Maternal nutrition

Maternal nutrition refers to the dietary intake and habits of expectant mothers with dual emphasis on the health of the mother and the physical and mental development of infants. 23.8% of babies are estimated to be born with lower than optimal weights at birth.

Pregnancy and child birth transform every aspect of expecting mother's lives.They should be very careful with their choices regarding what they eat. This article is about the diet the expectimg mothers should be following for their welfare and their growing foetus.

It is very important that expecting mothers should change their personal habits like smoking, alcohol, caffine, using certain medications and street drugs as soon as they know they are pregnant or even when they are planning to conceive. All these can affect the develpment of the organs like brain, which happen in early stages of pregnancy. They can cause irrepairable damage to the growing feotus.

1st Termister

The first necessary step for proper diet is to take a daily prenatal vitamins, that ensure their body gets the vitamins and minerals it needs to create a healthy baby. Theses vitamins contain folic acid,iodine, iron, vitamin A, vitamin D, zinc and calcium. Hence the diet should consist of fruits, vegetables, non fat diary foods, lean meat and whole grains which are rich in the prenatal vitamins and minerals. Eating well is very important during pregnancy, the food they eat keeps them and their baby nurtured. It should be right balance of carbohydrate, fat and protien without too much of calories.Drink fruit juices with 100% fruit and limit them to 1 glass per day.Juices are not only high on calorie but do not provide the amount of fibre compared to an whole fruit.Include atleast 1 citrus fruits like orange, grape fruit as they are rich in vitamin C. Choose your vegeatbles servings from variety of green leafy vegetables(broccoli, spinach, kale); red vegetables(tomatoes, red peppers);yellow vegetables(yellow peppers,corn)and orange(carrot,sweet potatoes,pumpkin).They should have atleast 3 - 4 servings each day of fruits and 3 - 5 servings of vegetables each day during their 1st termister.

Exercies and Diet

If they were into vigorous exercise before pregnancy and continue to do so during their pregnancy then they should take the same diet for 1st termister and increase their diet intake by 300 calories for their second termister.. Eating fruits and vegetables, could reduce pregnant women's risk of developing an upper respiratory tract infection(URTI).

cravings and aversions

As the weeks pass by, cravings or aversions for certain variety of food grows for pregnant ladies. These cravings or aversions should be controlled and consumed in required amoutns. If they crave for choclates, then they should buy best quality chocolates and consume little amount of it every day and if they have aversion for meat, then they should have some other source for their protien or else consume meat in requried quantities for neccessary protiens and nutrients. cravings for non food items like luandry starch, clay etc. should be informed to the doctor immediately as they may have developed a medical condition called Pica, which can be dangerous for them and their baby.