The Top 10 Tips Pregnant Women Need to Know

The first book in the Mommy MD Guides series, The Mommy MD Guide to Pregnancy and Birth, is filled with more than 900 tips that 60 doctors who are also mothers use during their own pregnancies and births. Photo: Getty Images

Starting a Pregnancy Journal or Scrapbook

With my daughter, I kept a baby book. I carefully recorded my thoughts and experiences, such as stories about my baby shower. When I was pregnant with my two sons, instead of a baby book, I blogged about my experiences online. This began as a way for me to convey my thoughts and experiences to my husband, who’s an Army surgeon and was deployed. But I kept up my blog even after my husband got home because I enjoyed it so much. —Lezli Braswell, MD, a mom of one daughter and two sons and a family medicine physician currently working in an emergency room fast track in Columbus, GA

Weaning Off the Bean

In preparation for getting pregnant, I was careful to be as healthy as possible. For example, prior to getting pregnant, I had been drinking quite a lot of coffee. Before I started trying to get pregnant, I cut back to one cup a day. I couldn’t get down to zero, but I did cut back significantly. —Siobhan Dolan, MD, MPH, a mom of three, a consultant to the March of Dimes, and an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology and women’s health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, NY

Choosing a Doctor or a Midwife

Obstetricians delivered all three of my babies. I think it’s very important to take the time to find an obstetrician who’s really a good match for you. You want to find someone you’re comfortable with and who shares your philosophies about birth. The relationship between a woman and her obstetrician is very special. For myself I chose an obstetrician in solo practice, rather than a doctor in a group practice. It was very important to me to know who was going to deliver my babies. Pregnancy is such a special time, and I really enjoyed the relationships I had with my obstetricians. I think that when you know and trust your doctor, you’ll be much calmer in the delivery room. —Ayala Laufer-Cahana, MD, a pediatrician, mother, artist, serious home cook, and the founder of Herbal Water Inc., in Wynnewood, PA

Coping With Morning Sickness

With both of my pregnancies, I had terrible morning sickness. It was bad with my daughter, but with my twins it was unrelenting. I think that was because with twins, you have double the amount of hormones. My nausea was so bad that I had to take prescription medication for it. I didn’t want to, but I had to be able to function on some level. I had an especially rough time when riding in a car. I found that Sea-Band wrist bands helped. It helped a lot if I was the driver, and I refused to ride in the backseat! —Kelly Campbell, MD, a mom of three and an ob-gyn in private practice at Women’s Healthcare Physicians in West Bloomfield, MI

Cooling the (Heart) Burn

During my second pregnancy, I had a lot of heartburn. All I could eat was white foods, such as potatoes, toast, and eggs. Because I had so much heartburn, everyone said the baby would have tons of hair. Turns out when she was born, she had about two strands on her head. —Erika Schwartz, MD, a mom of two and the director of www.DrErika.com, who’s been in private practice for more than 30 years in New York City, specializing over the past 15 years in women’s health, disease prevention, and bioidentical hormones

Enjoying Sex During Pregnancy

Before I got pregnant, my husband and I had a healthy sex life. We had a lot of sex while I was pregnant too. In fact, we had sex the morning my water broke. We just found ways to make it happen. Sex was relaxing for me and lovely for him. It’s good to bank up a lot of “credit,” because after the baby comes, you won’t be able to have sex for a while. —JJ Levenstein, MD, FAAP, a mom of one son in college and a pediatrician in private practice in Southern California

Considering Cord Blood Banking

My husband and I decided to bank each of our children’s cord blood. We thought we would do that just in case something happened. Researchers are finding more and more applications for stem cells, so I think that in the future cord blood might be even more useful. It’s like life insurance. —Dianna K. Kim, MD, a mom of three and an ob-gyn in private practice in Vernon Hills, IL, at the Midwest Center for Women’s Healthcare

Preventing and Treating Back Pain

During my pregnancy, I wore one of those belly support bands. You can buy them at maternity stores for around $25. You can wear them under or over your clothes. The bands definitely help with back pain. When I wore mine, I felt that I could move quicker and easier. That was a must for long nights at the hospital. —Nancy Thomas, MD, a mom of a 22-month-old son who practices general obstetrics and gynecology in Covington, LA, with Ochsner Health System

Minimizing Swelling

I had horrible swelling toward the end of my pregnancies. My cankles had cankles. I was so swollen that I couldn’t fit into any dress shoes, so I simply wore tennis shoes or clogs with everything. Also, socks with elastic at the top left deep, painful impressions in my calves. Instead, I wore soft fuzzy socks that didn’t have any elastic on top. And just forget the panty hose. That’s crazy! These days, I see pregnant women wearing tighter clothing than they used to. I think it’s great that women are proud of their baby bumps and not hiding their pregnancies under tents! But fashion isn’t more important than comfort. During my pregnancies, I lived in sweats and stretch pants when I was at home. And at work I wore scrubs, which are great because they have expanding drawstring waistbands. —Rallie McAllister, MD, MPH, a mom of three sons, family physician, and coauthor of The Mommy MD Guide to Pregnancy and Birth

Thinking About Pain Control Options in Labor

. I think these days, people try so hard to plan ahead that they get locked into decisions. For example, a lot of people think it’s bad to have an epidural. I tried very hard not to make any decisions about my labor ahead of time. I had some guidelines about what I thought I might want, but nothing was set in stone. Make a plan, but be prepared for it to fall apart! For example, you might vow not to have an epidural, and sure you could have a three-hour-long labor and not need one. But on the other hand, you could have been awake for 20 hours, labored for 23 hours, and then pushed for 4 hours, and be totally exhausted. Somewhere back there, you probably should have had an epidural! —Susan Schreiber, MD, a mom of a son and daughter in their twenties and a pediatrician in Los Angeles, CA

Add a CommentComments

There are no comments yet. Be the first one and get the conversation started!

The Top 10 Tips Pregnant Women Need to Know