Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Healthy Diet - Eating Before and During Pregnancy

Eating healthy throughout your pregnancy is the greatest gift you could give your unborn baby, but there are also a lot of rewards in it for you to. It's common for many moms to be to forget that they also benefit in eating healthy through out their pregnancy. What you eat has a direct effect as to how well your body copes and recovers from all the physical changes it goes through. It also helps with the physical and emotional challenge of carrying and delivering a baby.

Once you’re pregnant, you’ll be eating for two, but if you think this means eating twice as much, you may be disappointed. Eating for two (you and your baby) means that you need to focus on eating twice as well as in the past. If you already follow good eating habits, you have a head start in providing your baby with the nutrition he or she will need. Over the course of your pregnancy, you’ll want to increase your intake of iron, calcium, folic acid and other essential vitamins and nutrients, since these nutrients are important to your baby’s development. You’ll also need to avoid certain foods that pose safety risk so that neither you nor your baby gets sick. Yet, for the most part, you simply may have to do more of what you’re already doing.

If your nutrition is poor or you often diet, skip meals or eat a limited variety of foods, start making changes now. In fact, it’s critical to make good eating habits a part of your pregnancy planning from the start. The reason: Most of your baby’s major organs form during the first few weeks of pregnancy — before you may even know you’re pregnant. With too few calories or nutrients, cell development can be less than ideal and your baby may be underweight at birth, which may increase his or her risk of short- and long- term health problems.

Research has shown that pregnant women who eat healthy throughout their pregnancy usually have a safe and uncomplicated pregnancy. Studies have shown that some pregnancy complications such as preeclampsia or high blood pressure can be directly related to deficiencies in a pregnant woman's diet. High amounts of sugar and polyunsaturated fats increase this risk as well as having a low intake of vitamin c, e and magnesium.

Eating right doesn’t mean that you have to follow a rigid diet. To get proper nourishment and gain the weight you need to have a healthy pregnancy, you’ll want to eat many different types of food. Just remember: What you eat and drink will have a direct effect on your developing baby. Perhaps for some women one of the biggest benefits of eating healthy during their pregnancy is that it could help you during labor and delivery. A well balanced pregnancy diet has been said to help prevent preterm labor, which is labor before 37 weeks. A good diet can also help you cope with labor and delivery better. Any woman who has given birth knows how much energy it takes to endure hours of contractions and sometimes hours of pushing. Eating healthy will ensure that you have the energy and the stamina to get through your little one's delivery.

Once you have delivered your little one, it is still important to continue your good habit of healthy eating especially in the postpartum period. Your body needs a lot of resources to recover from all the stretching, blood loss and not mention sleep deprivation and still take care of a newborn. It is just as important in the months following your delivery to continue to eat well. It is essential to eat as though you were pregnant for at least three months after delivery.

A final added bonus to eating healthy throughout your pregnancy is that you may never stop eating healthy. This is setting up the groundwork for a lifetime of eating healthy for not only you but for your children. If you continue to eat healthy you are setting a prime example for your children

To learn more visit
http://birthdefectcauses.blogspot.com
http://www.pregnancy-guidelines.com

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