Nutrition During Pregnancy
By Amy V. Haas, BCCE The single most important thing that you can do for your baby is to eat a healthy, well balanced diet. A well balanced diet is one that includes foods from all food groups, in appropriate amounts, so as to ensure proper nutrition. Proper nutrition ensures that all essential nutrients (carbohydrates, fats, protein, vitamins, minerals, and water) are supplied to the body to maintain optimal health and well being. Good nutrition is essential for normal organ development and functioning, normal reproduction, growth and maintenance, for optimum activity level and working...
Read MorePreventing Gestational Diabetes
Don’t Risk Yourself Out of a Homebirth: Prevent Gestational Diabetes By Amy V. Haas, BCCE It’s the third class in my childbirth education series – the time when I encourage my students to ask about prenatal testing – and I’ve started to dread some of the questions about glucose tolerance testing. Most of the time, when someone asks about glucose tolerance testing, I discuss the history and refer them to Henci Goer’s book, The Thinking Woman’s Guide to a Better Birth. Typically, at least one person in the class decides they don’t want to be tested. That’s totally their right. But what happens...
Read MoreA new podcast!
A few weeks ago Adriana Lozada, of Birthful, interviewed me for a Podcast on Nutrition during Pregnancy. The Podcast is up! You can find it here: http://www.birthful.com/podcast-pregnancy-nutrition/
Read MorePregnancy Nutrition and Our Children’s Future
Pregnancy Nutrition and Our Children’s Future By Amy V. Haas, BCCE We hear all about eating a good diet during pregnancy to help yourself be healthier, and have better outcomes, but apparently, what we eat during pregnancy can also affect our children’s future health. Proper pregnancy nutrition can affect children in multiple ways, most specifically by helping to prevent: Prematurity, Birth defects, Diabetes, Multiple sclerosis, Behavioral problems, Poor cognitive performance, and depression. Since premature babies can potentially have multiple health, cognitive, & development...
Read MorePregnancy Cravings
“Cravings for certain foods are common in pregnancy. In theory, this can indicate a need or deficit in a diet. Cravings for healthy foods can be indulged, but cravings for non-food substances (Pica), such as clay or laundry starch can be harmful, and should be reported to your care provider If you crave things like ice cream you can indulge yourself, to a point. Ice cream has calcium and protein in it, but it also has a great deal of sugar. Indulging on occasion is not a problem. Eating it every day could put you at risk for gestational diabetes. Cravings for fresh fruit can...
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