Recommendations in Early Pregnancy

A good metaphor is to think about yourself as a walking incubator. Incubators keep all the essentials to sustain life constant and stable. They also insulate the baby from the risk of external infection.

My recommendations to minimise the chances of spontaneous miscarriage are listed below.

1.  Keep your own body temperature moderate, not too hot and not too cold, try to keep your own temp at a comfortable level at all times. Don’t sweat or shiver.

2.  Take some exercise but stay well within your comfort zone.

3.  Resist eating cold foods (salads) and also resist eating hot spicy foods (curries or chili rich foods) or physically very hot foods. Follow the current NHS England advice on eating in pregnancy or the BDA Pregnancy and Diet advice.

4.  Get a minimum of 8 hours sleep per night and if you can’t then top up sleep during the day with as many naps as needed.

5.  Take showers in preference to baths and keep the shower temperature above body temperature, but not above comfortably warm and avoid scented soaps or shower gel.

6.  Minimise infection and immune stimulating risks.

• Stay away from poorly children and especially poorly babies.
• Stay away from poorly adults too
• Protect your cervix and uterus from infection risk and immune stimulating sperm antigen by using condoms or a diaphragm or cap for sexual intercourse.
• Be extra diligent in wiping from front to back after bowel movements.

7.  Keep stress physical and mental to a minimum.

8.  Absolutely no alcohol and only one cup of coffee per day for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy (tea is ok and green tea preferable to black tea).

Source Credit: Dr. Trevor A. Wing, The Women’s Natural Health Clinic