Christmas is about family and celebrating new beginnings, just like a new baby. Being pregnant at Christmas time, when the world is celebrating the birth of a baby, can be a lovely experience. Then again, it can be a busy time, with shopping, eating and drinking consuming your life, just when you are trying to avoid alcohol and take care with what you eat. Not to mention the embarrassment of nodding off to sleep just as the work Christmas party begins.

The hot sultry nights and even hotter days don’t help with sleep, and the hours on your feet searching for that special present for that special someone doesn’t help keep the swollen ankles at bay. Then there is that dread that you’ll go into labour on Christmas day with the turkey in the oven and family on the way over. Here are ten tips to keep the magic in Christmas so you can enjoy this special season.

1. Accept all offers of help

Being pregnant is not the year to have Christmas lunch, diner or the Christmas party at your place. Get someone else to host and offer to contribute in manageable ways. No matter how much people offer to help, you will always do more and worry more when Christmas is at your place. Then there is the cleaning up afterwards. Come Boxing Day, everything will feel twice the size and hurt twice as much! Learning to accept offers of help is good practice for when the baby comes.

2. Shop sanely

Shopping when very pregnant can be a miserable experience if you don’t pace yourself. Start early so you have plenty of time and won’t have to deal with the last-minute madness. It is easy to get carried away with the pre-Christmas whirlwind and get stressed, which isn’t good for you or the baby.

Get a list together so you can prioritise and make it more efficient. Take your partner or a friend along to push the trolley and have a relaxing lunch together to make it a pleasant experience and give you a chance to put your feet up. Shopping online is becoming increasingly popular and is the perfect way to avoid the rush, get the job done and keep the feet up. Don’t overdo the presents this year; people do understand.

3. Watch your back

During pregnancy, all your ligaments soften in preparation for labour, and it’s easy to injure your back if you are not careful. Madly cleaning the house, climbing ladders to decorate Christmas trees and lugging heavy shopping around can all come back to haunt you. Have heavy shopping delivered or get your partner to carry it in from the car. If you do have to lift anything, remember to hold the load close to your chest and bend your knees, not your back, as you pick it up. Balancing on a chair to put the angel on the top of the tree is not a good idea. Remember, your growing bump alters your sense of gravity.

4. Chillout

Try to have some leisurely lie-ins and catch up with afternoon sleeps when the day is at its hottest. Dress cool and avoid going out in the midday heat. At night a cool shower before bed can help you to sleep better. Wear a light cotton nightie and use cotton sheets as covers, as these breathe best. A fan can also help make sleep more comfortable. Keep the late nights to a minimum, of it will catch up with you.

Regular, gentle exercise is good for both your body and mind. Swimming is ideal during the hot weather. It is gentle on your ligaments and makes you feel cool and buoyant. If swimming is not for you, then a gentle walk in the evening can help you relax. Play those Christmas Carols and enjoy the whole atmosphere that comes with this special season. As your partner will probably have more time off during the Christmas period, make time to spend with each other.

5. Share the Christmas magic

Christmas can be such a magical time for pregnant women. Watching children’s glowing faces on Santa’s lap, listening to Christmas carols, and wrapping presents all remind you of the joy that awaits you for many Christmases to come. Take time to focus on your baby. Sing Christmas Carols to them and read them Christmas stories. Remember, music stimulates their brains to grow, and they love to hear your voice.

6. Keep your shapely ankles

The further on you are in your pregnancy and the hotter the weather gets, the greater the likelihood of suffering from swollen ankles. In pregnancy, you have more fluid in your body. Fluid tends to gather in your lower limbs if you’ve been on your feet a lot. There is nothing quite like hours of shopping to help make the once shapely ankles disappear, and your legs ache unbearably. You can help to reduce the swelling by getting off your feet and doing some gentle foot exercises. Treat yourself to a foot massage. Remember to wear comfortable shoes that breathe and aren’t too tight.

