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Pregnancy and Proper Nutrition
Pregnancy is not only a life changing event, it’s a full body transformation. What you eat and how you move during these months is crucial to your health, your baby’s health and development, and long term health for you both. It doesn’t end at birth either. Just like an athlete training for a marathon, the Olympics, or whatever their sporting event may be, your body deserves the proper nutrients, training, recovery, and replenishments!
I’ve heard it said many times before that birth is like a marathon. Not only is this true in regards to how many calories and how much energy you will exert when in labor, but it’s true in regard to training.
So, think of pregnancy and birth like a marathon. You wouldn’t run 26 miles without training, fueling, and recovering properly—and the same goes for bringing a baby into the world.
Pregnancy is an endurance event, and birth is the finish line. Just like when training for a marathon, you need to train- including proper nutrition, movement, rest, and knowledge.
By treating pregnancy like training, you set yourself up for a stronger, more supported experience.
Now I want to dive into a myth. I’m sure plenty have heard the saying “eating for two”, but let’s talk about what that really means.
“Eating for two” is not an excuse to have double portions, nor is it a reason to eat whatever you like. If anything it should be reason to eat healthier!
When you “eat for two” you should not double your portions but double your nutrient values.
Let’s go over some essential nutrients for mom and the baby during pregnancy:
Folate- helps prevent neural tube defects.
Found naturally in leafy greens and beans!
Iron- supports increased blood volume and reduces anemia risk.
Found naturally in red meat, legumes, and spinach!
Calcium and vitamin D- needed for baby’s bone development
Found naturally in dairy-especially raw milk, and leafy greens
Protein- builds baby’s organs and tissues
Eat eggs, chicken, fish, red meats, beans, nuts, and for added protein intake try protein powder.
*Now to go on a short tangent, soap box, rant, whatever you want to call it. I will admit I am no expert, I can speak from hearing other experts speaks on this matter and my own experience though. Pregnant women are not told enough how important protein intake is! Did you know your protein intake should be your weight in grams? So if you weight 150 pounds, then you should be eating 150 grams of protein PER DAY!!!
I did not know this until my last trimester pregnant. My first two trimesters I was always hungry. I was fatigued out of my mind. I could barely get up to work. I was nauseated. When I upped my protein intake that all went away!
I suddenly had energy to pack the house. I didn’t need to snack all the time. I had less brain fog. I wasn’t nauseous!!
I asked a nutritionist about this and she said “yeah some people believe in protein, but carbs are the answer”. Now I’m not negating her training. She has been in the field for a while, but nutrition has come a long way since she got certified and the general school of thought is that carbs are in fact not the answer anymore (and I myself do have some credentials as well).
So if you are overly tired, having a hard time working, having a hard time focusing, struggling to be satiated, nauseated, or anything of the like- try upping your protein! Pay close attention to what you eat, you may not be getting enough, properly fuel yourself!
Rant over*
Finally maybe one of the most important nutrients to get when pregnant:
Water- aim for a minimum of 12 cups a day.
When pregnant water needs increase to help maintain the added blood volume and amniotic fluid levels.
Now if you are like me, you may have an aversion to water. I did. A terrible one. Any time I would drink plain water, it came right back up. So I had to find a way to get creative. Try drinking bubbly water, coconut water, add some electrolyte mix to your water, lemon or lime in your water, or try fruits or mint! Mix it up and see what helps you, but try! try! try! to get proper water intake!!
Now onto the second half of this blog, and equally as important: exercise during pregnancy.
Exercise during pregnancy is not just safe, it’s highly beneficial! It can boost energy (and mood!), reduce aches, swelling, or constipation, improve sleep, lower your risk of gestational diabetes and high blood pressure, and maybe the most important: it will prep your body for labor.
It is never too late to start, no matter where you were in your health and exercise journey prenatally. A great place to start is with walking as it is low impact. You can also do some prenatal yoga (not that I’m biased towards that 😉) as yoga builds strength and improves flexibility. One of the best exercises to relieve joint pain or pressure is swimming. Not only can swimming be great cardio, but it can relieve pain and support your belly!
Strength training is also vitally important! While you do not want to push yourself too hard, especially if you’ve never lifted weights before, you don’t want to miss out on this exercise either.
Strength training helps build muscle and bone density (something that can lack when building another human beings bones!) When done properly, strength training can readily prepare the body for labor, and assist in a faster recovery.
If following good nutrition and exercise while pregnant, postpartum should be easier. But it is still important to get good nutrition and exercise postpartum too.
In the postpartum period, nutrition can support tissue repair, hormonal balance, milk production, and energy levels.
During postpartum it is still crucial to focus on protein, although less may be needed as the weight of the baby, and baby weight is shed. Iron is also crucial still to rebuild blood supply.
Calcium and vitamin D are still needed in excess if breastfeeding as the baby can pull from your stores.
A very helpful nutrient for a very unwelcome side effect is fiber to help with digestion and postpartum constipation. And once again water is extremely important, especially if breastfeeding!!
While regular exercise is not advised to begin until 6 weeks postpartum, movement is still key to recovery. Movement can be as simple as diaphragmatic breathing to help with pelvic floor healing, to walking, to resuming lighter strength training until cleared to do more.
Movement and exercise are important postpartum as it can help boost mood and lower postpartum depression symptoms, improve energy, support pelvic floor recovery, and rebuild strength.
Postpartum exercise is not about “bouncing back”. It’s about healing and recovering from pregnancy, labor, and delivery. It took 9 months to gain the weight, it can take 9 months to lose it too.
I say this having learned my lesson the hard way. I learned a majority of this after my son was born. But now I know, and so do you, so time to do better!
You’ve got this!
Thank you for your continued support in my new business and endeavors and I cannot wait to share more with you. If you would like to purchase any stickers, the store on my website with all my stickers I have designed is now up and running! Or if you would like a free consultation, have any questions, or just have something to say, feel free to reach out to me by my contacts page, email, or text. I look forward to where we will go together.
