How to Boost Your Baby’s Brain Development in the Womb
When you’re pregnant with your first baby, you will be bombarded with unsolicited advice for first-time mothers. One of the things you should heed is advice on how to support your baby’s development while still in the womb.
A notion that’s commonly held is that during pregnancy, the focus should be on the health of the mom. The focus only shifts on the baby’s when he comes out. This makes sense in a way, but there should also be great attention paid to how the baby is growing and developing inside her belly.
Baby’s Brain Health
One of the most heartbreaking circumstances that a mother can find herself in is receiving diagnosis of her child’s learning disability or developmental delay. She tends to go back to every decision, action, lack of action, etc. that was ever done concerning the baby all the way back to conception.
Was it because she couldn’t stomach iron supplements in the first trimester? Was it because she had drunk some wine before finding out that she was pregnant? Was it because she overindulged in sweets? Was it because she refused to eat fish? Was it because she had readily acquiesced to get vaccination shots?
She’ll make herself crazy wondering if the disorder was caused by something that she had done or hadn’t done. If you’re pregnant, do yourself a favor and recognize this as a very possible scenario for you and behave accordingly.
This is not fear-mongering. The statistics are alarming. These days, one in 40 children is diagnosed with autism. Mothers have to be aware of this and be very vigilant.
Boosting Baby’s Brain Development
You can only do so much, of course. Autism, for one, remains a puzzle in many ways. You don’t have to be overly anxious and paranoid about your baby’s brain health. Just don’t be nonchalant about it. Don’t operate on the belief that lots of children out there who had been born in poverty from far more careless mothers ended up okay.
You’re responsible for your own baby. You have to do right by him. In terms of brain health and development, the following are positive measures you can take.
1. Eat with proper nourishment in mind.
You should eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, healthy grains and fats, and lean meat. These are the best foods for fetal brain development.
It might be hard to stick to a nutritious diet while going through strong pregnancy cravings and aversions, but do it for your baby. Find a way.
Pay special attention to cravings since they supposedly indicate mineral deficiencies. Listen to your body. It has a very good idea of what it needs. Indulging in something occasionally isn’t going to harm your baby’s brain. Take note of the operative word, which is “occasionally.”
2. Take prenatal vitamins.
You could still suffer from nutritional gaps even when eating well, so to fill up the gaps and ensure you get all the nutrients you need, take supplements. For pregnancy, emphasis is put on the following:
- Vitamin B12
- Vitamin C
- Vitamin D
- Folic Acid
- Iron
- Omega-3 Fatty Acids
- Zinc
3. Frequently hydrate.
You need to drink lots of water. You need it; your baby needs it. Staying hydrated is essential to your baby’s brain development, so consume enough water to keep your urine clear or the color of pale lemonade.
4. Exercise.
About 30 minutes of moderate exercise three to five times a week should be enough. The endorphins released during exercise boost mood, reduce brain shrinkage, and enhance cognitive function. These endorphins extend their benefits to the baby in your womb.
5. Expose you baby to positive language and music.
Babies in the womb can hear. Make sure you talk to your baby to stimulate mental development and give an edge in language learning and memory formation.
Another positive auditory stimulation is classical music. It might not guarantee to make your baby a genius, but it calms him down and exposes him to different quality sounds and tones.
6. Avoid harmful elements.
What are the things that could be detrimental to baby brain development? Stress is one. Studies suggest that it increases risk of congenital brain malfunction.
Toxins are another. These may come from a wide variety of sources, including medication. Avoid taking any type of drug while pregnant. Smoking and drinking alcohol also have adverse effects on brain development.
Start with Awareness
The importance of staying healthy during pregnancy is public knowledge, if not common sense. And yet many moms let laziness and a cavalier attitude prevent them from keeping themselves as healthy as possible.
It’s good to start with a proper understanding of how your actions will affect your future reality and the very real person in your womb. Anxiety and paranoia are unnecessary and harmful, but a reasonable dash of fear and concern should be effective motivation. Awareness will elicit that.