7. Eat little and often

Christmas inevitably means eating more and eating foods we wouldn’t normally eat during the rest of the year. Just remember, if you eat for two, it will show. Small, well-balanced meals are the key to healthy eating during pregnancy. Heartburn can make Christmas a less pleasant time for you. Overeating seasoned or rich food can make this worse. Heartburn can occur early on in pregnancy due to hormonal influences. It gets more severe as pregnancy advances due to the growing uterus pressing upon the stomach. You can help reduce the severity of heartburn by eating smaller meals more frequently and having your last meal of the day a few hours before you go to sleep to help reduce your stomach contents.

A huge Christmas dinner will not help if you suffer from heartburn. Some foods can worsen the symptoms, such as fried or spicy foods. If you still get heartburn or indigestion at night after these changes, you might find you have to sleep with a couple of pillows, so you are not lying too flat. If you feel you need antacids, ask your midwife or doctor which ones are safe to take during pregnancy.

8. Eating safely

Most of the time, Christmas foods are perfectly healthy and should be enjoyed. Being pregnant, you need to be cautious about certain foods and how they are prepared. Turkey is safe and nutritious, but you need to check it has adequately thawed before cooking. It also needs to be properly cooked to avoid the risk of salmonella and toxoplasmosis infection.

Don’t forget to have enough fresh fruit and vegetables in your diet, or dreaded constipation may dampen your Christmas spirit

Christmas pudding is quite safe to eat. Be cautious with puddings like mousses, cheesecakes, egg nog and homemade dressings that may contain raw egg. Avoid nuts if you have a strong family history of asthma or eczema.

Seafood should be eaten in small amounts due to the high mercury content in some fish. Two to three serves (one serving is 150 grams) of most fish is safe for pregnant women. They should, however, limit their intake of shark (flake), broadbill, marlin and swordfish to no more than one serve per fortnight with no other fish consumed during that fortnight. For orange roughy (also sold as sea perch) and catfish, the advice is to consume no more than one serve per week, with no other fish being consumed during that week.

Avoid smoked seafood like salmon, trout or oysters due to the risk of Listeria. Likewise, avoid cooked, peeled prawns, like those found in sandwich fillings or pre-made salads. Avoid :

• old meats such as: found in delicatessens or sandwich bars
• cold cooked chicken
• pre-prepared or pre-packaged, chilled seafood, including sashimi or sushi.

When the cheeseboard comes out at parties, try and avoid the unpasteurised, mould-ripened or blue vein cheeses, which can contain Listeria. You should avoid all forms of pate when pregnant.

9. Healthy drinking

Yes, you should drink, and lots of it-water that is! It is very easy to get dehydrated with the hot weather and all the running around you do during the Christmas season.

While water is good for you and the baby, alcohol is not. The World Health Organisation says there is no safe level of drinking for women during pregnancy and recommends they abstain entirely. When you go to parties, watch the punches as you don’t know their alcohol content. You can try things like mulled juice if you want to get into the Christmas spirit. You do need to be careful with other festive drinks such as eggnog because of the alcohol content and the raw eggs it contains. Remember, where there is drinking, smoking and spending long periods of time around smokers can be harmful to you and your baby even if you are not smoking yourself.

10. Babe in a manger

I am still amazed at how few babies seem to be born on Christmas Day. It is as if mothers know how to switch the labour button off-or perhaps it is the baby that says, ‘I’m not sharing my birthday with anyone, no matter how special they are.’ When babies come on Christmas day, it is a special event for everyone. The hardest part in the future is keeping a separate time to celebrate the child’s birthday and not getting lost in the Christmas celebrations.

Make sure you know who to contact over the Christmas period if you do go into labour. If your doctor or midwife plans to go away over the holiday season, make sure you know who backs them up and how they can be contacted easily. Write down the contact numbers on the front of your antenatal card so you won’t panic if you need to talk to someone. Birth units and birth centres are usually open at all times of the day and year, so relax, births in mangers rarely happen nowadays, even at Christmas time!