My Pregnancy and Thoughts on Nutrition & Weight Management
Being a mother of two lovely kids, writing on pregnancy takes me back to those wonderful days of my pregnancies. I felt so special and thrilled when I came to know about my first pregnancy. But I started bleeding soon and doctor advised me to be on bed rest for the first three months of pregnancy. And there it started..
I started eating a lot, much more than what I was eating before. My baby had triggered my hunger to a different level while calmly sleeping in my womb. I started eating 5 to 6 times a day and my caring husband fed me all those must eat foods during pregnancy. I started puffing up like a balloon as I was simply lying on the bed all the time.
Pregnancy weight gain is an essential thing
Pregnancy is a beautiful stage in life. You will experience an ocean of special touchy feelings which can only be felt, cannot be explained. Having our own little one inside is a totally different feel. Good things apart, there are many common concerns during pregnancy. Weight gain is one among them.
Supportive Nutrition Supplement
During pregnancy, taking certain natural supplements can be beneficial for both mother and baby. While a healthy, balanced diet should be the primary source of nutrients, a few supplements may help cover any nutrient gaps or provide extra support.
Here are some of the recommended natural supplements for pregnant women:
Folic Acid: Folic acid is a B vitamin that is important for preventing neural tube defects in unborn babies. It is recommended that pregnant women take 400-800 mcg of folic acid each day.
Folic acid can be found in prenatal vitamins as well as in leafy greens, legumes, citrus fruits, and fortified cereals. Vitamin D: Vitamin D is important for bone health and immune system function.
Pregnant women should aim for at least 600 IU of vitamin D each day. Food sources of vitamin D include egg yolks, fortified milk, and fatty fish.
Iron/Calcium: Iron is essential for proper foetal development, and pregnant women should aim for 1000 mcg per day. The only side effect of Calcium supplement is that it can cause constipation!
Weight gain during pregnancy is a normal and essential thing.
It is very natural to have a shoot up in our hunger during pregnancy as we have a growing life inside us. We start eating for both of us. We must gain some weight during pregnancy for the healthy development of the foetus, as there will be healthy gain in the fetus’s weight as well.
Pregnancy overweight is unhealthy and causes many health issues
Just like me, most of us gain more than normal weight during the pregnancies. We overeat and we tend to work less due to the fear of any damage to the tiny tot inside us. The result is abnormal weight gain. Same thing happened in my case too.
After the bed rest period, when I was 3 months pregnant I was not looking like the one. People around me started asking me my expected delivery date thinking I am 5 – 6 months pregnant. My reflection in the mirror also made me feel the same. Even my gynecologist warned me of problems associated with abnormal weight gain during this stage. My doctor advised me to lose some weight.
Walking and sensible eating are the best methods to manage weight during pregnancy
My gynecologist suggested me to eat cautiously and walk an hour every day and control my weight gain. Then I started going for morning and evening walks. I was getting tired very quickly while walking especially in the evenings.
I used to rest for 2-5 minutes for every 500 meters I walked!
But this method worked for me. In the 4th and 5th month I didn’t gain much weight and my son’s weight was normal. But by then, the early pregnancy abnormal weight gain had its effects on me. I had developed few varicose veins under my right knee and started having some back pain which was bearable.
But the pleasure of the baby kicking me from inside and his movements were divine.
I didn’t want to aggravate my problems in the coming days and always wanted to have a normal and easy delivery. So I started controlling my food intake, was eating only healthy and nutritious food. Every time I ate, I used to cautiously watch what I ate, making sure not to overeat.
Diet Pills during pregnancy
My doctor had strictly warned me of taking any slimming supplements during pregnancy and had cautioned me of the possible side effects. [see my weigh loss struggles]
During pregnancy, whatever medicine we eat goes into our blood and the same blood goes through the umbilical cord to the fetus and gets circulated in our fetus’s body too. Fetus has a very tender body and organs which are at high risk when we consume medicines. We should never try short-cut slimming methods during pregnancy.
During pregnancy never ever take any medicines or supplements unless they are prescribed to you by your doctor as they can cause unknown side effects on your child inside the womb. It is not even suggested to take relatively safe diet pills because the thermogenic booster can have adverse effect on your unborn baby.
A cute little boy came into my life 🙂
Before pregnancy I had a normal weight of 57 kgs. Finally when I was nearing my delivery date, I was weighing at 75 kgs which was slightly higher than the ideal weight gain as per my doctor. But she appreciated me for controlling the weight gain to this level.
As expected, a day after the expected delivery date given by my doctor, I started having labor pain and was admitted to the hospital.
I had a normal delivery; I delivered a healthy baby boy, but the labor was not as easy as I wanted it to be. My son was weighing 3.8 kgs!, slightly above normal weight for a newborn. For achieving this, I give all the credit to my doctor’s timely advice and the effort I had put in so far in controlling my weight gain during pregnancy.
Hope the information and advice given in this article is useful to the to-be mothers reading this now. Anyways writing this article was like a beautiful flashback for me.
