Boost Your Immunity​​​​​​​ and Keep the Bugs at Bay

With winter approaching, it’s time to start boosting your immune system, because you’re more likely to pick up bugs – especially colds and flus – than those without a baby bump

- Melany Bendix

Pregnant women are more vulnerable to illnesses because of the immunological changes the body has to allow during pregnancy in order to grow a healthy baby. These changes cause your immune response to be suppressed, mainly so that your body does not attack the foetus, mistaking it for an “alien invader”. So says Dr Marlena du Toit, a Cape Town-based gynaecologist.

“A woman’s respiratory function is also changed during pregnancy, especially during the last weeks of the pregnancy,” she adds. “Therefore, a pregnant woman can have severe complications after an upper airway infection occurs.”

START EARLY

The key to boosting your immunity for pregnancy is to get healthy before you even start trying to get pregnant.

“A planned pregnancy is always better that an unexpected one,” says Dr du Toit. “Before falling pregnant, a woman should aim to have a healthy weight, have had immunisations against rubella (German measles) at least three months before stopping contraceptives and, ideally, not be anaemic before conception.”