Nutrition

Read more from the Food Guide Pyramid

A pregnant woman should eat a normal, balanced diet for one person.

This may prove difficult, particularly during the early part of the pregnancy when she may experience significant nausea.

It may also prove difficult later in pregnancy when she feels hungry all the time. These women may find they do better by having more frequent (but smaller) meals, or snacks between meals of relatively nutritious but low caloric foods.

During pregnancy, the GI tract becomes much more efficient at extracting nutrients. The positive effect of this is that even if the pregnant woman eats the same food as she did prior to the pregnancy, nature provides for improved nutrition and results in some increased weight. (The negative effect is a tendency toward constipation). Further increases of 200-300 calories/day are desirable as a general rule.

In theory, a pregnant woman should be able to meet all of her nutritional needs through  a normal, well-balanced diet. In practice, virtually no one can maintain that balance throughout pregnancy. Consequently, we recommend vitamin supplements to overcome the dietary indiscretions that are expected.

Weight loss diets during pregnancy should not be followed.

Large doses of vitamins are not only unnecessary, they may be dangerous to the mother and fetus. Take only a single multivitamin and possibly some additional iron or folic acid, if medically indicated.