While mothers undoubtedly experience the most drastic changes during pregnancy, there’s a good chance that others will notice their lives changing as well as they prepare for the birth of a baby. Whether you are an expectant mother or a dad-to-be, the information in these tips and tricks will offer valuable insight into pregnancy.

Start taking pregnancy belly pictures early. Many women like to have early pictures to compare against as the months pass. If you turn out not to want them, you don’t have to keep them, but you can’t decide later that you want to keep photographs that you never had taken.

Exercising when you are pregnant is a wonderful choice to make. You want to start out early in your pregnancy, and remain consistent. This will help you lower your risk of a miscarriage, and can also help shorten how long you are in labor, as well as reducing the risk of having any complications.

For first time mothers, babysit for a family member or friend. It never hurts to learn more about how to care of a baby before yours is brought into the world. In addition of learning how to care for a baby, you will know how to properly hold and feed yours.

When you are pregnant and your stomach finally starts expanding go buy yourself some comfortable maternity clothes. Your going to be pregnant for the next several months, so you might as well be comfortable. This also makes sure that you don’t have to keep buying new clothes as you continuously expand.

In order to find the best nutrition for you and your baby during pregnancy, become a label reader. There are many extra chemicals and ingredients that may not be best for your growing baby and reading labels is the way to keep them out of your diet. It just takes a minute to protect your baby.

If you are trying to conceive a baby, be sure to alert your doctor. This will eliminate the chances of them putting you on any medications or running tests that will make it harder for you to conceive or hurt your baby if you are pregnant.

Grab some rubber bands if you want to keep wearing your favorite jeans through your pregnancy. A neat trick is to take a heavy rubber band and put it through the buttonhole in your jeans. Attach both ends of the rubber band to the button and voila, extra space. Wear longer shirts over the jeans to hide the rubber band.

Talk to your baby. Studies have shown that babies do react to touch from ten weeks in the pregnancy. At later stages they can react to light, your voice as well as other sounds. This will bond you and your baby for life, and while they won’t remember any of this, it will definitely help.

Get plenty of pregnancy before, during and after your pregnancy! Exercise lowers your rick of miscarrying, makes your pregnancy easier, results in fewer complications during labor and can even make your labor shorter. Regardless of whether you are already pregnant or you are trying to get pregnant, exercise makes an easier time of the whole experience.

Keep your calcium intake high during pregnancy. Your baby needs the calcium for its development. If you are not giving your body enough calcium, it will leech the calcium it needs from your bones. This will put you at risk for osteoporosis down the road. So make sure you drink that glass of milk in the mornings.

Shift your consumption of water and other fluids to earlier in the day to offset the need to empty your bladder during the night. It is important to stay hydrated but by limiting the amount of liquids consumed within an hour or two before going to bed, you can reduce the number of middle of the night trips to the bathroom.

Before you get pregnant make sure you are up to date on your vaccinations. The most important diseases to be vaccinated for are Rubella and Varicella. These childhood diseases can be harmful to your fetus. Even if you think you were vaccinated but are not sure, it is better to be safe than sorry.

If you have just discovered that you are pregnant, you will have to decide when to tell others. This decision is very personal and will be different for each person. One person will tell everybody on earth before her pregnancy test even turns positive. Another woman may be superstitious, and prefer to wait until she feels her pregnancy is far enough along that she doesn’t feel any problems will arise. Do what feels right to you.

This may be your first pregnancy or even your third or fourth, but the chances are you will find new things to enjoy or experience over the next nine months. Mothers of all experience levels will be able to learn from what they’ve read here and become better parents.

How To Have A Healthy, Happy Pregnancy was originally published on Spring