Passport to Pregnancy

The moment the world notices you are pregnant, no one stays a stranger to you! Everyone has advice for a healthy pregnancy and think their advice or tip is the best to follow! :D
There are some really good advices and tips which are really famous and pretty good too. Stop Smoking,Stop Drinking,no stress,no stress,dont life heavy things,see pretty baby pictures, talk good,stay around positive people,etc,etc,etc; Obviously all these are pretty important for a healthy pregnancy.
But I d like to share a few, some might squirm quite a few mothers-to-be. Those who have had a delivery like mine, might agree that no one told them about that and it came a a nasty surprise.
Mine was an assisted delivery with a 3rd degree perineal tear. A perineal tear is tear to the area called perineum between the vagina and the anus.A third-degree tear is a tear in the vaginal tissue, perineal skin, and perineal muscles that extends into the anal sphincter (the muscle that surrounds your anus). That it was painful would be the understatement of the century.
I recovered and now perfectly fine. Though the biggest dissappointment is that most probably my future delivery will have to be cesarean! And that i could have totally avoided this.
So here follows my little tip or an advice to all mother to be's :
1) Kegel exercises: google it up, these are pretty easy exercises to do but is a woman's best friend at this time. Yoga and other pregnancy exercise as suggested by you doctor should be done.
2) Perineum massage: from your seventh month inwards apply a little coconut oil to your perineum area just before bath to give the skin a little flexibility. Its just like applying oil or cream to your tummy to avoid/reduce stretch marks. Its not a proven that doing this totally reduces the possibility of a tear but still it can help.
3) Iron rich diet:  and not just supplements!
4) Walk: When you enter into early stage of labor , walk as much as you can. I know it seems ridiculous to walk through contractions. But it is helpful to reduce the pain and expediate the labor. Again, in my case I wasnt allowed to move an inch and was continously tied to a NST monitor.
5) Resist epidural : yes! I took it! But the problem was as the 'dai' pointed out you really dont get that real urge to push! Epidural is known to prolong labor. But then its difficult i tried hard to resist it but took it in the end.
6) Ask for Enema before labor ! They didnt do it for me and i had the most painful poopies 2-3 hours after labor! (sorry TMI gross)


These were the things that I thought I didnt do during my pregnancy and labor. I might have had a more wonderful experience and enjoyed my baby being born if maybe I had done the above and many other things I am still not aware of. Staying well-informed about the entire process of delivery and birth really helps. Majorly it helps to enjoy the delivery and seeing our little one for the first time.


-Pregnancy is a time to be happy and proud that you are creating something so special inside you.