Never miss a meal while you are pregnant, especially breakfast. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and your baby has probably been waiting since he/she woke up in the middle of the night. You may learn that if you wait so long before eating you start to feel sick, this is your body telling you to eat. Do it! Read the rest of this entry »

As soon as you decide you want a baby, you should begin to get in the habit of eating healthier. Slowly begin to cut out caffeine. If you smoke, now is a good time to quit rather than waiting until you have that positive test.   Smoking can decrease your fertility and increase your risk of a miscarriage if you are still smoking when you are pregnant.

Another thing you can do is to start taking prenatals or at least a multivitamin supplement that contains at least 400 micrograms of folic acid. You can also begin to add food into your diet that is rich in folic acid such as spinach and other green vegetables, peanuts, and orange juice. You can also start by taking a prenatal vitamin also.  These vitamins contain iron, folic acid, and calcium along with vitamin C, D, B and vitamins B6 and B12 also.

Reevaluated your diet. Start to eat foods that have plenty of vitamins, minerals and fiber. Lay off the fat and excess sugar. You want to eat foods that have a high nutrient density.  Eat at least five portions a day of fruits and vegetables along with protein and iron rich foods like dried fruit, and green vegetables.  Try to steer clear of raw fish like sushi, and steer clear of undercook shellfish, meat or chicken. You also want to try to avoid fish that has high mercury content like swordfish, shark, or king mackerel.  Cut out any food that has unpasteurized milk in it including cheeses such as brie, camembert, and some Mexican cheese.  Also cut out foods that have raw egg in it including homemade cookie dough.

Make sure you up your water intake.  Water should always be your first beverage choice before, after and during your pregnancy.  Water helps to flush your system of toxins.  Once you’ve gotten your eight glasses in, you can drink fruit and vegetable juices also.

Perhaps the most important thing you can do before you get pregnant is to cut out all alcohol.  The American College of Obstetricians and gynecologists have stated that women who drink might have a harder time getting pregnant than women who do not drink.  Another reason why you should give up alcohol is that most birth defects that are caused by alcohol exposure usually occur in the first few weeks of pregnancy, usually before you even know you are pregnant.

Getting your body prepared for pregnancy is one of the best decisions you could make.  Your body will be more prepared for the challenge of growing a baby and the experience will be a little easier on your body.

Ask any pregnant woman who is in her first or third trimester how they are feeling and the answer will almost always be “tired”.  One of the first clues that many women have that they may be expecting a visit from the stork is the fact that they find themselves droopy eyed in the middle of the day for no reason.

You may find that doing a simply task as walking around the block leaves your desperate for an afternoon nap. The energy you use to have is now faced with the challenge of growing a baby and your body is hard at work. You are also producing more blood, using more water and nutrients and have a higher heart rate and metabolism when you are pregnant. While the best defensive against the tiredness you will face is to get more sleep. There are also some healthy foods choices you can make that will help you get through your day if you do not have the opportunities to take naps.

First, adjust the size of your meals.  Anyone who eats a large meal is going to feel tired afterwards regardless of if they are pregnant or not.  Being pregnant is going to make the effect of a big meal that much worse.   Most of your energy is going to be used towards digesting the meal so of course you will feel sluggish and drained.  Eat smaller meals and eat more often.  Eating six small meals a day will help you combat fatigue.

Eating a good breakfast is the best way to start your day.  You are refueling your body after a long foodless night with a good breakfast.  A good breakfast is not a cup of coffee and a piece of toast. You want to stick to complex carbs and protein.  Whole grain cereal and a banana for example.  These foods will stay with you and keep your blood sugar and energy level up for quiet a while.

Do not skip lunch.  There are many people who skip lunch thinking they will make up for it by having a big dinner.  This is bad when you are not pregnant but it’s even worse when you are pregnant. You need that midday meal to help refuel your body.  As with your breakfast, you should keep it filled with whole grains and protein.  Have a whole grain pita and stuff it with chicken salad and add a side of grapes or an apple.

Plan to eat most of your calories during the day. A pregnant woman needs an extra 300 calories a day throughout their second and third trimester.  The first trimester those are not needed yet. You should eat these extra calories through out the day in the form of healthy snacks such as nuts, cheese, veggies and dip.  Do not save your biggest meal until the end of the day.  Your body needs these calories to help you get through your day.  Steer clear of the quick sugar fixes like candy and soda.  In the end these will only make you more tired.

Lastly, make sure you are getting enough iron. Eat iron fortified food such as spinach and lean red meat to keep your energy up.  There are times when extreme fatigue could be the symptom of an iron deficiency and you might need an iron supplement also.

Besides eating well, make sure you get plenty of rest even if this means pushing your bedtime up and giving up those late night TV talk shows.  As any parents of newborns will tell you, get your rest while you still can.

In your third trimester, your baby was old enough to start getting a taste of the foods his or her mommy likes.   Now that your baby is here and you’re breast feeding, your baby will get an even better taste of your favorite food.

Typically if you are nursing your baby you should produce anywhere from 23 to 27 ounces of milk a day. In order to do this, you need to increase your calorie intake by about 500 more a day.

