Working woman and pregnancy

Pregnancy is a stage when we need to give extra care, especially the first pregnancy. The work load, travel and the household chores makes us to neglect the caring side of it. But these are just excuses, a person is always responsible for own health. There are few things that we can always try to ensure both goes hand in hand:

1. Your health is your responsibility, no excuses accepted. We do expect pampering from husband, family, but still we should learn to pamper ourself always.

2. Get external help - if financial status permits you can get a maid to do the dishes and clean the house. If not possible, get the help from your husband or anyone at home. This can be done in rotation.

3. Eat Healthy when in office. Often we tend to eat those yummy dishes in the canteen, but we need to control our taste buds. Be choosy like avoid foods that contain MSG(mono sodium glutamate), too many fried items, etc.

4. Carry something as snacks like nuts, fruits so that you can nibble in breaks. Sometimes we get carried away by work and forget to take snacks.

5. Drink water, drink drink! Ensure you take sips of water in between, even if you are not thirsty.

6. Never sit for long. If your job involves sitting for long hours, you have to be extra cautious. You must get up from your seat every 30 minutes or 1 hour at max and walk around. You can keep an alarm to remind you to get up. You can walk to pantry to take a glass of water, or go to your colleague to talk rather than talking over skype or you can just stand at your desk for sometime.

7. Don't even think about what others think of you. Be yourself and enjoy your baby bump. Don't worry about what others think. Actually there are many out there who give us extra care in lift, buses, etc, enjoy the attention they give! It is not just the family and friends, even strangers do care!

8. At work front, we should always inform our manager about the pregnancy in the first trimester itself. First trimester is a tiring month for many and so we may need rest at times. So it is better to inform your manager. But also ensure the work is done on time.

9. Plan your leaves ahead. Decide on when you will start maternity leave and how long you are planning to go for the leave.

10. Try not to quit your job. Many gets worried on how to handle everything durin and after pregnancy and quit job immediately. Things will unfold on its own. Be confident that you can handle this. Post maternity leave based on your baby and your health, you can decide on sorting the issues on baby care. For now just concentrate on pregnancy and enjoy the phase.

11. Be relaxed and do not take tensions. If there is heavy work load try sharing with others. If no other choice, do not stress yourself or take tensions.

12. Find time for your hobbies or anything that makes you happy like listening to music, watching movies, etc.

13. Find time for walking or mild exercises or stretches. Post lunch you can go for a brisk walk. 

14. Last but not least find time to talk to your baby, find time for just you and baby.

Pregnancy is a beautiful phase in life. Do not treat yourself as a patient, but it is just a phase in life. Inspite of hormonal fluctuations, try to be happy. Laugh at your own more swings. Pamper yourself. Enjoy!!