Tuesday, 20 April 2010

Pregnancy Diet For A Healthy Motherhood


Pregnancy, the most vital phase in a women's life, makes her go through several psychological, emotional and physical changes. With the evolving baby in your body, your body begins to demand more from its average intake of diet. This is where a balanced pregnancy diet bridges the gap for extra nutrients that your body requires for a healthy pregnancy.

Plan Your Diet Wisely

Although the demand for nutrients increases during pregnancy, but it is always wise to plan and choose food from various food groups. Ensure that your nutrition during pregnancy has food like vegetables, fruits, grains, pulses and milk products which are rich in calcium, protein, Vitamin A,B and C. Apart from these food combinations you have to ensure that you have certain nutrients which are vital for you and your child's growth during your pregnancy stage. For the sake of ease let us list down the nutrients which play a significant role in our pregnancy diet:-

Folic Acid In Pregnancy Diet

Folic acid, better known as Folate, is rich in vitamin B and is found mostly in green leafy vegetables such as spinach, orange juice and kale(type of Cabbage). Folate prevents your child from serious abnormalities of the brain and spine. Lack of Folic acid leads to inadequate growth of the fetus, underdeveloped brain, incomplete closure of spinal cord, preterm delivery and low birth weight.

Calcium in pregnancy diet

Calcium is another important nutrient, which should be a part of your pregnancy Diet. Calcium is used by the body. When a women's body begins to lack in calcium, the body itself begins to take calcium from the bones needed for the baby, thus making the bones weak and in the end fragile enough to break (osteoporosis). Having dairy products like fat free milk, hard cheese, green leafy vegetables like kale, fortified food like Orange juice and cereals will help you overcome your deficiency for calcium.

Iron In Pregnancy Diet

During your pregnancy period, the need for iron intake also increases. Iron in our blood helps carry oxygen to the blood cells. During pregnancy women have blood in excess volume, so this excess blood requires an excess amount of iron. During pregnancy not just your blood cells but your growing child's cells require oxygen, this is where again the demand for the amount of oxygen is fulfilled by iron.

Lack of iron leads to Anemia, which can result in preterm delivery or low weight baby, excessive low iron could make your child anemic in infancy. Iron deficiency can be made up by having red meat, shellfish, beans, potatoes and iron fortified cereals.

Concerns On Pregnancy Weight Planning

Pregnancy weight has always been a matter of concern for women during pregnancy. Weight varies from women to women and from pregnancy to pregnancy, so you need not worry too much.

If you are underweight try to gain a little weight as underweight women mostly have underweight babies. Doctors normally try to ensure that you gain weight through your pregnancy diet. If you don't your body fat is used to support pregnancy.

If overweight you obviously do not want to gain more, but losing weight during pregnancy is not a good idea as it could affect your child. Thus, overweight women should try not to gain anything more than 15 pounds throughout their pregnancy.

On a closing note, have a balanced and disciplined pregnancy diet for a happy and healthy motherhood.

Having a balanced pregnancy diet is very important during the pregnancy period. One should take care of diet and nutrition during pregnancy to have a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby. Pregnancy-Period.Com has almost all that you would like to know about pregnancy and related issues.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Apurva_Jain

Monday, 19 April 2010

How to Stay in Shape While Pregnant

If you're wondering how to stay in shape while pregnant, you are hardly alone. Staying healthy is extremely important as the healthier you are, the better able you'll be to withstand both the effects of pregnancy and the rigors of childbirth. Fortunately, staying in good shape while you're pregnant is a lot easier than you might think.

So what is the secret to staying healthy while you're pregnant? It's really no different than when you're not pregnant...a good diet and plenty of exercise. The same things which help to maintain a healthy body in every day life work during pregnancy. Getting the proper nutrients, keeping your body toned and flexible, and treating your heart right are all essential to maintaining overall health.

When most doctor's talk about how to stay in shape while pregnant, the first tip they give is to eat right. A balanced diet, rich in protein and fruits and vegetables will go a long way toward improving your health. Also, limiting fatty foods and foods with high sugar content will help you to avoid gaining too much weight. Just the same as when you're not pregnant, snacking too much is not good for you and should be avoided.

One mistake most women make when it comes to eating during pregnancy is assuming that they need to diet in order to keep from gaining weight. Actually, dieting is the last thing you want to do while pregnant as diets which cut out specific food groups can be harmful to your baby. Remember, gaining some weight during pregnancy is normal. Simply maintain a sensible diet divided into several small meals a day and you should be able to keep weight gain at a reasonable level.

Another tip for how to stay in shape while pregnant is to try and limit cravings. Again, cravings are a normal byproduct of pregnancy but they can lead to unhealthy eating. Try and cut back on how much you indulge your cravings or find a healthy substitute for whatever food you may be craving. Eating several small meals a day should also help in cutting down on cravings.

Of course, the third main tip for staying in shape is getting the proper amount of exercise. Exercise is particularly important during pregnancy as it helps to improve muscle tone, relieve back ache, promote good circulation and increase stamina. With good, strong muscles and plenty of energy you should be able to handle labor and delivery, no matter how lengthy it may be.

There are many exercises which can provide an answer for how to stay in shape while pregnant. These include yoga, Pilates, dancing, swimming and walking. You don't need to overdo, however. Most doctors recommend about 30 minutes a day to maintain good health. Make sure you avoid any exercises which could cause injury to the baby and be aware of any adverse reactions your body has to exercising.

