Expecting a little bundle of joy to your home soon?

In a religion and community where family is a top priority, many married couples begin having children while they are still going to college. As women juggle married life, classes and work, the main three challenges of being pregnant come quickly.

Expecting mothers have to deal with feeling sick, maintaining a good diet and having fears of childbirth, which all ultimately require daily lifestyle changes.

A common challenge of pregnancy is pregnancy sickness, more commonly known as morning sickness despite the fact it can happen any time of day.

“Being nauseated and sick was hard,” said Andrea Marley, a senior from Anchorage, Alaska, who just had a baby girl named Andelin on Dec. 17. “But some people don’t even get that.”

One of those people is Heather Hansen, a junior from Idaho Falls, who is expecting a baby in June and finds out in two weeks if it’s a boy or girl.

“I haven’t had a lot of morning sickness as long as I keep food in my stomach,” Hansen said. “It makes me feel bad because some girls are running from class to go throw up.”

Maria Pari-Keener, CEO of Maternal Health Matters and a nutrition adviser for the magazine American Baby, said morning sickness is common and usually disappears after the first 14 weeks of pregnancy.

There is no one cure for morning sickness, but Pari-Keener suggests some remedies to help, such as eating carbohydrate foods in the morning before getting out of bed and eating foods rich in protein before going to sleep.

“Eating something before you even get out of bed … helps a lot with the morning sickness because the reason you get sick is because you don’t have anything in your stomach all night long,” Marley said.

Doctors also encourage expecting mothers to take prenatal vitamins which contain folic acid, iron and calcium, which are nutrients important to the healthy development of the baby and the health of the mother.

However, it is generally better to get these nutrients from having a good diet instead of using the vitamins to supplement a bad diet, Pari-Keener said.

A pregnant woman’s diet could also be complicated by cravings because they are not coming from the lack of nourishment and nutrients.

“Cravings are caused by elevated hormone levels in your body. There is no evidence that cravings are your body’s way of telling you what it needs,” Pari-Keener said.

Having a craving is not a problem unless it is for non-food items or ice chips, which shows an iron deficiency, Pari-Keener said. Any of those cravings should be reported to the doctor.

Even though they can do a lot to prepare for the birth while they’re pregnant, most women are afraid of the birthing process.

“I think labor is always a fear; pain is a fear,” Hansen said. “Also the fear that the baby won’t be okay and there will be complications in the pregnancy that will make it hard.”

Despite all the fears, pregnancy can be an exciting experience.

“It’s different for everybody, but for me, [the most exciting thing] is feeling the baby move inside,” Marley said. “Try to enjoy it because it’s only a short time in your life that you’re pregnant; and it’s really exciting to bring one of Heavenly Father’s children down to earth.”