Pre-pregnancy nutrition is equally essential as nutrition during pregnancy. Many studies concluded that healthy pre-maternal nutrition status had positive impact towards their offspring’s overall health, including body composition and reduced risks of getting sick at later stages of life.
In contrast, unhealthy nutrition status of a mother such as underweight and overweight or obese would result in adverse pregnancy and poor long-term health condition of her child.
If you desire to have a successful pregnancy and healthy babies, it is better off for you to get prepared starting today. You do not have to wait until you become pregnant. In fact, get into a healthy shape can help you to increase the probability of getting pregnant.
3 Nutrition Status Checklist for Successful Pregnancy
World Health Organization had laid out several points regarding women’s nutrition before pregnancy, you can call it as a checklist to figure out where you are before embarking on your nutrition journey.
1. Get hemoglobin count right
Hemoglobin count is a measure to determine whether someone has anemia or not. Hemoglobin represents the blood capability to carry oxygen. This is one of the vital measurements especially for a woman who wants to have a baby. The reason behind that is women need to ensure both their fetus and themselves to get optimal oxygen to thrive throughout pregnancy. Minimum healthy hemoglobin count for non-pregnant women is 12 g/dl, for pregnant women is 11 g/dl, and for men 13 g/dl. One of the ways to achieve normal hemoglobin level is to consume enough protein and foods that are high in iron. In some cases, physicians might advise you to consume supplements to boost your iron levels.
2. Aim for normal Body Mass Index (BMI)
If there is one goal you might want to add during young adulthood years, it is to achieve normal body. Underweight women (BMI<18,5 kg/m2) are on higher risk for complications, having retarded fetus development, and experiencing suboptimal pregnancy outcomes such as infant’s low birth weight. Similarly, women who are overweight (BMI≥25 kg/m2) and obese (BMI≥30 kg/m2) are also at risk. During pregnancy, they are prone to develop gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, and congenital malformations. In addition, children who were born from overweight and obese mother have higher probability becoming obese and having diabetes too. All things considered, getting into normal body mass index can do you a huge favor.
3. Accomplish recommended micronutrients needs
According to WHO, the cases of neural tube defects reach up to 300.000 pregnancies per year worldwide. Since neural tube defects (NTD) affects the most central system of infants, that is brain and nervous system, babies with NTD have limited mobility and might develop learning disability. Helping pregnant women to fulfill their micronutrients needs, especially iodine and folic acid, will bring down NTD cases for 50-70%. As well as iodine, folic acid, and iron, you also need to pay attention to micronutrients such as vitamin D, vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin B complex, choline, zinc, and calcium.
Ways To Accomplish Ideal Nutrition Status
The key to achieve ideal nutrition status for pregnancy is pretty simple: eat well, exercise well. This is referring to the most fundamental principle of energy balance. Although there are a lot of factors when it comes to body mass index such as genetics, we strive to control what we can control: our lifestyle and habit.
Eating balanced diet that consists of macro and micronutrients on daily basis and exercise regularly are two essential habits you need to have. You can do a little research on energy intake recommendation per day according to your country since each country might have different calculations. Generally, healthy adults are suggested to eat macronutrients which consists 45-65% carbohydrates, 10-35% protein, and 20-35% of fat from the total energy needs per. The percentage for people who try to lose weight is a bit different. It is 10-30% carbohydrates, 40-50% protein, and 30-40% fat.
Fulfilling micronutrients is also a real thing. The best sources of micronutrients are none other than vegetables and fruits. If you are not used to consume healthy foods, it might be recommended to cultivate new eating habit. Although supplements might help, your main source for micronutrients still needs to be real food. No need to rush to eat healthily right away, just start small. For example, start from adding 1 portion of fruit to your daily diet. Then, make it consistent. You might ask for your beloved ones to hold you accountable on building this habit. If you can try to stick to it, the good result will surely come before you know it.
Being aware of your own personalized diet can be a significant step towards ideal nutrition status for pregnancy. This is related to the term nutrigenetics. In nutrigenetics, it is believed that each person genes are related to nutrition thus different reaction to certain foods and nutrients might occur. Want to learn more how your own genes affect your diet? Nala NutriReady™ service can help you. Contact 08119941440 to find out more.
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