15 Things Husband Should Do For His Pregnant Wife

Educate Yourself Through Different Books and Blogs

As a husband, sometimes you may only strive to know what your wife is going through.

You could do this by educating yourself about the different aspects and phases of pregnancy using a number of books and blogs available out there. There are many things which you should know when your wife is pregnant.

At the same time, you need to be aware of some of the essential things that your wife needs to completely avoid during pregnancy.

So you may read about the different food habits, clothes or supplement intake during your wife’s pregnancy. The more educated you are related to the different aspects of pregnancy, the more informed decisions you could make.

Here is a governmental survey about the same.

Understand Her Moodiness

During pregnancy, the hormonal changes along with the discomfort, exhaustion, tiredness may make a person moody.

Your wife might also feel how her life is changing irrevocably. All these factors could affect her mood. So she may be happy at one second, maybe angry at the other or even cry sometimes.

All you have to do is to offer her a shoulder to cry on and understand her moodiness. You may even sympathise with her during the sad times or be happy with her when she is happy.

More on mood swings during pregnancy and anxiety disorders here.

Take Care Of Her Diet

As a responsible and supportive husband, you may make sure that your wife is getting enough nutrition. This is because during pregnancy she needs to eat for two. She provides the required minerals and nutrients to the unborn child through the  Placenta.

So you may create a diet plan for your wife. This diet plan could include all the different vegetables, fruits and nuts that may provide the required fibres, minerals, and vitamins to the pregnant wife. Some of the essential nutrients for pregnant ladies include folic acid, vitamin D, vitamin C, vitamin A, iodine, iron, fibre, etc.

Recommended Articles –

• Best Fruits During Pregnancy That You Must Take Regularly
• Essential Vitamins & Nutrients During Pregnancy For Daily Intake!
• Best Foods To Eat During Pregnancy

Help Her With The Morning Sickness

Morning sickness could prove to be a very painful experience for a pregnant woman. So, you could help her during this time. You may stand by her side, support her to be comfortable or even create a resting space for her. This would help her whenever her morning sickness hits in.

Be Flexible

During the period of pregnancy, your wife may require a lot from you. This could be difficult for a working husband.

However, you should be flexible and should be able to change or cancel your plans so that you could handle the responsibility of your pregnant wife.

You could even schedule formal or informal meetings according to the needs and preferences of your wife. You may even ask for a flexible working schedule from your employer during pregnancy.

Converse With Her

One of the most essential thing that you could do as a supportive husband is to talk with your pregnant wife. She may have a plethora of mixed emotions inside her. Sometimes she may be scared, tired, tense or even happy. So you may be available to listen to all her different emotions.

At the same time, you may be apprehensive because you are going to become a father. So you could even talk to your wife and share your emotions with her. When you both share your feelings and thoughts, you could be secure and the journey of pregnancy might become easy for your wife.

Go With Her To The Doctor’s Appointments And Ultrasound Scans

It may not always be convenient for you to accompany your wife to the doctor’s appointments and ultrasound scans. However, you may accompany her to the monthly checkups whenever you can. It may be lovely to hear the heartbeat of your child for the first time with your wife or even see its image on the screen.

Get Her Enough Sleep And Rest

During pregnancy, the level of hormones might fluctuate in the body of your wife. So she might require more rest and sleep than usual. You could help her to get more sleep and rest by giving her breaks and increasing your quota of household chores.

More on sleep and health.

Become A Good Listener

Pregnancy could be a frustrating and moody period for your wife. So, she may have certain grievances and may put off all her anger on you. In such circumstances, you need to be sensitive to her different requests and respond to her with kindness.

It may be hard for you to understand how the hormonal fluctuations in the woman might cause great variations in her mood and behaviour. In one minute she could be very happy with you and in the other minute, she might feel very angry. So you need to be patient during such situations and understand that it is not your wife that is performing so, but her hormones.

Here is a survey about the same.

Plan With Her

While your wife is pregnant, the most awaited thing is childbirth. So you could plan with your wife about the delivery and what all to do once the child arrives. You could discuss all the important things with your wife that could encourage her to remain strong in difficult times. This could even be the right time to think of the names for your unborn child.

