi, ceviche, and raw oysters.
Exercising and Avoiding Injury During Pregnancy
Exercise during pregnancy helps you de-stress and supports healthy weight gain in pregnancy. Research shows that moderate exercise when you're pregnant can lower your risk of gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, and other health problems.
If you exercised before you got pregnant, you should be able to continue exercising. But talk to your health provider about whether you should adjust your fitness routine.
If you weren't routinely exercising before pregnancy, talk to your doctor about how to introduce light exercise. Swimming, light jogging, walking, and yoga are usually safe during pregnancy.
Yoga positions you should avoid while pregnant include deep twists that compress the belly, inversions that place your hips over your head, and lying flat on your back if it bothers you.
In general, you want to avoid sports where someone could accidentally push or hit you with a ball, like soccer or basketball. You should also avoid exercises where you could fall, like ice skating or downhill skiing.
Your doctor may recommend not exercising during pregnancy if you have certain risks or health problems.
Doctors may suggest you avoid exercise, or some forms of exercise, if:
- You have a heart or lung condition.
- You are at a high risk of preterm birth.
- You have cervical insufficiency, or a weakened cervix.
- You have placenta previa in the second or third trimester.
- You have preeclampsia.
Preventing injury in pregnancy
In pregnancy, the hormone relaxin loosens your ligaments so they can stretch to accommodate the baby. However, stretched muscles and ligaments can be more prone to injury.
Plus, when you're carrying extra belly weight, any added strain on your back can cause pain. A shift in your center of gravity can make you more likely to lose your balance.
To prevent injury in pregnancy:
- Don't lift heavy objects, especially later in your pregnancy.
- When you pick something up from the floor, bend at the knees rather than the waist.
- Avoid standing for more than three hours at a time, as this puts extra strain on your back.
- Wear supportive shoes. (Avoid wearing high heels, especially later in pregnancy).
- Sleep on your side, with a pillow between your knees, to keep your spine in a neutral position.
- Talk to your health provider if you experience muscle or nerve pain in pregnancy.
When To Seek Help
Even if you're following all the dos and don'ts of a healthy pregnancy, problems can still arise. Seek medical care right away if you experience any of the following symptoms:
- A headache that won't go away or gets worse over time.
- Blurred vision.
- Chest pain or a fast heartbeat.
- Difficulty breathing.
- Dizziness or feeling faint.
- Extreme swelling in your hands and face.
- Fever above 100°F.
- Leaking large amounts of clear fluid from the vagina.
- Reduced fetal movements.
- Swelling, redness, or warmth in one leg.
- Thoughts of harming yourself.
- Unusual or severe cramps.
- Vaginal bleeding.
- Vomiting that lasts more than 24 hours.
Resources For Your Pregnancy
By UPMC Editorial Staff. Last reviewed on 2024-09-05.
