By Katerina Tiapula
The first trimester can be filled with anxieties, morning sickness, fatigue and other challenging symptoms. On top of all of these you have deadlines, paperwork and people to meet. Perhaps, it can all wait until after you lose your breakfast.
One bit of advice is to find a good support group with some real life solutions. Your mother and friends who also worked through their pregnancies can be a vast wealth of knowledge. Your friends know your style and understand the demands of business maternity wear from good shoes to skirts that don’t constrict the ever growing belly. Take time to look for good maternity wear and under garments for work. You need to be comfortable and feel good. There are many shops that have a good range of sophisticated and comfortable maternity clothing designed for work.
Sometimes the advice from others can be dodgy so do what sounds right for you and be wary of internal remedies without consulting a doctor first.
Meeting deadlines when you are so tired can be difficult. Inform your employer that you are pregnant and then make choices about work that suit your situation. You may want a less strenuous or demanding position during this time. It is better to work things out with your employer at the start of your pregnancy then to have a disgruntled boss throughout.
Organize your work time so that you have peak productivity times and frequent breaks. It really does help but it takes a little getting use to. Your physical energy is being diverted to growing a baby and you need to eat high energy foods and take periodic rests. Sitting for long periods of time can be very difficult on your body. Take breaks where you can stretch and move around a bit. Of course you will still be tired but not frantic about deadlines and honestly, organization is never a bad thing for a mum.
The second and third trimester are filled with growing and changing. Although you won’t be as tired as during the first trimester, you’ll find your body growing in all manner of ways that you may or may not be so happy with. It is normal. It is also normal for colleagues who have no children to be unsure of what to say and when.
Try to be understanding when colleagues start talking to your tummy instead of you. Comments about your ability to function somehow are always being made, irregardless of your work performance. Understand that they are not sure how this incredible change can happen and you can still be a functioning adult. To some, a minor pimple or a bad hair cut throws them off. Again a good friend can share the humor in it all. That can lighten the mood and put it all into perspective.
Massage your legs after a long day and use a cold compress. This will relieve your legs of the strain and help circulation. This also helps with the leg cramps that are frequent to some women during pregnancy.
The best advice of all is to get a bit of exercise to get the blood circulating. Actually set time aside during the week. Pilates, yoga and swimming are great exercises to do while pregnant. There are a lot of yoga studios that offer classes in Singapore now. Swimming is a wonderful exercise that will relieve muscle stress and take the weight off your back. Walking can be difficult in the later stages of pregnancy but up until those last few weeks a walk in the park is perfect for getting fresh air and stretching. Just avoid a new sport or any adventure sports for these few months.
And of course, rest as much as you can. Your body is changing in wonderful amazing ways and it takes a lot of energy to do that. Anyway, you have something very important to contemplate… all those universities to choose from.
