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To be a healthy parent

By Ozo Mordi
21 October 2017   |   2:39 am
Pregnancy, labour and childbirth are never kind to a woman’s body; how often do we hear women make this declaration? This is always said at that time a first time mother discovers with dismay that she is not going to regain her pre-motherhood figure or having it back exactly......

PHOTO:AFP/Gettyimages

Pregnancy, labour and childbirth are never kind to a woman’s body; how often do we hear women make this declaration? This is always said at that time a first time mother discovers with dismay that she is not going to regain her pre-motherhood figure or having it back exactly the way it was before pregnancy and childbirth.

Of more concern, however, are the health challenges that tend to accompany the process of baby-making, sometimes. Although all these risks do not deter women from going through the experience of childbirth as many times as possible, but as we lend our support, we also urge you to stay healthy. Below are tips that experts have worked out to help women keep in top form:

Check Out Aches And Pains
They may feel as so minor as not to be a cause for concern. Sometimes, however, that slight ache may be symptoms of more serious health issues. Don’t wish that if you ignore the little ache on the side of your neck that it would go away on its own. Pay attention to it by treating it. And make sure that it has stopped to cause you any pain before you stop to bother about it.

Take note of that persistent cough; you have been treating it but it keeps recurring. Try to find out when it started, look beyond the known causes of cough like infections. Is it irritation due to a chemical pollution or other irritants around the home?

Share your worries
Some women prefer to suffer in silence without knowing the harm they do themselves. Share your emotional burdens to raise your immunity. Even in serious ailments, discussing a problem helps you to keep healthy. Research has shown that women who shared their real feelings with others were the ones who have survived for more than nine years after they were diagnosed with breast cancer. It did not matter that they were positive about the outcome of the treatments or that they were scared; they improved because they told people exactly how they felt about the condition.

Your Needs Are Important
As you care for your children, make time to do those things that are just for you. You cannot be the type of parent they need if you are always under the weather or you feel tired all the time from taking care of the family. A tired mum is irritable or even angry and may snap at them instead of talking calmly for them to understand and follow instructions.

When you live solely for your family by doing only what they want without taking a time for yourself, you give them the impression that a mother’s needs are not important. As you plan what to do to make them comfortable, those things you must also do for yourself.

Don’t Overlook Family’s Health Risks
When a close relative is diagnosed with illnesses such as cancer, diabetes or heart disease, bring it to your doctor’s notice for possible testing. Take it seriously if the relative is as close as a mother, brother or daughter. They are very close and you share more genes and may have inherited a risk factor. But you can be rest assured that you may not necessarily be carrying the disease, because each step from a family makes the chances of inheritance weaker. Another good thing is that being aware of the risks makes you more conscious to live a better lifestyle, which should on the long run banish the disease totally from the family’s genes.

Do Checkups
Regular checkups double the chance of detecting a serious disease early. When threatening diseases are seen early, survival rates are highest. Studies have shown that about three-quarters of women who developed invasive cervical cancer did not have a Pap test within five years of diagnosis or that they never had one. The highest number of cervical cancer deaths are said to have occurred in patients who were never tested for the disease.

Don’t Forget Breast Screening
Breast cancer, experts maintain, is curable if caught at the early stage. Still, try to get a clinical examination done by a medical doctor. Do mammograms and, for more accurate tests, MRI and ultrasound. Even when the disease does not run in your family, do the monthly self-examination. The test should be done by every woman because it is believed that about 25 percent of cases are inherited while the remaining cases had begun without obvious causes.

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