Investing in your mental wellness is essential since it can impact both your baby and others in your circle. It’s important to focus on your strengths, harmony, balance and a sense of control or autonomy over your health. Sometimes, expertise and additional tools offered by your maternity provider may be valuable in supplementing big emotions that may be impacting your quality of life. If you feel this might be your case, speak to someone you trust and share your concerns with your provider. We’ve also reviewed and compiled reliable resources to offer additional support for you.
Food and Nutrition
Maintaining a healthy and balanced diet is another way in which you can actively help support the growth and development of your baby (and you!). Canada’s Food Guide and Canada’s Food Guide – First Nations, Inuit, and Métis are useful resources to inform your food choices. While they’re not specifically tailored to pregnancy, they offer guidelines, and recommended servings of food groups and highlight some traditional foods such as wild plants, seaweed, dried fish and bannock. These might also inspire you to consider what foods from your culture (or someone else’s) could be healthy options to explore and include. Check out the links to these resources to learn more about healthy food choices during late pregnancy.
Substance Use
If you’re dealing with alcohol and/or drug use during pregnancy, resources are available to help you and your baby. The Families in Recovery (FIR) Program at BC Women’s Hospital offers a specialized program that provides safe and supportive care to pregnant individuals and their families affected by substance use. This program offers a range of services, including addiction treatment, medical care, and social support. To learn more about this and other resources available, visit BC Women’s. Remember, you’re not alone (even if it may sometimes feel that way). Support is available for you and your baby. Explore the resources we’ve selected to spotlight for you. Connecting with your provider can also offer additional valuable support.
Thinking Ahead?
As you get closer and closer to the big day, it’s important to enjoy the present, the process and the present that will soon be delivered (pun intended!). With this arrival, have you considered any special or significant ways you’d like to greet, welcome and/or honour the new addition to your family? Perhaps you’d like to carry your baby in a cradleboard or wrap them in a moss bag; maybe you’ve picked out the soundtrack or specific sacred verse; perhaps there is a naming ritual, exposure to the environment or the sharing of sweets. Whatever your preference is, this is YOUR journey! Sharing these intentions with your maternity provider can help create awareness and advocacy for your wishes.