Pregnancy: Eat for yourself.

Pregnancy Weight.
From Desidieter

When a woman becomes pregnant, we often observe a drastic change in her diet and, without a doubt, in her body shape. While women restrain themselves from overeating and keeping a nice curve, many women view pregnancy as an exit route to eat without worries. When women become pregnant, families and friends begin to shove platters of food towards them, thinking that this is the only way that the fetus will be able to get its nutrition. However, evidence show that this is the wrong approach for the health of the mother and the fetus.

Pregnant lady measuring her weight
Credit to iStockphoto

There have been many misconceptions on the idea that pregnant women should eat for two. However, this has been proven to place extra unhealthy weights to a third of women on average. This extra weight is hard to lose even following birth and may cause medical complications on both pregnant women and on the fetus. For example, an increase in blood pressure can be observed in women who over consume during pregnancy, and there is an increase chance of preeclampsia and gestational diabetes. In addition, there is an increase rate of stillbirth and an increase rate of interventions cascade, leading to unnatural birth, caesarian sections.

There are two main problems associated with the misconception of dieting during pregnancy. Firstly, at Surrey University, a psychologist named Jane Odgen investigated in the impact of pregnancy on eating behaviour and aspects of weight concern. She found that during pregnancy, women enable themselves to eat any amount of food they want. She hypothesizes that due to this reason, pregnant women are more susceptible to gaining weight even following giving birth because they have been accustomed to eating for two. Secondly, many health agencies have not successfully promoted the idea of eating normally during pregnancy. Therefore, it has become difficult for pregnant women to become aware of the risks associated with eating for two. Furthermore, pregnant women experience mood swings easily due to hormonal activities; under this circumstance, they allow themselves to feed on food containing high cholesterol content to relieve the stress of pregnancy.

Healthy During Pregnancy
From Yeatips.com

According to a study presented in the American Dietetic Association, women who ate a healthy diet including vegetables, fresh fruit, and the sufficient amount of protein resulted in an easy pregnancy without gaining extra weight. In addition to a healthy diet, light exercise can also reduce the chance of overweighting during pregnancy. To put into perspective, the Institute of Medicine in the United States recommends that women eat three normal meals per day with two snacks.

The following is a youtube video on pregnant women who have been pregnant. They describe the type of diet they consumed during their pregnancy to maintain a healthy body.

-Vivian Wu