Just because you're pregnant doesn't mean you can afford to get out of shape. In fact, it's quite the opposite. Now more than ever, you need to stay fit and healthy for your own good and your baby's. Make sure you eat right and get plenty of exercise while you're pregnant and you'll feel better for it in the long run.

There's no need to go through your pregnancy feeling overweight, unattractive and lacking energy. There are many simple steps you can take to help you lose weight, feel great and exercise regularly.

Discover more about the exercise program that thousands of women have used to stay in shape during their pregnancy ==> How To Stay in Shape While Pregnant

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Julia_Strachan

Sunday, 18 April 2010

How to Get Pregnant Naturally

How to Get Pregnant Naturally - 5 Practical Tips

When people contemplate marriage they think that they know all there is to know about how to get pregnant. The sad part is that a majority of couples face a lot of trouble when it comes to conceiving. For most of the couples that face the problem of not being able top get pregnant the problem lies in infertility. This is a very devastating disorder and it is frightening to see how many couples break up over this issue. We will discuss techniques of how to get pregnant fast and naturally for those couples that have not been able to conceive.

If any couple is serious about getting pregnant they should read this proven program that teaches people how to get pregnant fast. Getting pregnant is not as easy as most couples think it is. Many people think that getting pregnant is like snapping fingers and a fetus is conceived in the womb. A lot of these couples are going to wake up with a start.

Infertility is a problem that can be diagnosed only after the couple has tried to get pregnant for a year or more without any success. It is only then that the doctors will begin tests and will try to get the couple to conceive artificially.

No matter how advanced medical science is many techniques of artificial insemination do not really work as well and as fast as people would like to think they do. These procedures can also be expensive, embarrassing and not to mention painful. The good news about all this is that there are other options that teach one how to get pregnant faster than most methods and at a fraction of the cost too.

While trying to learn how to get pregnant on patient tried and tested many processes for a decade and a half. But learn how to get pregnant she did, but not before going through a lot of trauma brought on by uncertainty. This lady was so frustrated at the failures of the medical fraternity that she developed her own technique, got pregnant and then began helping other women like her by teaching them how to get pregnant faster. Her name is Lisa Olsen and she learnt how to get pregnant faster by studying all the natural ways there were to get pregnant.

Many of those ways were promising, but failed. However she finally found a program that helped her to give birth to two healthy beautiful infants.

So, if you want to get pregnant, try these tips:

1. Time your s e x. Sperm survives as many as five days in the body. So, start having s e x two days before you ovulate.

2. Stop smoking the minute you decide you want to have a baby. You reduce your chances of getting pregnant by as much as 45 percent.

3. Increase your Vitamin E and C for a month. Folic acid helps ovulate.

4. If you have trouble getting pregnant try the 'missionary position'. Research has shown this to be the best position to conceive.

5. Lose weight if you have to. Over-weight women take longer to get pregnant and it has little to do with attracting the partner.

Simply click by a website dedicated solely to news and more about how to get pregnant fast - and you can rest assured you will know exactly what you could have been doing wrong so far with personalized advice from experienced infertility experts. Other than providing advice on how to get pregnant, they will provide tips on how to get pregnant faster.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Charli_Jhonson

Thursday, 8 April 2010

Folic Acid

You Don't Need to Be Pregnant to Enjoy the Health Benefits of Folic Acid

Overview

Folic acid is also known as folate or Vitamin B9 and is essential for many of the functions that happen within our bodies. The health benefits of folic acid are not only related to pregnancy, but also to other conditions. It is therefore important to get adequate levels of this nutrient whether from diet or other sources. The following are some of the health benefits of folic acid:

Synthesis and repair of DNA

Our bodies need folate for many reactions involving the making of DNA, the repair of DNA and the methylation of DNA.

Manufacture of red blood cells

Folic acid is essential for the manufacture of red blood cells and a deficiency may cause anemia.

Inhibition of homocysteine

Homocysteine is one of the body's intermediate products and raised levels of this bio-substance are thought to lead to cardiovascular disease. A deficiency in folate (among other factors) is thought to be one reason why levels of homocysteine tend to rise. Hence having adequate levels of folate will tend to protect against cardiovascular disease.

Prevention of neural tube defects in developing embryos

Neural tube defects are a defect in the development of the spinal cord in the embryo. This usually happens in the first 28 days of pregnancy, often before a woman even knows that she is pregnant. A deficiency in folic acid increases the possibility of a neural tube defect.

Help against other conditions

Folate is also thought to be beneficial for peripheral vascular disease, schizophrenia, diarrhoea, epilepsy, gingivitis (periodontal disease), gout, depression, cancer (reduces risk), osteoporosis, psoriasis, restless legs syndrome and seborrheic dermatitis.

Recommendations

Given the multiple health benefits of folic acid, it is important that one gets adequate levels of this nutrient. The diet especially green leafy vegetables, citrus fruit, beans, breads, cereals, pastas and rice are good sources. However, supplementation may also be necessary and there are good nutritional supplements on the market.

My preference is for a multi-ingredient product which not only contains folic acid, but also includes over 70 unique ingredients which help with vision, maintaining skin tone, weight management and other aspects of good health. The one important point to be made is that pregnant women need to check with their health professional first whether they can also use this product as it contains other ingredients besides folate.

If you would like to know more about the multi-ingredient supplement that I have researched from which you can also obtain the health benefits of folic acid, then please visit my website today.

Discover the best anti-aging supplement today.

Roger Franklin is a dedicated writer, researcher and passionate user of natural health products at GoodHealthToGo. Please visit http://www.goodhealthtogo.com for more info and to learn about the products that Roger recommends after extensive research.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Roger_Franklin