Healthy eating during pregnancy

Pregnancy - nutrition myths and challenges explored

Nutritionally speaking, pregnancy and the period you spend trying to conceive will be the most important times in a woman’s life. There are so many reasons to take excellent care over the fuel you are giving yourself and the new life you are growing:

Research shows that a mother’s weight before conception and the weight gain experienced during pregnancy can have a profound effect on the birth weight of her baby and the longer-term weight and health of the child. Research has been prompted by the increase in infant birth weights and child obesity, the findings showing that gaining too much weight is placing both mother and child in danger.  A child’s metabolism and likelihood of being obese is being programmed in the womb – we ought to be giving more consideration to this area of the baby’s development when making our nutritional choices.

Aside from your baby’s health, the pre & post-natal period is a crucial time to maintain optimum health for yourself – after all, you want to enjoy this wonderful experience! Consuming a healthy diet will help you to avoid conditions such as gestational diabetes, have sufficient energy to remain active and ultimately to feel good about your body.

It is important to abolish any thoughts of ‘eating for two’ in terms of the number of calories you consume.  Only in the third trimester will your actual energy needs increase and even at this time, only by approximately 200 calories.  Your thoughts of ‘eating for two’ should always focus on the quality of food you are eating and the nutrients you are drawing from these foods for you and your baby.  

Alongside nutrition, keeping fit and active is an essential ingredient to a healthy pregnancy. No matter where your fitness levels currently sit, there is some for of physical activity you can take part in to benefit yourself and your baby. 

From personal experience, I can appreciate the difficulty of maintaining good nutrition during pregnancy, especially in the first trimester. The overwhelming tiredness and often nauseous feelings you experience, make visits to the supermarket and cooking meals a greater challenge.  Many times I experienced wanting to eat a nutritious meal but feeling at a loss when trying to decide what I wanted to eat. Secondly being unable to stomach the smell of food cooking and lingering in the house afterwards. Often, when someone else had done the hard work, I was able to enjoy eating the meal and more importantly make nutritional gains. If, like me, you feel terrible in first trimester, it’s far from too late to make improvements to your nutrition further on in your pregnancy when the baby experiences its greatest growth.