Prevention and Safety for Pregnant Women

When you’re pregnant, the body changes significantly to cater to the life that is about to be born. The body becomes unbalanced due to the softened ligaments and the increasing weight of a growing baby. Your posture changes and you shift to keep your center of gravity. Falls and accidents can happen and with all the changes in your body you might not be able to counter it as well as you can with the bump in the way. In general, taking care of yourself when you are pregnant is the utmost importance to a healthy baby.

Pregnant women have a particularly higher risk for car accidents, falling sick and falling down. And like many diseases, prevention is better than cure.

This may surprise many readers, but pregnant women have a higher chance of getting into a car accident. A study that received the top research honor from the Canadian Medical Association Journal show that pregnancy is associated with higher risk of a serious motor accident (especially in the second trimester)[1]. This is because pregnancy causes many physiological and lifestyle changes that may result in more driving and driving error.

Also, a study done on pregnant women in vehicles conclude that accidents with minor maternal injury does not necessarily mean that the fetus is safe — the fetus can still sustain major injury when the mother is unharmed due to the impact and other factors[2]. With so many risks, it may be better to limit time on the road and have someone drive you instead. If that’s not feasible, consider spending…