Top 10 Pregnancy Must Haves

Every mother-to-be has a must-have list for making the nine months of pregnancy a little easier to manage. Los Angeles OB/GYN Dr. David Ghozland offers pregnancy survival tips that include the 10 essential items to help you look and feel your very best.

1. A good prenatal vitamin. Your OB/GYN can help you find prenatal vitamins that have all of the nutrients you will need to ensure a healthy pregnancy and healthy baby.
2. Cocoa butter. This old-school stretch mark remedy soothes dry itchy skin and smells good enough to eat!
3. Belly Buds. Bellyphones Belly Buds allows you to share the music and sounds you’re listening to simultaneously with your baby, so you can both get into the groove. Designed to fit your baby bump, they can be plugged into any standard music device.
4. Belly Bandit. This amazing shapewear makes it easy to look and feel fabulous after pregnancy. These high-performance products are tight, light, strong and designed to stay in place and cover and target the belly, waist, and hips. Designed for women and by women, Belly Bandit shapewear smooth and slim comfortably and help you feel confident in and out of clothing.
5. A good SPF. One unpleasant side effects of being pregnant is being more sensitive to Melasma, or pregnancy mask. Melasma is a brown discoloration that appears in patches on the face. Anyone can get this with sun exposure, but pregnant women are especially susceptible due to hormonal surges. Ward off unwanted pigmentation with a lightweight daily moisturizer that contains SPF 15 or higher.
6. Pregnancy jeans. Just because you are pregnant doesn’t mean you don’t want to rock a pair of skinny jeans now and then. Leave “mom jeans” to your grandma and look for a chic, perfectly faded pair that offers plenty of style appeal plus room for the baby bump.
7. A pregnancy journal. Amazon offers the Belly Book, a unique journal that breaks down your pregnancy by trimester, and allows you to catalog and store pregnancy photos and ultrasound pictures. You can also capture good and not-so-good memories, like what foods you craved, which ones made you gag, mood swings, baby’s first kick and much more!
8. A body pillow. As the months pass, you may find it more and more difficult to get a good night’s sleep. A big cushy body pillow can help you find the perfect position and help take pressure off of your aching back.
9. A pool. No time or budget to put one in? Get a gym membership that includes pool access. Swimming and water aerobics are among the best forms of exercise when you are expecting since they take pressure off the joints.
10. Netflix. When you are feeling blah and just not up to doing much else, it’s a great time to binge watch your favorite guilty pleasure. With no guilt – you are expecting a baby!

What’s on your must-have pregnancy survival list? Next time you visit your OB/GYN, ask if he or she has any recommendations for products or services that can make this special but often challenging season of life a bit easier. We hope these 10 essential pregnancy tips will help you through your pregnancy journey, allowing you to look and feel your very best.