Nutrition During Pregnancy

Your excited to be pregnant and now want only the best for your soon to be little one, this includes eating the right nutrition during pregnancy, healthy eating can help your baby's growth and development and so you get the vitamins, minerals and nutrients you and your developing baby will need, it can help you feel good, increase your energy and gain a healthy amount of weight.

Guidelines for nutrients

It's very important to have healthy eating habits while your pregnant or breast feeding, some healthy guidelines would include:

Eat a variety of healthy foods each day

-Fruits and veggies, whole grains and protein food are all part of healthy eating and will contribute to the nutritional health of you and your little one.

Try to make half your plate veggies and fruits at meals and snacks, try to choose food that have little or no added sodium, sugars or saturated fats.

If you can't eat a variety of foods due to nausea or vomiting it's a good idea to speak to your health care provider.

Choose foods with healthy fats instead of saturated fats

-You will need more healthy fats like omega-3 fatty acids while your pregnant because they support the growth of your little ones brain and tissues, you can get healthy fats from foods like nuts, seeds, fatty fish and vegetable oils.

Choose fish low in mercury

Fish can provide important nutrients like protein and omega3 needed for healthy growth and development, however some types of fish contain mercury that can harm your little ones brain development, vary the types of fish you eat and follow the advice from health Canada to limit your exposure to mercury in fish, check your local, provincial or territorial government for any advisories on local fish.

Eat a little more food each day than you normally would

During second and third trimesters you need more calories each day to support the growth of your little one, just a little more food each day, such as an extra snack or small meal, is enough.

Choose healthy snacks

These will keep you energized and can support good health for you and your little one, you can prepare the snacks in advance to save time or you can try keeping fruit on the counter, chopping extra veggies while cooking, making muffins or granola bars and storing them in the freezer, or keeping roasted chickpeas and nuts in your bag for on-the-go hunger

Make healthy drink choices

Drinking plenty of water while your expecting can help keep you cool, help control sweating( you will do more while pregnant), help prevent constipation, carry away waste products from you and your little one and carry nutrients through your body and to your little one.

You can make water the easy choice by carrying a reusable water bottle, white milk and unsweetened fortified plant based beverages are healthy drink options.

Be mindful

Being mindful of your eating habits is also important during pregnancy, it will help you make healthier food choices, be mindful by taking your time to eat, planning your meals and snacks and decrease your distractions during meals and including culture, food traditions and taste preferences.

Get enough iron

Iron is important for healthy blood, you need this so your little one can develop properly and so you and your little one can build up your iron stores for after the birth.

To increase your iron intake you can eat foods rich in iron like tofu, fish, eggs, whole grain foods, beans, peas and lentils, lean meats and poultry, if your diet doesn't include meats, poultry or fish, you can include a source of vitamin c to help your body absorb iron from food, sources of vitamin c can be kiwi, broccoli, potatoes, tomatoes, citrus fruits, strawberries and sweet peppers, the amount of iron absorbed by your body decreases if you drink coffee or tea with meals or take calcium supplements or calcium containing antacids with meals.

To avoid decreasing the amount of iron your body absorbs, wait 1-2 hours after a meal to drink tea or coffee, or take calcium supplements.

Take a daily multivitamin

Because you need more nutrients when your pregnant it is highly recommended to take a prenatal multivitamin in addition to eating a healthy variety of foods to make sure you get enough of these needed nutrients, (I found it best for me to take mine before bed as it caused me to feel nauseous otherwise).

It is recommended to get a multivitamin that contains 0.4 folic acid every day if you are expecting or could be expecting, this can reduce the risk of your baby developing a neural tube defect, while your pregnant make sure your multivitamin also contains 16 to 20 mg of iron, your health care provider can help you find the multivitamin that is best for you.

The average suggested weight gain

Gaining a healthy amount of weight can help your little one have a healthy start, reduce your risk of complications in pregnancy and at delivery and improve your long term health, recommended weight gain is based on a birthing person's body mass index or BMI before pregnancy (or her pre pregnancy BMI).

Where does the weight go?

Many will ask where does the weight gain go during pregnancy, a simple break down is that at the beginning of pregnancy and until the 15th week, the weight gain is generally with the birthing person, 2-5lbs is intended for protein reserves in the muscles and fat, reserves that will be used later during the pregnancy.

The little one weighs as low as 65g after 15 weeks so the weight gain in early pregnancy is not directly associated to it, most of the weight gain during the 2nd and 3rd trimesters are as the baby and supportive tissue develop, it is for this reason that the weight gain sought in the 1st trimester is only 2-5 lbs.

The placenta, baby and amniotic fluid account for about 35% of total weight gain during pregnancy, this weight is lost during child birth, the rest of the weight gain is due to increased blood volume, water retention, breast tissue and uterine tissue, part of the energy reserves accumulated during pregnancy is used during breast feeding.

The right amount of weight gain during pregnancy reduces complications during pregnancy and birth, improves the health of the birthing parent in the long term and promotes proper birth weight of the little one and facilitates breast feeding, if this is chosen.

In sum the total amount of weight gained by the mother includes the weight of the little one she carries but also the structures that ensure the protection and development of the little one(placenta, uterus, blood volume, amniotic fluid) in addition to preparing the birthing parent for the postpartum period and breast feeding.

Food aversions

Food aversions, like food cravings are possibly caused to the hormonal changes in the birthing parent's body during pregnancy, and the amount of hCG, what was once your favorite snack or meal now you can't go near it( couldn't be near coffee even though i never drank it, lol), researchers are suggesting this relationship might be caused by a body mechanism that protects us against potentially harmful elements in certain foods or it could be from complex cultural and psychological reasons.

your most likely to experience it in the first trimester but like cravings and morning sickness it can also last the entirety of the pregnancy. it is possible for the aversion to disappear after your little one arrives but it is also possible for it to continue indefinitely.

Common cravings and what they may mean

Some nutritionists and health providers believe certain cravings are meaningful like craving large amounts of ice and nonfood items is a condition called pica and linked to an iron or zinc deficiency but there is not enough to support or deny this theory, but some maybe worth paying attention to like a shortage of magnesium can trigger chocolate cravings, so instead try eating foods rich in magnesium like whole grains, beans, nuts, seeds and green vegetables like spinach.

red meat may be a cry for protein , peaches might be a body's need for beta carotene.