 This is Dr. Teji Daavne, consultant, gynecologist and obstetation, Manipal Hospital's Whitefield, Bangalore. The body goes through humongous and a sea of changes, hormonal changes that are going on during pregnancy. Because pregnancy hormones are completely different to the person's body and there may be so many changes but that necessarily may not be for all the ladies at all. So you may experience very different kind of changes which may not be similar to other ladies but every person's body is different and every person's body is unique. So you may experience lot of changes. The changes what you notice will also be physical and a lot of emotional and mental changes. Physically you may have tenderness in breast, a little bit of heaviness of breast. You'll have a little bit of lower back pain, frequency of urination. You'll start having a little bit of stretch marks on your body. Your breast area, the abdominal area starts getting prepared for a baby. So everything, the skin is undergoing lot of changes. You may get a dark black line in the center of your abdominal area, right from your belly button till your vaginal area. So all these are lot of changes. Apart from this, some women may develop some acne and this being physical, the lady also goes through a lot of emotional and psychological changes also. So there may be a little bit of mood swings, you may have irritation, you may be happy at a time, you may be a little depressed, a little worried about your baby. So there are a sea of changes that a lady undergoes. So pregnancy is a very very different state of body and may not be similar for everyone. Also it's very important that you not only cater to your nutritional needs, you also have to cater to the baby's nutritional needs because that is what ultimate priority is, that you taper your diet such that you have and you deliver a healthy baby. Diet plays a very very important role not only during pregnancy but also before pregnancy. So we always recommend and we give a diet plan even when you're planning for pregnancy. What are the diet that you have to allow once you're pregnant? Once is for the baby's growth and for the baby's development, well development, body weight development, we recommend a protein diet. We always give a diet plan here. We are not too much in favour of a lot of over the counter medicines or powders because natural diet is always the best. So we make sure that you take in ample protein consciously in your day, may include soya, may include non-veg if you have, two egg whites on a daily basis, a lot of pulses, sprouts. So there is a lot of mix and match that we give and whatever suits you, whatever you like you can pick and choose. Apart from that, we also focus on the lady's well-being. So we want you to have a lot of green leafy vegetables weekly at least four, five times in a day. We also want you to have cereals, a lot of cereals which provides fibre for the growth as well as your well-being. So that would mean ragi, that would mean oats, millets and a lot of jovar, the bajra and you have to take plenty of fruits every day not to forget three litres of water, mandatory for all pregnant ladies because dehydration and low blood pressure is a very common change that we see. So a golden solution is three litres of liquids. So you can have coconut water, buttermilks, fruit juice, milkshakes, everything. This is what we usually give as an ideal diet. Once you confirm, once you check at home and when there is a urine pregnancy test that comes positive, so that is a sign of elation when the couple is expecting and they realise that they are pregnant. So it's always better that you start seeing the obstetrician the minute you test positive at home or you get to know that you are pregnant or you have skipped your periods because we need to give you a pregnancy plan. We give a plan for entire nine months as to how you are going to what are the blood tests to be done, what is the diet plan, what is the exercise plan. So that will be and that is called as a booking visit. So that is when we explain and we give you an entire plan for nine months what scans, what ultrasounds should be done for your baby, what blood tests should be done and everything. And further after that then we have visits every month scheduled till about 28 weeks of gestation. That is after 28 weeks of gestation we have to meet every two weeks to check for the baby's growth and to check for the baby's heartbeat and the movements and once you enter your ninth month that is the 36 weeks of gestation we check you every week because now body is ready and anytime you may have delivery and the signs of labour so then we need to check you every week to check for you know how close you are and how close you may be to delivering your baby soon. So after your 36 weeks we check you every week to check for the baby well-being and to see for any signs of labour. So delivery is a very complex mechanism. It involves you know earlier days people used to just say okay I went and delivered but nowadays we are looking at healthy outcomes we are looking at healthy babies and giving the optimal outcome for the baby. Baby should be healthy, mother should be healthy. So the planning for delivery starts not just a week before delivery the planning for the delivery starts right from the booking visit when you just have conceived and when you have tested positive. So since then onwards we are preparing for the first three months your body is still getting adjusted to the