Nisha Satyamorthi pregnancy interview with Mama's Choice

Nisha Satyamorthi, the Mitara actress, spoke to Mama's Choice while she was expecting her baby. She described a magical pregnancy with a hard first trimester, long filming days, a diet she overhauled, and one piece of advice she now repeats to everyone. Her answers sit below, with Singapore guidance alongside them.

Model, beauty queen, actress, and soon to be a mother. Her excitement at the last of those was palpable across a short chat.

Finding out

Married in March 2020 to assistant director Satyamorthi Naidi, Nisha was "absolutely thrilled" when a home pregnancy test she took after missing a period confirmed that they were pregnant.

"The thought of growing another life, and feeling baby movements inside me is absolutely magical."

Asked about her favourite thing about being pregnant, she came back to the same image: "the thought of growing another life and feeling baby movements inside me are magical."

A home test is the usual starting point here too. It picks up the hormone hCG in urine. A positive result is confirmed at a polyclinic or GP, who then books you into antenatal care and starts your records on HealthHub, and the first scan usually follows within a few weeks.

Morning sickness on a filming schedule

Acting hours are long, and she did not pretend otherwise. Sleep was a luxury at times and stress was always looming.

"I had to struggle with keeping my energy levels up and my terrible morning sickness during the first trimester while being on set."

She found something to salvage from it. "But I am glad that my job nature also kept me active throughout my pregnancy."

Her must-haves were modest. A granola bar, a mint spray, and bottled water.

Those choices line up better with medical advice than they might look. The NHS describes nausea and vomiting as common in early pregnancy, usually easing by around weeks 16 to 20, and the standard advice is to eat small amounts often and sip fluids through the day rather than face a full meal. A snack you can reach between takes does exactly that. It is sound advice. A mint spray has no evidence behind it, though some Mamas find a familiar scent helps them ride out a wave of nausea.

The line worth drawing is around fluids. Vomiting that stops you keeping anything down, with weight loss or very little urine, is treated as a medical problem rather than a rough patch, and KKH and NUH both manage the severe form. Our round-up of pregnancy nausea remedies covers the gentler end of it.

Changing the way she eats

Nisha is a confessed junk food lover, and eating better was the biggest adjustment she made. Dropping the habit was tough. It also stuck.

"Nine months of healthy eating has become the new way of eating for me now," she said.

HealthHub's pregnancy nutrition guidance asks for much the same thing without the glamour: enough protein, iron and calcium, folic acid in early pregnancy, and fruit and vegetables at most meals. None of it is expensive. A hawker plate can be rebuilt around it by swapping fried for steamed and adding a vegetable side.

A handful of foods are worth avoiding altogether while pregnant, including raw and undercooked items that turn up often in a Singapore diet. We go through those in foods to avoid during pregnancy.

Dressing a bump without changing her style

This one surprised her.

"I was afraid that I would have to dress in mundane maternity dresses initially but was pleasantly surprised to see the number of brands carrying really stylish maternity clothes!"

Anyone following her on Instagram will have noticed she stayed recognisably herself throughout. "I pretty much dress in the same style I did pre-pregnancy thanks to the availability of these brands," she said.

Fabric beats cut here. Cotton and loose weaves keep sweat off the skin folds under the bump and under the breasts, where prickly heat settles in the third trimester. Style survives that constraint more easily than you might expect.

What went into her hospital bag

With her due date nearing, Nisha shared what she had packed. Maternity pads, a bathrobe, and our Intensive Nipple Cream, a lanolin-based cream with shea butter and coconut oil that is made for breastfeeding mothers and moisturises the skin of the nipple and areola.

Sore nipples in the first days of feeding are common, and the fix is usually positioning. No cream treats them. KKH and NUH both run lactation services, and asking to see a lactation consultant while you are still on the ward is easier than chasing one later. Our piece on when to use nipple cream explains where it does and does not help.

Both hospitals publish their own list of what to bring, including documents that are easy to forget at 3am. Check yours against ours in what to pack in your hospital bag.

The advice she kept hearing

We asked what the best pregnancy advice she received was. The answer was unanimous among the people around her.

"Almost everyone told me to stay active and not give in to the lethargy and become sedentary."

It landed well enough that she passes it on. "You can always push yourself to be up and moving by giving yourself a pep talk!"

The medical guidance agrees with her relatives. ACOG recommends about 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity a week in a healthy pregnancy, and says activity at that level does not raise the risk of miscarriage, low birth weight or early delivery. Get clearance from your obstetrician or at your polyclinic first, since a few conditions rule it out.

The pep talk gets harder at 32 weeks. The heat sees to that. Early mornings, an air-conditioned gym or a pool work better than willpower. Our trimester-by-trimester exercise guide sets out what suits each stage.

Working up to the due date in Singapore

Nisha filmed through much of her pregnancy. Eligible working mothers of Singapore citizen children get 16 weeks of Government-Paid Maternity Leave under the Ministry of Manpower scheme, with conditions on employment length and on how the leave may be split.

If you are working through a first trimester like hers, tell your employer earlier than feels comfortable. Antenatal appointments are far easier to schedule when somebody is expecting them, and a production schedule or a shift roster set six weeks out is a different negotiation from one set tomorrow.