Pregnancy

A quick note before you dive in

Everything below is general pregnancy guidance, not a substitute for what your own doctor or midwife tells you. Every pregnancy is different, and anything here that doesn’t match what your provider says should defer to them, they know your history, this page doesn’t.

You’re Pregnant

There’s a good chance your brain is already flooded with questions you didn’t know you’d have. That’s normal. Whether this is your first pregnancy or your fourth, the questions rarely stop coming, and we’ve built this section to help answer them as they come up.

Taking Care of Yourself and Your Baby

For forty weeks, your body is doing an enormous amount of quiet, constant work. There’s a lot within your control that makes a real difference for both of you, and a lot that’s just about knowing what’s coming.

What You Might Feel

Nausea in the early weeks, breasts that suddenly feel tender and heavier, stretch marks showing up on skin that’s stretching faster than it’s used to, backaches and leg aches as you carry more weight than usual. Mood swings are common too, some days better than others. All of that falls within normal range. If low moods stick around constantly rather than coming and going, that’s worth telling your doctor, not something to push through alone. Our Signs and Symptoms of Pregnancy page goes into more depth on what’s typical.

Finding the Right Care Provider

If you’re pregnant, or thinking about it, having a doctor or midwife you actually trust matters more than people expect going in. Early, consistent prenatal care is one of the biggest factors in a healthy pregnancy, and that relationship works better when you feel comfortable asking this person anything. Our guide to picking the right caregiver walks through what to look for.

Prenatal Visits and Testing

Expect monthly visits for most of your pregnancy, then more frequent ones over the last eight weeks or so. Each visit usually includes a weight check, a blood pressure check, and a urine test, partly to watch for preeclampsia, a pregnancy specific blood pressure condition that your care team is trained to catch early. You’ll likely get at least one ultrasound too, a painless scan that checks your baby’s growth and helps confirm your due date, along with blood tests and screenings at specific points to check for certain genetic conditions. Our tests during pregnancy pages break down what’s typically done in each trimester.

Eating for Two, Sort Of

The phrase “eating for two” oversells it. You don’t need to double your food, you need to eat well. Skip the diet mentality entirely, pregnancy is not the time for it, your body needs steady fuel to build another human being.

Extra calories aren’t actually needed in the first trimester at all. In the second, plan on roughly 340 more calories a day, and in the third, about 450 more, give or take depending on your size and activity level. Spread that across real food, fruits and vegetables, whole grains, protein from meat, fish, eggs, nuts, or beans, and dairy, rather than one giant extra meal.

A prenatal multivitamin covers a lot of the gap, especially for folic acid, aim for 400 mcg a day, which has been shown to lower the risk of certain birth defects called neural tube defects. Some situations call for more, so ask your doctor what dose makes sense for you specifically. Drink plenty of fluids too, six to eight glasses a day between water, milk, and juice, and keep caffeine under about 200 mg a day, roughly what’s in a 12 ounce cup of coffee.

How much weight you should gain depends heavily on your weight before pregnancy, so that’s a conversation for your doctor rather than a single number that applies to everyone. Both too little and too much weight gain can affect your baby, which is exactly why that’s tracked at every visit. Our nutrition chart and serving size guide go deeper on exactly what a day of eating well looks like.

Staying Active

Pregnancy isn’t the moment to start training for anything, but staying reasonably active helps almost everyone feel better and can make labor a bit easier too. If you weren’t exercising much before, a simple daily walk is a solid place to begin, started slowly rather than all at once. Ask your doctor what’s appropriate for you before starting anything new, and stop immediately if anything hurts.

A Few Things Worth Checking With Your Doctor About

Skip douching entirely while you’re pregnant, it’s not necessary and can disrupt things that are working fine on their own. Hot tubs and saunas are worth avoiding too, since raising your core body temperature isn’t considered safe for your baby, especially earlier in pregnancy.

Sex is generally fine right up until labor starts, unless your doctor has told you otherwise because of bleeding, pain, or a specific complication they’re watching.

Most healthy pregnant women can keep working right up until labor, though it’s worth flagging to your doctor if your job involves chemicals or other substances that need special caution.

Medication is the one area to be genuinely careful about. Check with your doctor before taking anything, including things you can buy without a prescription like pain relievers. The FDA specifically advises against NSAIDs, ibuprofen and aspirin among them, from 20 weeks of pregnancy onward, since they’ve been linked to low amniotic fluid later in pregnancy. Acetaminophen is generally considered the safer everyday option, but even that’s worth running by your doctor for your specific situation.

Nine months is a long time to spend not knowing what’s normal, so hopefully this gives you a place to start. Explore the topics above as questions come up, and check out our Ultimate Breastfeeding Guide whenever you’re ready to think about what comes after delivery.

Sources:

• Folic Acid Recommendations – CDC
• Health Tips for Pregnant Women – NIDDK
• FDA Recommends Avoiding NSAIDs in Pregnancy at 20 Weeks or Later
• Weight Gain During Pregnancy – ACOG