hormonal changes that are happening in the system so you may take a little longer but after three months we have a set plan here in Manipal that we give. So that will include a diet plan, an exercise chart which you need to follow and then so that body becomes a little more flexible for delivery since we are always targeting normal delivery here and our lifestyles have changed so much so just before delivery you can't expect the body to miraculously have a normal delivery. The preparation for delivery starts from right third fourth month onwards apart from that we have sessions here as you are going towards eight, eight and a half months to prepare you for delivery so that will mean you know what to pack in your delivery bag when you are coming to the hospital it begins from there because everything is new and you don't know what to do and what would happen to you once you come to the hospital so that begins from there and then we would also give you a formula to count movements we explain what is the signs of labour to you how would you know sitting at home that you are getting into labour what is true labour pain, what is false labour pain so every week we meet after eight, eight and a half months every visit we do discuss and we do have a plan and action for delivery so post delivery again is a very crucial period and is a very underrated period people always think okay once delivered the mother can just you know take care of herself and the focus is entirely on the baby but this is where the main mistake happens the mother tends to neglect herself post delivery and everyone around it around her also the focus is entirely on the baby so indirectly you know it starts affecting the mother and the most common infections that we see in the mother are the breast infections because they are not able to feed adequately it is a sudden change where you have to feed the baby every two, three hours and when they are not able to do so the breast milk may get accumulated in the breast and form a hard lump and the breast become heavy and painful so that is one of the common infections second kind of infections what we see is maybe the urinary infections because again they neglect themselves they drink a lot less water than that is required because you are feeding, you are having bleeding, you are having periods you are sweating so everywhere there is water loss and you don't tend to drink as much as water that you need so breastfeeding after delivery should be the only thing that the lady should concentrate on because this is a very new process to the lady so you may be a little confused as to how often when do I breastfeed and all of it the only thumb rule and the only thing you need to remember is every two to three hours initially you have to keep feeding the baby especially on the first two days that you get that watery kind of liquid that is very rich in all the antibodies, it is rich in all the fat it is extremely essential for the baby's immunity development so that is very very good and very essential to be fed to the baby initially you have to wake up the baby if the baby is still asleep every two to three hours you have to wake the baby up and sleep and once you are a little more relaxed and you get used to the routine once you get used to the baby and the baby gets used to you and once you understand the baby a little more then the baby will start crying when it needs so then you switch over to something called as a demand feed that is whenever the baby asks for a feed or whenever the baby is crying for a feed you feed the baby that could be one one and a half hours later or that could be four hours later also but demand feed is what we see or what we recommend after that you have adjusted to the feeding part so sore breast and mastitis is again a very common problem that we notice in the post delivery period this is because the whole process is so new and is so different where you know even if you have heard of experiences unless you experience it and unless you have a baby and unless you are feeding the baby you may not really know how to deal with it one of the most common reasons why you would develop sore nipples is because of wrong positioning so suppose if you are not positioning the baby or holding the baby right while feeding then the baby may tend to you know bite and try to take more milk so that may cause a lot of irritation and that may cause even you know small cuts in the nipple and that is extremely painful and the soreness may lead to more problems and more pain and you don't feel like breastfeeding so the first thing if you are developing sore nipples is you have to focus again and you have to re-correct and correct the posture that you are using to feed the baby apart from this mastitis or heavy breast, engorgement of breast is another very big problem if you are not adequately feeding the baby the breast milk may keep getting accumulated inside and it may form a hard lump and you may have pain and infection so the best thing to do is as soon as you feel a little heaviness of the breast you just start feeding the baby or if the baby is not feeding then what you can do is you can express it so you can keep a hot towel or you can have a hot shower with which the milk gets a little more liquefied and then it is easier to express and then you can either discard the milk or keep it for feeding the baby so mastitis again is a common problem but is very easily manageable if you are regularly and adequately feeding your baby