March is Nutrition Month, which gives us a great opportunity to reflect on the importance of making balanced food choices to support our health—especially as expectant mothers.
Food plays a particularly huge role in supporting your well-being during pregnancy, as well as your baby’s.
Here are 3 ways that healthy eating can help to support your pregnancy.
1. Helps keep you feeling your best
While pregnancy is a very special time in your life, it can also come with a few unfortunate side effects, especially during your first and third trimesters . These side effects can cause many hormonal and physical changes within your body which can range from nausea to food aversions to acid reflux or constipation.
The good news is that diet changes can often help you manage these side effects and keep you feeling your best!
2. Improves pregnancy health
It’s known that diet plays a role in preventing and managing different chronic conditions outside of pregnancy– but the same can be said for conditions specific to pregnancy.
Studies show that nutrition counselling during pregnancy can lead to improved prenatal health outcomes, including reduced risk of anemia, reduced risk of preterm birth and encourages optimal birth weight.
3. Supports your baby’s growth and development
During pregnancy, your baby is growing from a fertilized egg to a fetus with functioning organs. Your baby goes through rapid growth and development until they are ready for birth. Nutrition helps to fuel this growth and development by providing your body with the energy that it needs for tasks that it did not need to perform prior to pregnancy.
We also know that many nutrients support cell division and fetal growth throughout pregnancy. For example, we know that folate or folic acid helps form the neural tube in the early stages of pregnancy. Not getting enough of this nutrient can have consequences on fetal development.
We know that nutrition supports a healthy pregnancy so it’s a great idea to learn as much as you can.
So the question is, what diet is the right diet for pregnancy?
The reality is that “the right diet” can look different for everyone.
There’s a lot of information out there about nutrition during pregnancy and conflicting information can make it overwhelming at best– whether it’s coming from searching online, through social media or even well-intentioned advice from friends and family. This can be a huge challenge to navigate during an incredibly important time in your life.
If you have nutrition questions for your pregnancy, I encourage you to reach out to a prenatal registered dietitian. Nutrition counselling with a prenatal dietitian can help take away the confusion, and provide you with all the information you need to make nutritious choices that are tailored to your pregnancy.
Do you have questions about nutrition during pregnancy? Book a complimentary 15-minute meet & greet call to learn how we can support you in meeting all of your prenatal nutrition needs!