Pregnancy comes with the necessity to take a number of precautions in order to improve your chances of getting to the end of it successfully. One of these is taking additional care while you drive.
Besides following the road rules, you need to keep additional road safety tips in mind, including avoiding driving while fatigued or for long distances. Have a look below to see just why pregnant women are advised to be more careful than they were before while they drive.
It May Be Hard to Sit Correctly
When pregnant, you may find it harder to sit correctly to drive safely. This is typically a result of issues such as pregnancy-induced sciatica, and of course, the belly getting larger as pregnancy progresses.
Note that you need to contact the police within a period of 24 hours if anyone gets injured in a car accident. It’s risky enough to get involved in a car accident when you’re not pregnant, and this is a risk that increases considerably with pregnancy.
You’re at a Higher Risk of Driver Error
When pregnant, you may be at a higher risk of making an error that could result in an auto accident. This is thanks to hormonal changes, stress, fatigue, nausea, and other issues associated with pregnancy. All of these could make it hard for you to pay as much attention to the road as you need to do in order to drive safely.
With the majority of personal injury cases in the United States resulting from a car accident, according to AllLaw, it’s clear that car accidents are common. Lower your odds of being in one by ensuring that you do your best to pay maximum attention to your driving.
You May Not Be Able to Buckle up Correctly
A pregnant woman’s physique is obviously different from that of other people. This makes it harder to buckle up correctly and not place the baby at risk while doing so. For this, you can use tips such as positioning the shoulder part of the safety belt over your shoulder and down your chest’s center and placing the lower part of the belt as far beneath your belly.
Remember that even a fender bender may be riskier for a pregnant woman than it is for others. On this note, the front bumper accounts for almost one-third of all damage from an accident, according to Pathways by Amica. Keeping your unborn child safe while driving is one of the most important parts of intuitive parenting.
Fatigue Is a Real Issue
Pregnant women are generally more prone to fatigue as a result of the changes that pregnancy makes to the body. This is especially an issue in the second trimester, and it’s also in this trimester that it gets riskier to drive while pregnant. Unless you’re able to work frequent stops into your route while you drive, it’s important for you to avoid driving if you can find an alternative means to get around. This is important since it’s recommended that you avoid staying seated for a long time when you’re pregnant.
