Winter Pregnancy – Advantages, Disadvantages, and Tips
Although planning can go well or badly, many women think about when to conceive a child to make the pregnancy coincide with a specific time of year. Why? For professional reasons, for advantages to request maternity leave or even for whatever season. Specifically, a high percentage of future moms choose their gestation period mostly during the winter to avoid enduring the high summer temperatures with an incipient belly.
If you are now expecting a child, whatever your case, whether you have planned it or not, you should know everything that it means to stay in condition and carry out the pregnancy in the coldest season of the year.
Advantages of Winter Pregnancy
You always have to try to see things positively. Therefore, to be as comfortable as possible pregnant during the winter, you have to be aware of all the benefits this season brings.
Although most couples plan pregnancy, many arrive when they arrive. But it is not the same to get pregnant during the winter as it is in the summer. In fact, getting pregnant in the winter has quite a few advantages:
You avoid the extreme heat of summer: As already mentioned, indisputably, the main aspect in favor is that you do not have to face the high temperatures of summer with a nascent belly.
Each season has pros and cons when it comes to getting pregnant. Even so, and if we choose February or March to start the pregnancy, that is, the last two months of the season, the final stretch of pregnancy will be between October and November. A few months in which we will avoid the high temperatures of July and August, the highest of the year, and the typical discomforts of pregnancy, such as fluid retention, which are aggravated by the heat, will not be so pronounced.In the same way, it must be taken into account that when the weather is cooler, the future mother will find it more difficult to suffer symptoms such as dizziness or fluid retention. Precisely concerning the latter, it is more strange that there are severe swelling problems of the legs and ankles in the middle of winter.
Of course, it should not be forgotten that winter makes it easier for women to exercise, be fit, and have their weight under control without the risk of fainting.
Dressing for maternity is more complicated than summer. Considering that you have to bundle up, you get the opportunity to try on-trend winter maternity dresses.
It should also be emphasized that spending most of the pregnancy on these months allows you to fall asleep better. For the women who carry their baby in summer, the growth of their fetus is affected as the high temperature is the enemy of resting properly.
Recover the body from before: if the pregnancy occurs in winter, more months will be left for the summer, and you will have more time to recover. However, recovery is a biological process.
Stronger bones and muscles: the months when the baby develops in the womb are crucial in the child’s health. If pregnancy occurs between February and March, gestation happens during the summer, when there are fewer chances of getting vitamin D from the sun. Vitamin D plays a vital role in absorbing calcium for strong bones and muscles in the baby.
Children with better eyesight: According to the experts, myopia is related to birth, and children born in summer experience more visually impaired – a fact that could be related to the children’s exposure to natural light!
Disadvantages of Winter Pregnancy
For the woman who wants to plan her pregnancy, to do it correctly, it is also essential that she take into consideration what are the negative aspects of the gestation period passing during the coldest season, among which are these:
- It goes without saying that in winter, specifically at Christmas, there are countless meetings, business lunches, party favors, and family dinners. The pregnant woman at this time cannot eat many of the foods. She will also not be able to drink alcohol, and even, depending on her state of pregnancy; she will not be able to hold out the many hours from party to party.
- During the winter season, it is easier to get a cough and cold. This situation cannot be medicated easily because that may cause severe damage to the baby.
Tips for a Safe and Healthy Winter Pregnancy
Just as it is necessary to know the pros and cons of facing a pregnancy in winter, it is essential to know a series of recommendations that can help carry it in the best possible way in those months. Specifically, these are the most effective, simple, and, above all, useful tips that future moms who are in the middle of their gestation period should take into account:
- To avoid catching a cold, you must eat a healthy, nutritious, and balanced diet, giving special prominence to fruits and vegetables. This will ensure you’re perfectly hydrated and, in a particular way, your defenses are reinforced.
- In the same way, in that diet, you should also include foods with adequate iron levels since this mineral is essential for the body to function perfectly. This will prevent anemia and reduce symptoms such as permanent tiredness.
- In the same way, you should take advantage of the holidays in these months with your partner to carry out the entire set of preparations that the baby’s arrival requires. Together, you will be able to undertake the preparation in a faster way, from choosing the baby’s clothes to the decoration of the room or the preparation of the basket. All this without overlooking the fact that it should also be used to prepare food together that will later be frozen because when the child is born, there will hardly be time to get into the kitchen.
- The pregnant woman must take special care of her back during the winter, which can be sore due to a strain on the joints of her lower back and pelvis. Therefore, nothing is better than taking a lukewarm bath to relieve pain.