Satisfy Her Unique Cravings

During pregnancy, your wife may crave some bizarre and quirky cravings. However, you may not deny any of her demands. All you need to do is to give her what she needs. She could ask you for ice cream at 3:00 AM or even a pickle and vinegar sandwich right in the morning.

You may not question any of her cravings because it is a part of the pregnant life.

Help Her In Exercising

Doctor might advise your wife to exercise during pregnancy or give her an easy workout schedule to follow. Following this workout schedule may be crucial for the health of your wife and the baby. However, there may be situations when your wife is not motivated to exercise. In such circumstances, you could help her and motivate her to exercise. Accompanying her is a good method of making sure that she gets the necessary exercise, like walking.

Recommended – Best Exercises During Pregnancy

Make Changes In Your Lifestyle

If you have a habit of smoking, consuming too much caffeine or drinking liquor, then you might have to make changes in your lifestyle. You may not smoke anywhere around your pregnant wife. This is because if the smoke passes through the placenta to the infants, then it might be fatal to the baby.

Also, you could lay stress on eating the best foods during pregnancy as well.

On the other hand, you may also cut on consuming too much caffeine or drink liquor that could lure your pregnant wife for the same. The reason behind this is that consuming too much caffeine or even drinking alcohol may prove to be detrimental for the unborn child.

Hence, choosing a healthy lifestyle is really important.

Give Her Regular Compliments

During pregnancy, your wife might become more conscious about her body. Due to this, she needs regular compliments. So you could remind her regularly how pretty she looks and how you love her. A simple compliment could help her to regain her confidence.

Go On A Vacation Together

You could go on a relaxing holiday and vacation together in the first trimester. This could even help your wife to get some Vitamin D, nice food and de-stress herself. During pregnancy, a good vacation might enlighten her mood and hence, improve her health.

Here is an article about air travel. Also, this article from the Canadian government might be helpful.

Bonus Tips

Pregnancy is a peak time where the partner may strive to make her wife feel special. Since pregnancy is an uncertain time, your wife may sometimes feel perfectly normal. On the other hand, she may not feel good sometimes and may have mood swings.

Say for example, if she feels like puking sometimes, then in these situations, as a partner, you can just stand behind her back and pat slowly to let her know that everything is fine. Just by taking care of her in these situations like by giving her napkins and a glass of water, you may support your partner. This may not only show your support and affection towards her but also prove as mental medication for her.

At the same time, if you may ignore your partner during the bothersome phases of pregnancy, then this may even trouble her mentally. This could harm the health of the child.

Another great responsibility you may choose as a to-be father could be to read out the stories and books of great personalities to your wife. This is because, during pregnancy, your wife may not be in a condition to read due to anxiety or stress. Hence, you may narrate her mythological or inspiring stories that might alleviate her mood. When you spend time together, you may provide her mental stability, that lacks during the pregnancy phase due to hormonal changes.

Thus, though you are not physically pregnant, you need to be mentally pregnant to support your wife to the fullest extent. Another important factor that you may consider is to keep your wife away from all the family drama.

The major reason behind this is because, during pregnancy, all family members may like to take care of the pregnant lady. Though each family member is different, they have good intentions. However, due to variations in opinion and even generation gap, there might be issues arising related to the lifestyle, habits, medications, and food of the pregnant lady. These issues may arise between mothers-in-law and wives.

However, here comes the duty of the husband. In all such situations, you need to find a midway that could help to prevent the chaos in your home and even protect the mental stability of your wife. Happy and positive surroundings may alleviate her mood that could in turn maintain the health of your unborn child.

Not only this but since you cannot be present with your wife physically all the time, a text and call could help her to feel your presence. So you may ask about her meals, medications, pains, and mood swings on a text or call to make her feel special. However, you need to make sure to text or call her more often than the normal days.

Thus all these methods could help you to play a prominent role in making your pregnant wife feel special. So when you help your partner by performing all these methods, it could satisfy almost 50% of physiological needs.