You also have to increase your water consumption to at least 2 1/2 to 3 quarts of water a day.  You may notice that you are thirstier during nursing session.  This is because the water you drink goes right to milk production.    Try not to drink more than 3 quarts of water a day.  Anything more than 3 quarts can reduce the amount of milk your body produces.

As stated earlier, you need to up your calorie intake. Plan to take in about 2500 calories a day or more if you are planning to nurse for longer than three months. These extra calories should not come from junk food. Junk food and sweets are just empty calories and offer no nutritional value to you or your baby. Eat more protein.  A good rule of thumb is to eat 1 gram of protein each day for every pound you weigh. If you weigh 150, aim to eat 150grams of protein a day.

If you were not doing so during pregnancy, adopt the six meals a day program. Eat breakfast, a midday snack, lunch, a mid afternoon snack, dinner and a night time snack. Your body is going to be making milk continually so it is a good idea to keep it charged with calories through out the day.

There are some foods you might want to avoid during pregnancy. Pretty much everything passes through breast milk and to the baby. This is why the first thing pediatricians advise nursing moms to do when their baby has colic is to look at what they are eating. Chocolate has been blamed in many cases of colic and can cause an upset tummy for most babies.  f you have a baby with a tummy ache think back to see if you had a candy bar or even a cookie in the hours before you nursed. The best advice is to stay away from chocolate while you are nursing.

Stay away from greasy and spicy foods while you are breastfeeding. Greasy foods sometimes upset adults stomachs, imagine what it  would do to your baby’s immature stomach?  Wait until your baby is older and no longer nursing before you start making trips back to McDonalds.

You may also want to stay away from garlic and onions while you are breast feeding. Both of these can flavor the breast milk and you may find that your little one  will not nurse if you have eaten these. Your little one may be just a tad too young to appreciate the taste of garlic and onions anyway. Remember it takes a few hours for the food you eat to make its way into your breast milk. You may have eaten one of these foods right before you nurse and see your baby is fine but by either the following nursing session or the one after you might find your baby having a reaction then.

Your breast milk does not only taste like what you eat, but also what you drink. Just as with pregnancy, you should stay away from a lot of caffeine while breastfeeding. You might need some coffee or caffeine filled soda to keep you functioning and a cup or two will not hurt you or your baby, but too much could have disastrous effects. Just as we experience the jitters and shakes from too much caffeine, your baby does also. Keep your caffeine down to a minimum.

You have made an excellent choice breastfeeding your baby.  Keep it up by making good choices as to what you eat.

One of the first things most of us women prepare to say goodbye to once we see those two pink lines on our pregnancy tests is caffeine. Many women will stop their caffeine habit cold turkey out of the sheer fear of doing some sort of damage to the new life growing inside of them. These women will swear off anything that has caffeine in it from coffee, and soda to even chocolate.  Then there are some of us who will still drink caffeine but cut back.  Instead of drinking five cups of coffee a day, we might cut back to at least one cup of coffee to get us through the day.

Our mothers and grandmothers will probably tell us that they drank the same amount of caffeine pregnant as they did when they were not pregnant and their children turned out fine.  However a lot more research has been done since their time and studies are showing that too much caffeine can cause some complications such as preterm labor and/or low birth weight.

So how much caffeine is too much caffeine? Doctors are telling their patients that a moderate amount of caffeine will not harm their babies.  Even though caffeine does cross the placenta, anything less than 300 milligrams a day (an 8 ounce cup of strong coffee) will not do any harm.  Anything over 300 milligrams puts your baby at risk and studies have also shown that women who drink more than 300 milligrams of caffeine a day during their first trimester have a slightly higher risk of a miscarriage.

Studies have also shown that women who had over 500 milligrams of caffeine a day had babies who had faster heart rates and faster breathing rates.  These babies also spent more time awake in their first few days of life rather than peacefully sleeping after their long journey.

There are a number of other reasons why we women might want to cut back on the amount of caffeine we drink during pregnancy.  For starters, it has no nutritional value.  If there is ever a time for us to be aware of our nutritional needs it is when we are pregnant.  Second, caffeine is a stimulant which will increase your heart rate and can cause insomnia and headaches which can put some stress on your growing little one.  Third,  caffeine can cause heartburn.  If you have been pregnant before you know that heartburn can be a burden to begin with,  and caffeine just makes it worse.  Lastly it is a diuretic which means it can cause you to lose fluids which can put you at a risk of becoming dehydrated.

While it is not necessary for you to give up all caffeine through out the duration of your pregnancy, you should learn how to drink it in moderation or don’t drink it at all.  If you can not handle having only one cup of coffee a day,  then you might be better off drinking no coffee at all.  Stick with caffeine free sodas and even decaf coffee.  Remember though that decaf  coffee still contains small traces of caffeine so make sure you take that into consideration.

Proper nutrition during pregnancy is one of the best gifts you can give to your unborn baby. But don’t forget, eating well healthy for your unborn baby means eating well for you. Many moms to be forget that they too benefit from proper nutrition during pregnancy. After all what you put into your body while pregnant directly effects how your unborn baby copes with and recovers from all the physical and emotional changes you go through during pregnancy.

