First time seeing two lines appearing on your pregnancy test and you still cannot believe it’s happening? If you are a first time mum just like me, I totally understand the situation could be a chaos. Thousands of questions would pop in your mind like “What do I need to prepare now?”, “Do I need to book a check up?”, “Should I stop drinking?”. I FEEL YOU!

Thank God for the multiple friends around me who are also first time mum and just labour, they have offered me excellence advice on Dos and Don’ts! Here is the list of 5 things you should be preparing right after you discovered you are pregnant. Everything on the list is proven by consolidated feedbacks from a few first time mums just like us!*

1: Book your first pregnancy check and learn about the T21 test
As soon as you learn about your pregnancy, the next step is to understand if your fetus is healthy and your expected date. According to research, there is a thin chance for baby to implant outside the womb (and you would still have a positive sign during pregnancy test). Thus to ensure you would have a happy and healthy baby born, go ahead booking a GP or Obstetrician to confirm as soon as possible.

Book a GP around your neighbourhood is a good start. The GP would provide a doctor certificate to confirm your pregnancy and refer you to an Obstetrician.

Your regular check with an Obstetrician should be once per month. During the first or second booking with your Obstetrician, you would go through ultrasound scanning which would be the your first time seeing your baby! If you have your checking on Week 7 onwards, there is a high chance you would be seeing your baby’s heartbeat as well. Isn’t it amazing?

On Week 10 to 12 onwards, your Obstetrician could advice you to perform a blood testing called T21. This is to check if your baby has any heart defect, chromosomal abnormality or other health issues. A healthy baby would have less than 1 in 300 probability if he or she is developing healthily. This T21 test as of today is about 99% accuracy. Child with T21 positive might experience mild to moderate intellectual delays, or limitations on free limbs movement. Of course, the child could also be developed and lead to a fulfilling life. You could make your judgement call more clearly after you gathered enough information before Week 12-15.

2. Blackmores Pregnancy and Breast Feeding Gold
This is a supplement contains vital 17 important nutrients for mother and fetus including folic acid, DHA and calcium.

Folic Acid: Essential for fetal brain nervous system and spinal cord development. It also promotes key nutrients to babt, manufacture of red blood cells and strengthening the immune system.
Iodine: Baby’s brain, visual and hearing development
Iron: Prevent risk of low birth weight and iron deficiency

3. Proven Pregnancy Probiotics
While no one seems want to talk about it, constipation is commonly seen during pregnancy. To avoid this situation, basic elements such as 8 glasses of water per day, absorbing Fiber via Oats, green vegetables and fruits such as Dragon Fruit and Oranges are the rule of thumbs. However if you are still experiencing a slow bowel movement, healthy supplement of probiotics is your trusted go to.

Myself has constipation issues even before pregnant. Before pregnancy I usually use Chinese Herbs medicine to help relieve my situation. After pregnancy. while there are a wide selection of choices in the market, I particularly prefer ProVen Pregnancy Probiotics because it has special formulated probiotics for pregnancy, clinically proven to ensure safety for pregnancy as well as reduction of allergies in babies.

After taking 2 times of it, I could already feel my bowel movement becomes smoother with once per day result, plus the intake of fiber. If you have no idea of which supplement that is suitable for you, consider ProVen to start with!

4. Clarins Beautiful Pregnancy Set of 3
Since you are pregnant now, all the skincare or makeup products you are using from now onwards should be as natural base as possible! Stay away from chemicals such as hair dye or second hand smoking are important elements to keep yourself and the baby healthy and safe.

While myself is working in the beauty industry, it has been almost 10 years for me haven’t had purchased ANY skincare before. (Thanks to the amazing policy from my company!) However since I have pregnant, I started to switch my routine with more naturally developed products such as the Clarins Pregnancy Set of 3! This set is target to help your body feels hydrated and nurtured, preventing the possibility of stretch marks happening during pregnancy.

In this set you would find:
Body Partner Stretch Mark Expert 175ml
Exfoliating Body Scrub 200ml
Tonic Treatment Oil 100ml

I would place the Body Scrub right beside my shower and use it 3 to 4 times per week. The amazing thing is this scrub comes with a natural fragrance of Bamboo powder, the scrub is so finely made and you would not feel any toughness and dehydration after scrubbing!

Secondly I would be using the Treatment Oil after shower, mainly pad around my belly to ensure my skin has enough hydration and nutrients to protect the tissues. A water and oil balance skin would also be able to reflect healthy natural glow, leading to less possibility of stretch marks happening!

Last step is using the Body Partner Cream on ankles, knees and other areas of my body to keep them smooth and smelling nice also.

5. Rule of thumb – stay far from your favourite booze!
Before pregnancy, I need to confess myself is a regular drinker – almost a sip daily. Red and Whisky are my partners in crime! If you are like me, you may feel immense fear of the needs to completely clean for coming 10 months. Here is a good news and one key point on why you need to stay away from your booze!

Let’s start with the good news, during pregnancy, your body hormones would change. You would find it magically somehow you no longer lure or crave for alcohol! This happens to me during my pregnancy before Week 8. Thus rest assure, it might take less effort than you think on breaking up with your Oban!

The reason you should stay away from booze is your baby rely on absorbing nutrients from your blood before Week 12. Naturally you can logically deduce that when we drink, the drinks would quickly infused into our blood and thus directly transferring alcohol to our baby. The fetus is unable to absorb any alcohol and hence creating tremendous damage to the baby! It could affect his or her brain and body development, leading to defects or Down Syndrome.

Pregnancy is a beautiful thing happening in life. While you may still feeling shock at the beginning, time would slowly help you ease your concern with more suggestions from friends and information from Doctors. I hope to share the above for all the first time mums or all mum-to-be who just discover their pregnancy just like me. If you are also in first time pregnancy, let me know what are your recommendations for others so we can learn from each other!

Hope for a beautiful pregnancy journey for everyone!

Disclaimer: All of the products I have introduced are not Ad or Sponsored. I have personally tried each product for at least 2 weeks before sharing.

By Courtney