Pregnancy and Diet - Facts vs Myths

Pregnancy is a beautiful time in a woman's life and more so because she has the greatest gift from nature to give a new life to this world of ours. When a girl or woman discovers she is pregnant her immediate concern is the welfare of the baby growing within her and so is the concern of people around her be it her family or her husband/ boyfriend or her partner's family or her friends/ neighbors. Often these concerns take shape into things that should be completely avoided and sometimes should be kept minimalistic but of course old school of thoughts are tough to rub off. Today I will discuss the essentials of pregnancy and its diet requirements along with busting the most common myths that have held on for generations especially in the eastern hemisphere.

Changes occurring when you are pregnant - Fertilization by the sperm in the falopian tube occurs after 24 hours of ovulation. Somewhere near 30 hours after fertilization the first cell division or first cleavage occurs which initiates life process. Around the 7-8 days after fertilization the embryo attaches itself to the uterine wall (the stage called nidation occurs) and thus pregnancy in the uterus takes place. This is the beginning of the placenta being formed which releases the human chorionic gonadotropin hormone or HCG that is an indicative for a pregnancy test. It takes another7-8 days for the HCG hormone to give a positive test result. This is the time where 15 days have passed by after fertilization and it is the week later that the next period is missed when the female realizes the possibility of a pregnancy. By the time the pregnancy is usually detected the female is 3- 4 weeks in her pregnancy and the pregnancy  is counted from the first day of the last menstrual cycle for the next 40 weeks.

Getting Fat - During pregnancy the female gains around 25 - 30 pounds of weight of which 7-8 pounds is that of the foetus,  and the rest is composed of placenta, body tissues, amniotic fluid, uterine tissue, blood volume (increases by half the original). The fat deposition that occurs as a natural protection and insulation to the foetus is approximately 7 pounds (around 3.3 kg) which means one need not go into a frenzy of fat loss post pregnancy if the diet is calculated as per BMI and Pre pregnancy birth weight. Some females are grossly under weight when they get pregnant which may cause a life threatening situation for the baby as well as develop nervous disorders or retarded growth of the foetus during pregnancy. Under nourished females are known to have complications like still birth, spinabifida (neural tube defect due to deficiency of folic acid & B12), retarded growth of the baby etc. The ideal weight gain for normal BMI females is 25-30 pounds, low BMI is 30-40 pounds, obesity grade I onwards females should gain around 15 - 20 pounds as the fat is excessive in the body and may also complicate the birth.

How to control excessive fat gain? - It is a very hard habit to break for the eastern world where the family stuffs the pregnant woman or girl with every thing under the earth that would increase her weight in the pretext that it would nourish the baby. If fat food was to nourish the baby every dietitian would be jobless as far as this section is concerned. The energy intake needed to be increased during the second & third trimester is 350 kcal maximum daily. If a woman needs 1800 kcal in her diet pre pregnancy then during her 1st trimester the same diet can continue and 2100 kcal can be started off during 2nd & 3rd trimester.

Diet Overalls - The daily carbohydrate recommendation is around 135 - 150 gm where as the protein is additional 15 gm/ day or 60 - 70 gm/day, restrict fat to 25 % of the daily energy intake. Dietary fiber should be around 25 gm/ day to avoid constipation & hemorrhoids that are caused as a side effect to pregnancy. Make sure that your diet is rich in nutrients like folic acid (600mcg/ day), vitamin B12, B6, B1, B2, B3, vitamin C, Vitamin E and under recommended dietary allowances for Vitamin A (750 mcg/day for under 18 years & 770 mcg/day 19 years and older). Women who have taken higher Vitamin A during pregnancy have know to have birth defects in the foetus especially neural tube defects. The myth about not eating papaya during pregnancy has this as its reason. There is no harm in eating papaya during pregnancy provided it falls inside the vitamin A RDA. Alcohol and caffeine should be completely avoided during pregnancy as these are potent drugs harming the foetus growth and causes still birth.

Hopefully this gist of Diet for pregnancy would have sorted some of the many myths & misunderstandings with regards to the subject. It is a time to cherish but do it well organized and glow in the beauty of it. For more detailed diet consultation contact at Wellness & I.

Wish you wellness.

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