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Pregnancy is very
important period in all women’s life. Pregnancy starts when a male's
sperm fertilizes a female's ovum (egg), and the fertilized ovum
implants in the lining of the uterus. The nutrition for the mother in
this period is important as the growing baby gets its nutrition from
the mother’s body. What the baby gets is what the mother has to offer
after her consumption, so it is important to get the right nutrients
during pregnancy in good amounts.
While nutritional needs and your own tolerance for eating will change
during the different trimesters of your pregnancy, there are some
general guidelines that will be important to follow throughout the
nine months. For starters, eat balanced meals, do not skip meals,
eliminate caffeine and drink lots of water, six to eight glasses a
day. Your calcium needs can be fulfilled by consuming dairy products
such as skimmed milk, cheese, yogurt, pudding and ice milk etc, some
of the non dairy sources of calcium includes salmon, kale, broccoli
etc.
During early pregnancy folic acid is important in the development of
the foetal brain and spine. An average woman should take 400
micrograms of folic acid every day throughout their pregnancy. Some of
the important sources of folic acid are dried beans, tofu, green
vegetables etc.
Vitamin b12 is important for the proper nerve and brain functioning of
both mother and baby. This can be obtained from fortified soy milk and
from vitamin supplements. Protein is also important and protein intake
should be increased by 10 grams a day and some good protein sources
are egg, meat and milk.
The kind of nutrition that you will need for each trimester will be
different and so will be the stuffs you should eat. During the first
trimester one of your main nutritional concerns may be battling
morning sickness, which doesn't necessarily occur in the morning. Some
strategies that might help include eating small meals frequently,
whether you are hungry or not.
During the second three months you should take well balanced diet.
Here you need extra calories and these extra calories can be obtained
from milk, grains, meet etc. Iron supplement is also very important.
It is best to take iron pills with fruit juice or water at bedtime or
in-between meals. You may experience digestive problems because of the
slowing down of stomach as the baby grows and will render you
intolerable to milk and other hard to digest materials. To face this
problem you should try to eat less main meals and more snacks, drink
lots of water and try walking a little bit after the meal. During this
season diary products will become more difficult to tolerate, but you
should try eating easily digestible foods like yogurt, cottage cheese
etc.
The third trimester is the last phase of the pregnancy before the
delivery process. During this period you may feel full faster when
compared to other trimesters, but it is important to keep on taking as
much amount of food as earlier which contains balanced nutrients and
sufficient calories. One strategy here is to eat smaller amounts of
food more often. Foods like snacks are good choice. But when you pick
snacks, pick the ones which will supply the nutrients you are going to
need.
Women excrete more glucose during the pregnancy. Diabetic women should
be closely monitored to make sure their blood sugar values are at or
near normal. And it is also advisable for women to increase their body
weight to 20-25 pounds during pregnancy. And also the body uses more
salt during pregnancy than under normal conditions. And also low
sodium levels can harm the foetus. So taking care about all these
factors can result in the birth of a healthy baby.
Nutrition during pregnancy is thus important in the health of not only
the mother but also the baby that is waiting to see the world. Supply
of required nutrients in the right amounts is important here.
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