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Who doesn’t want a smart baby? It’s almost a silly question. As a parent I want the very best for my children, I want them to be happy and healthy. But hey, being a smart little Einstein helps as well.
You don’t have to wait till your baby is born to develop their intelligence. In fact, brain and cognitive develpment occur during pregnancy. Developments here may help your babies long term intelligence and cognitive function.
Every little thing matters during pregnancy, the food you eat, how you exercise, and your well-being, in turn, affects the growth, development, and intelligence of your baby.
You’ve heard that intelligence is largely due to genetics, which is absolutely true. Which is fine if you’ve won the genetic lottery and have a family full of intelligent people. For the rest of us, the environment in which you raise your baby matters a lot.
Nature vs Nurture!
I keep saying it, and I’ll say it again. All the little things matter, your mental wellbeing, your diet, how you’re sleeping can have have a difference in your baby’s brain development. Let’s consider some of the little things you can do during pregnancy to have a smart baby.
Well Balanced Diet
It’s so important to have a well-balanced and nutritious diet during pregnancy for the proper development of your baby. Make sure you add a variety of fruits and veggies to your diet. The more you stay healthy during pregnancy, the more your baby stays healthy. Omega-3 fatty acids are very essential for your baby’s brain development, so add omega-3 rich foods to your diet. Food such as small fish, walnuts, flax seeds and beans.
Some studies also suggest that choline is also very important to improve the memory of your baby if taken during pregnancy. Eggs are rich in choline and protein. Consider including foods that are rich in iron and folic acid during pregnancy, as all these nutrients are important to your baby’s development and brain health.
Exercise
Exercise not only keeps you fit and promotes good mental wellbeing. Exercise will boost endorphins making you feel happy and positive. Endorphins produced from exercise cross the placenta and make your baby feel the same. It has been proven that if you stay active during pregnancy, it makes your baby smarter by improving your baby’s brain function.
Just 30 minutes of moderate exercise on a regular basis is more than enough to make a difference during pregnancy. Exercise also helps improve the blood circulation throughout the body providing countless benefits to you and your pregnancy.
Talk to your Baby
Talk and read to your baby. Your developing baby can hear and respond to sounds around the 5th month of pregnancy. Don’t worry, your baby can’t understand what you are saying, so keep whinging about your mother-in-law knowing everything about pregnancy. So, talk, sing, play music or tell a story to your unborn baby, it’ll help to stimulate your baby’s brain development.
If you start talking to your baby it will help your baby to recognize or learn words sooner. Leading experts also suggest that listening to some soothing music or rhymes also help your baby to stay calm and feel good.
This is a biggy, choose a song that you can stand to hear a billion times, play it to your unborn baby. When they are born and restless, playing this song will calm and soothe them. We did it with our 3rd child, it works! It also helps to improve their memory.
Don’t Forget your Supplements
As your baby is growing in the womb your body is burning through nutrients. You need extra nutrients during pregnancy. If you are deficient or do not meet the recommended daily requirement of nutrients through your diet, it has the potential to affect your and your baby’s health. Supplements can help.
Folic acid is suggested before you even start trying to get pregnant. Take a healthcare professional’s advice about prenatal supplements or vitamin-D supplements before you even start planning for the baby and take them regularly.
Resting during Pregnancy is Important
We all know how important it is to take proper rest during pregnancy. Good sleep makes you feel good, fresh, and healthy, which in turn gives you a healthy pregnancy experience. If you take proper rest or sleep, then there are fewer chances of complications occurring during pregnancy. Yes, sleep and rest are that important.
I know how hard it can be to be pregnant and work up to full term, but you need to rest and take care of yourself as well. Make exceptions to your routine, be kind to yourself and don’t forget to ask for help when you need it.
Be Happy
It goes without saying that your feelings and mood affect you and the people around you. Did you know that being happy has a positive effect on your baby during pregnancy? If not, you read it here first people! Stay happy during pregnancy to help have a happy and healthy baby.
Whilst short term stress and anxiety hasn’t been proved to cause problems, long term stress during pregnancy can cause complications. Problems such as sleeplessness, irritability, hormones, premature birth, the list go on.
These issues can affect the brain development of your baby. The more you feel relaxed, full of endorphins, happy, and calm, the more your baby feels the same, which in turn helps in the better development of your baby. Consider getting your lycra on and doing some yoga, deep breathing, or any other thing which makes you feel happy and relaxed that doesn’t include drinking wine!
Avoid Alochol
Consuming alcohol, smoking, or taking drugs is a big fuck no during pregnancy. These habits have terrible consequences for your baby’s brain and overall development. Just don’t! These substances can cause severe disorders. Not to dictate here, but you and your partner really need to kick these habits even before begin trying to get pregnant.
Massage can help with Brain Development
As discussed above, your baby develops hearing around the 5th month of pregnancy. We also know that your baby can feel and respond to your touch. Try to gently massage around your belly to stimulate the baby touch receptors. These little things help your baby to feel and respond, which actually helps to stimulate your baby’s brain. Apart from that, massage is also good for your stretch marks, so there is no harm in doing gentle massage around your belly during pregnancy. And ladies, it feels good!
Get Your Thyroid Checked
Probably not something you’ve thought about before, are my thyroids working? But, if your thyroid glands aren’t working properly when you’re expecting, it can affect the health of your baby. The thyroid plays a very important role during pregnancy. If you have a lower thyroid level, your baby is more likely to have a lower IQ level in future. Sounds like I’m pulling your leg, check out this article from Science Daily.
Iodine is responsible for the proper functioning of thyroid glands. Simply add foods that are rich in iodine like yogurt, iodised salts if you experience thyroid issues.
Knowledge is power. Armed with information, you can make little changes to your pregnancy that will help you to have a healthy pregnancy experience. All these things we’ve discussed can have an impact on your baby’s brain health and development.
Captain Max and I, hope this article will help you make informed decisions that will help your baby’s brain development during pregnancy so you can be the mom to a little Einstein.