The decisions you make before and during pregnancy will have a big impact on your child's health and wellbeing. Making sure that children start off on the right track begins before they are even born.
Derbyshire Community Health Services provides lots of health and wellbeing support during your pregnancy.
Smoking in pregnancy
Smoking while pregnant can increase the risk of harm to you and to your unborn baby.
When you smoke you increase the risk of miscarriage, premature labour, stillbirth, or cot death or having a baby with birth defects, low birth weight, asthma and more.
If you would like help or support to stop smoking during pregnancy then visit Live Life Better Derbyshire.
Breastfeeding
When you choose to breastfeed, you make an investment in your baby's future. Breastfeeding also protects you and your baby's health.
Find out more about breastfeeding services and support.
Mental health and wellbeing
Pregnancy will come with its ups and downs, so it is important that you feel supported with any difficulties you may be experiencing.
There are useful resources to help with your mental health and wellbeing, including:
Getting active and healthy weight
Staying active and fit during pregnancy might sound like hard work but it has benefits for you and your baby.
If possible try to keep up your normal daily physical activity or exercise for as long as you feel comfortable.
Exercise is not dangerous for your baby and there is evidence that active women are less likely to experience problems in later pregnancy and labour.
Find out more about keeping active during pregnancy on the NHS website.
Live Life Better Derbyshire offers a healthier weight service to Derbyshire residents aged 18 years old and over, telephone: 0800 085 2299.
Oral health
With all the changes you are experiencing it might be easy to forget about things like taking care of your oral health, but pregnancy can bring new challenges for your teeth.
The NHS has lots of useful information about how to care for your mouth while pregnant.
Find out more about oral health during pregnancy.
Alcohol and pregnancy
Find information and advice around alcohol and pregnancy.
If you, or someone you know would like support around alcohol use, there are local services to help, including:
Vaccinations
There are a number of vaccinations that pregnant women are eligible for. These include the flu and whooping cough vaccinations.
Visit NHS Choices to find out more about vaccinations in pregnancy.
Dads, partners and co-parents
While you're pregnant there's lots that dads, partners, co-parents and family can do to support you both during your pregnancy and after you have given birth.
Have conversations early on so they feel involved and know what they can do to help, both practically and emotionally.
Find out more about how partners can help to support, and feel involved, with your pregnancy.
Tommy's also has lots of information for dads, partners and non-birthing parents too.
NHS Healthy Start
If you receive benefits and are pregnant or have children under the age of 4 you could qualify for Healthy Start vouchers.
With Healthy Start, you get free vouchers every week to spend on milk, plain fresh and frozen fruit and vegetables, and infant formula milk. You can also get free vitamins.
Health visitors
Health visitors are qualified nurses or midwives who have completed specialist training in public health for children, young people, and families.
Health visitors, along with school nurses, are responsible for helping to improve the health of parents, children, and young people.
Health visitors lead on the Healthy Child Programme, a government programme developed to improve the health and wellbeing of children under the age of 5.