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| Home > Nutrition and Health > Nutrients & Vitamins
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| | Nutrients & Vitamins for Pregnant Women
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Some nutrients however deserve special mention for their particu-lar importance in pregnancy.
Protein
Protein is the basic ingredient of a cell. Your protein requirements increase by about 60 percent over your normal requirement, in the period of rapid growth of the unborn baby and its support system (placenta, uterus, volume of blood and amniotic fluid).
Calcium
Mineralization of the fetal skeleton and teeth is promoted by calcium. The fetus requires approximately 66 percent more cal-cium than normal during the last trimester, when the teeth are forming and skeletal growth is most rapid. You will store Calcium in your bones as a reserve for later milk produc-tion.
Iron
Iron is a major component of hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying protein in the blood. , During pregnancy the maternal blood vol-ume increases by 50 percent, so there is increased demand of hemoglobin and the other components of blood. On top of it the fetus, during the last six weeks of pregnancy, accumulates enough iron in her liver to supple-ment her needs for the first three to six months of life. This is nature`s way of ensuring that the baby gets enough iron, since the main food during that period being breast milk or formula food, only partially fulfills an infant`s iron require-ments. A healthy person is able to absorb about 5 to 10 percent of the iron he ingests. The National Research Council`s Commit-tee on Maternal Nutrition recommends thirty to sixty milligrams of iron supplement daily to ensure absorption of the iron needed each day.
Though iron is a major component for good nutrition, it is known to upset the digestive tracts in many people. The side effects like nausea, heartburn, diarrhea, or constipation-are related to the amount of elemental iron ingested and how an individual reacts to the iron supplement and not to the type of preparation. That is to say it does not matter if you take ferrous sulfate, ferrous fumerate, or ferrous gluconate than how much iron you take at a time. To relieve the unwanted side effects, your physician may advice you to decrease the dosage or ingest it with food.
Eat foods that are rich in iron content, like liver and other organ meats, red meat, egg yolk, dried fruit, apple juices, dried peas, spinach lentils, spinach, beans and back-strap molasses and walnuts. Absorption is easiest when it is taken in natural form.
Vitamins
Life functions are impaired in the absence of vitamins. They are classified by their solubility: Water soluble vitamins like C and B complex and fat soluble vitamins like A, D, E, and K. Cooking destroys the vitamin content of the water soluble ones. Foods high in these vitamins should preferably be eaten raw or cooked briefly in little water, steamed or stir fried.
Folic acid is a water-soluble vitamin in the B-complex group. Folic acid is essential for the normal growth of all cells. RNA & DNA synthesis cannot take place in the absence of folic acid. Hence the requirement for folic acid doubles during pregnancy. The usual recommendation is a daily supplement of 400 micrograms during pregnancy. The supplement needs to be maintained as folic acid is destroyed by long storage and overcooking.
To make sure that you get all the essential vitamins and minerals, you must eat a varied diet. Your supplements should be augmented from your prime source that is from food itself. Vitamin preparations contain only some of the essential nutrients that have been identified and there are undoubtedly some essential nutrients that have not yet been discovered or whose functions are not yet fully understood.
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