Women's health · 5 min read · Updated October 2026
A healthy pregnancy: visits, food and danger signs
Eight antenatal contacts, the right supplements, and knowing the warning signs protect you and your baby.
Clinician review pending This article is awaiting sign-off by a doctor.
Most pregnancies are healthy, but complications can appear quickly. Regular antenatal care finds problems early: anaemia, high blood pressure, infections, and malaria, which is especially dangerous in pregnancy.
Visits
The WHO now recommends at least eight antenatal contacts, starting before 12 weeks. Some of these can be by phone or video, with blood pressure, weight and tests done at a clinic. Register your pregnancy early so you have a plan for where to deliver.
Food and supplements
Eat varied meals with vegetables, fruit, beans, eggs, fish and meat where you can. Take iron and folic acid daily throughout pregnancy; anaemia is very common and makes bleeding at birth more dangerous. In malaria areas, take the preventive treatment offered at antenatal visits and sleep under a treated net. Avoid alcohol, smoking and unprescribed herbal preparations.
Tests
You should be offered tests for HIV, syphilis and hepatitis B, blood group, haemoglobin (for anaemia) and urine. Treating these in pregnancy protects your baby. An ultrasound before 24 weeks dates the pregnancy and checks for twins and placenta position.
Danger signs: go to a hospital now
Bleeding from the vagina; severe headache, blurred vision or swelling of the face and hands (possible pre-eclampsia); fits; severe stomach pain; fever; the baby moving much less than usual; water breaking before labour; or labour pains before 37 weeks.
After birth
Watch for heavy bleeding, fever, foul-smelling discharge, severe headache or feeling very low or hopeless. Breastfeed exclusively for six months if you can. Family planning can be discussed before you leave the facility.
How Telafia can help
Some antenatal check-ins, questions about symptoms, mental health support and family planning advice can be done by video. Any danger sign above needs a facility, not a call.
Emergency numbers
767 works in Lagos State; 112 is the national number. Numbers change: please check locally. If a number does not connect, go straight to the nearest hospital.
Related doctors
Questions about this? A women's health doctor can help today.