Health Tips To Avoid Infections During Pregnancy

It is a fact that women are highly vulnerable to infections whenever they are pregnant. As a result of this fact, you should take extra precautions to ensure your safety during this period. Stressing the importance of making healthy choices during this phase of life, below are some health tips to avoid infections during pregnancy which you can adopt and stay safe.

Also read: How to stay healthy in your 18th week of pregnancy

10 Important Health Tips To Avoid Infections During Pregnancy

1. Wash your hands often

From your daily activities and the way you lay your hands on different objects, you can easily pick up germs during the process. By eating foods with that same unwashed hands, then you might be predisposing yourself to various food contamination. To avoid such infections or contaminations, simply wash your hands with soaps more often, especially when you want to handle foods with it.

2. Cook meat until it is well done

Meats can get contaminated during the process of butchering or by different handlers. Apart from this, there are also some other microorganisms that might be living inside the meat you buy from the market. To keep yourself safe from any of these meat contaminants, simply cook your meat properly until it is well done. But subjecting it to severe heat during cooking, all microorganisms in it will eventually die off. This is one good health tips to avoid infections during pregnancy for women that loves eating meat.

3. Avoid unpasteurized milk

Pasteurisation is simply the heat treatment of a perishable food (e.g milk) to destroy heat-sensitive vegetative cells. The process is followed by immediate cooling to limit the growth of the surviving cells and germination of spores. Though some sets of people love to consume raw unpasteurized milk, it is wise to stay away from such milk while you are pregnant. It is safer to consume milk that have been freed from all forms of microorganisms than a raw one which you are not sure of its hygiene.

Also read: 6 amazing health benefits of raw milk

4. Get tested for Group B Streptococcus

Group B Streptococcus is a dangerous bacterium, but it may not make you feel sick even when it lives inside your body. In order words, such infection can be asymptomatic. You should get tested for the bacterium and evicts its presence from your system so as to remain safe during pregnancy. 

5. Discuss with your doctor about recommended vaccinations

During pregnancy, before you get administered with any form of vaccine, always discuss the issue with your doctor and stick to the recommended ones.

6. Get tested for Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI)

It is a must for you to get tested for any sexually transmitted infections when you a pregnant. This is because such infections will not only harm your reproductive organ, it can go as far as causing harm to the foetus in your womb. Many pregnant women thought testing for HIV infection is enough, you should also test for other STI as recommended by your doctor.

Must read: Progression of HIV infection in the human body

7. Avoid people who have an infection

Since most infections are transferred from person to person, you should simply avoid people that are already suffering from one infection or another. You don't want to get yourself vulnerable while you are pregnant.

8. Protect yourself against insects that can easily transmit disease

You should protect yourself from all insects that are vectors to various types of diseases. If you choose not to sleep under an insecticide treated nets, then simple spray your environments (even your rooms) with insecticide spray. By doing this, you will be keeping all forms of insects which are carriers of diseases at bay.

9. Stay away from rodents, lizards, and turtles or their droppings

Since allergy is a very common experience during pregnancy, you should stay away from anything that can create. Avoid most of your pets and try not to come close to their droppings too.

10. Only take vitamins in doses recommended by your doctor

The dangers of self medication cannot be overemphasized. Most times, people abuse drugs by taking wrong doses due to self medication. The risk might even get worst while you are pregnant. To keep yourself safe, always stick to the right dosage as recommended by your doctor.

These are 10 important health tips to avoid infections during pregnancy. If you know a pregnant mother that is breaking any of these rules, you can as well do her good by passing this message across.