Truth be told, most pregnant women do not walk around the rosy glow all nine months. During the first trimester we are walking around in a fog a not so nice shade of green from morning sickness and exhaustion. Thing tend to clear up in the second trimester as far as tiredness and morning sickness are concerned but we now have to deal with leg cramps and back aches

By the time we reach the third trimester, we are back to walking around in a fog due to the lack of sleep, as well as more back aches, swollen feet and heartburn. Eating foods with complex carbohydrates can help reduce your fatigue and staying away from foods filled with fats and can help reduce heartburn.

Research has shown that pregnant women who maintain proper nutrition during pregnancy usually have a safe and simple pregnancy. Other studies have proven that common pregnancy complications such as preeclampsia or high blood pressure can be directly related to deficiencies in our diets.

Perhaps one of the greater benefits of proper nutrition during pregnancy is that it could help you during labor and delivery. In fact a well balanced pregnancy diet has been said to help prevent preterm labor. Labor occurring prior to 37 weeks of gestation. Any woman who has given birth knows the amount of enegery required to last through the hours of contractions and pushing. Having proper nutrition during pregnancy will ensure that you have the necessary energey and strength needed for delivery.

It is especially necessary to continue healthy eating after delivering your. During the period following delivery, your body will need lots of resources to recover the shock of child birth. Therefore, eating well following your delivery is just as vital as it was when you were pregnant.

Another bonus of proper nutrition during pregnancy is that you may never stop eating healthy. This will help to set the basis for a lifetime of eating healthy for your children. For your complete guide to Nutrition During Pregnancy as well as tips and advise on Pregnancy visit YourMaternityResource.com

As an expecting mother you will want to optimize your health and therefore the health of your unborn baby. Maintaining proper nutrition in pregnancy plays a major role in that effort.

We have all heard the saying she’s eating for two but that’s not really the case. In fact an expectant mother actually only requires about an additional 300 calories a day to support the growing fetus. Consuming much more then this can lead to unnecessary weight gain and strain on the mother and baby. For instance you can satisfy the increased caloric need with a tuna sandwich or a low fat cream cheese bagel. Although it may be difficult at times you should try to avoid the urge to indulge in ice cream and chocolate cravings.

In order to insure that you are receiving proper nutrition throughout your pregnancy you will want to make sure that your additional calories are coming from a variety of sources; remember the old food triangle from grammar school days? Remember as you are choosing those extra calories to take from a variety of sources such as protein, fat, carbohydrates, fruits, vegetables, etc.

Increased calories is not the only dietary change that is needed during pregnancy, there is also an increased need for calcium. Since only about 75% of women actually receive the recommended amount of calcium anyway, it is good idea for all pregnant women to increase there calcium intake. You can easily increase your calcium intake with an extra glass of milk, a yogurt or even a piece of cheese. But remember to keep your caloric intake under control you can choose non fat or low fat chesses, milks and yogurts or even leafy green vegetables and still get the calcium you and your baby needs.

You will also want to increase your vitamin and mineral consumption in moderation. Check with your doctor or midwife about the many pre-natal vitamin supplements as there are many on the market today. Vitamin D, which helps absorb calcium as well as iron, will need to increase as blood volume increases throughout pregnancy.

Red meat, fish, and poultry can be a good source of iron. There are also many cereals, and breads that are enriched with iron. Increasing Vitamin C, with orange juice can also improve their efficiency.

Folic acid in moderation is also another vital part of proper nutrition during pregnancy.

Folic acid is important to fetal brain development but too much can be harmful. It is recommended that pregnant women not exceed 600 mgs per pill which is about 200 additional milligrams then non pregnant women. Folic acid is usually a key ingredient in pre-natal vitamins. Folates can also be found in dark green leafy vegetables as well as whole grains, peanuts and citrus.

Of course any pregnant women should consult with her doctor or midwife early on the pregnancy to discuss her dietary needs. Remember your dietary needs are going to change through out the different stages of pregnancy. Don’t forget to visit YourMaternityResource.com for a complete guide to nutrition during pregnancy.

During your pregnancy you are going to be faced with many things which you cannot control. Having proper nutrition during pregnancy doesn’t have to be one of them. Listed below are just few examples of pains that can be avoided during pregnancy with proper nutrition.

1. Tooth and Gum pain - This can easily be avoided by having enough calcium and Vitamin C in your diet.

Read the rest of this entry »

As an expecting mother you will want to optimize your health and therefore the health of your unborn baby. Maintaining proper nutrition in pregnancy plays a major role in that effort. We have all heard the saying she’s eating for two but that’s not really the case. In fact an expectant mother actually only requires about an additional 300 calories a day to support the growing fetus. Consuming much more then this can lead to unnecessary weight gain and strain on the mother and baby. For instance you can satisfy the increased caloric need with a tuna sandwich or a low fat cream cheese bagel. Although it may be difficult at times you should try to avoid the urge to indulge in ice cream and chocolate cravings. Read the rest of this entry »