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For you and your baby during pregnancy, Why diet is important ?

As a general guide, pregnant mothers need to eat a healthy diet, high in nutrients and low in sugar, salt and saturated fats.

Your diet during pregnancy helps to support your own well being and supplies the nutrition your baby needs to develop and grow.

It’s normal for a pregnant mother to gain weight, however, gaining too much or too little weight increases the risk of complications for you and your baby. A well balanced diet is usually enough to meet your nutritional needs during pregnancy. However, some foods contain higher concentrations of certain nutrients which are specifically recommended during pregnancy.

Healthy weight gain depends on a mother’s weight before pregnancy. Evidence supports using Body Mass Index (BMI) as a guide for how much weight gain is recommended during pregnancy.

Nutrients needed to support a growing baby’s health and development and can prevent certain conditions are:

• Folate
• Iron
• Iodine
• vitamin D

If you are planning a pregnancy, you should start taking a folic acid supplement at least one month before you fall pregnant and for 3 months after conception. Folic acid supplements have been proven to help protect against neural tube defects.

If you are considering taking or currently taking any supplements, please discuss this with your doctor or midwife, as doses can vary depending on your individual circumstance.

Balanced diet during pregnancy:

A healthy, balanced diet includes a wide variety of nutritious foods from the five food groups. It’s also very important and advisable to drink plenty of water to stay hydrated.

• Lean meats and poultry, fish, eggs, tofu, nuts and seeds as well as legumes/beans
• Wholegrains and cereals
• Dairy foods including mostly reduced fat milk, cheese and yoghurt
• Vegetables and legumes/beans
• Fruit

Most of us have days when we eat well, and days where our intake of ‘treat’ foods may be higher. Pregnancy cravings can also make this harder to manage, especially when they’re for foods which are high in sugar, salt or fat.

If you are suffering from morning sickness or severe vomiting during pregnancy, it is important to eat what you can at the time. You should contact you doctor; if you are concerned.

What about pregnancy cravings?

It used to be thought that pregnancy food cravings were a sign of nutrient deficiencies in a pregnant mother’s diet; however, there is no evidence to support this link. Pregnancy can also cause changes in a mother’s tastes, and foods once found appealing can take on a completely different flavour. Food aversions can develop during pregnancy, due in part to hormonal influence.

Are there any foods I should avoid during pregnancy?

There are some foods which need to be avoided during pregnancy, due to their risk of carrying specific bacteria or parasites. An infection with listeria, salmonella or toxoplasmosis when pregnant can cause serious complications to your baby and increase the risk of pregnancy loss.

Some types of fish contain high levels of mercury. Like;

• Shark/flake
• Marlin or broadbill/swordfish
• orange roughy
• Catfish

Being selective about what type of fish to eat is important during pregnancy.

It’s also important to check ‘use-by’ dates and to make sure that food has been stored correctly. If in doubt about the safety of a particular food, the safest option is to not eat it.

When I’m pregnant, Do I need to prepare and cook food differently?

It’s important to be careful about food preparation and safety during pregnancy. Food poisoning is generally caused by contamination of food with certain bacteria or viruses. Sometimes it’s easier to suspect food has been contaminated because it smells ‘off’ or looks different to what it should. But it’s not always obvious that food may not be safe. When preparing food, you should always:

• Use different cutting boards for vegetables and meat
• Defrost frozen meat, especially poultry, in the fridge or in the microwave
• Reheat foods to at least 60° Celsius and until it’s steaming hot
• Wash your hands before preparing food and eating
• Change dishcloths frequently — if they smell, this is a sign of contamination
• Wash benches, cutting boards and utensils with hot, soapy water
• Cook food thoroughly and don’t eat raw or ‘rare’ meats or fish

What can I drink during pregnancy?

The safest drinks during pregnancy are water and milk. Current evidence supports the recommendations that you should avoid drinking alcohol if you are pregnant or planning a pregnancy. Even small amounts can harm a baby’s development and may have lifelong effects.

Water and milk are considered to be safe to drink when pregnant. Low sugar soft drinks, small amounts of juice and soda or mineral water are also fine to drink. Likewise, small amounts of caffeine in tea and coffee are thought to be safe. During pregnancy and when breastfeeding, consuming up to 200 mgs/day is considered safe for a mother and her baby.

As a guide the approximate amounts of caffeine found in food and drinks are:

• 1 cup of tea – 30mg
• 375ml can of cola – 49mg
• 250ml can of energy drink – 80mg
• 100g bar of milk chocolate – 20mg
• 1 cup of instant coffee – 60mg
• 1 shot of espresso coffee – 100mg
• 1 cup of plunger coffee – 80mg

What foods should I limit during pregnancy?

The Australian Dietary Guidelines recommend that during pregnancy, you should limit the amount of foods that contain saturated fat, added salt and sugars as well as alcohol. Processed foods tend to be high in sugar, fat and salt. Although they can taste good and are often convenient, they don’t meet the daily requirements for nutrition.

What are the recommended servings during pregnancy?

During pregnancy, you will have extra energy requirements and needs more serves. It’s important to understand that the ‘serving size’ doesn’t change, but instead the variety of food and serves per day increases to meet the mother and baby’s needs.

What to eat during pregnancy;

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