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When you’re pregnant, everyone wants you to eat a lot.
“Are you having a craving?” my husband would ask eagerly, ready to make a late-night snack run. “Here, finish these,” friends ordered, pushing the fries in my direction. “Go for it,” colleagues said as I went for seconds or thirds. “You’re eating for two!”
Eventually a couple things sank in:
• You may be eating for two, but one of you is very, very small.
• You need only 300 extra calories a day in the first trimester. And only 350 extra in the second trimester. (That’s one eight-grain roll at Starbucks.) And only 450 extra calories in the third. (A couple of oranges with your roll.)
A better way to think of “eating for two”
Focus instead on providing baby with two key nutrients:
FOLIC ACID
What it does: cuts risk of neural tube defects by 76 percent
What it is: vitamin B9
How to get it: leafy greens (spinach, asparagus, turnip greens, lettuce), legumes (beans, peas, lentils), sunflower seeds, prenatal vitamins
When to eat it: four weeks before conception and during the first four weeks of pregnancy
OMEGA-3S
What they do: aid normal brain development. Babies whose moms got enough omega-3s (300 mg of DHA per day) were better at memory, recognition, attention, and fine motor skills at 6 months old.
What they are: essential fatty acids (ALA, DHA, and EPA), part of the membranes that make up a neuron
How to get them: Eat at least twelve ounces per week of oily fish with low concentrations of mercury. Flaxseed oil isn’t converted by the body efficiently enough. Algae-derived DHA capsules (600 mg per day) have potential but are less studied.
When to eat them: Now. Then keep it up.
THE RESEARCH
In a study of twelve thousand women, the less seafood women ate during pregnancy, the greater their risk of having children with verbal IQs in the lowest quartile at 8 years old; behavioral problems at 7 years old; and poor social, communication, and fine motor skills in the early years.
The researchers concluded that any mercury you’d ingest from twelve ounces of fish per week is much less problematic than missing out on the omega-3s from the fish.
“We recorded no evidence to lend support to the warnings of the US advisory that pregnant women should limit their fish consumption,” the researchers wrote.
Salmon
Shrimp
Sardines
Scallops
Catfish
Pollock
Tuna (Wild Planet)
Swordfish
King mackerel
Tilefish
Shark
If you work out, keep it up. If you don’t work out, start.
Doctors used to tell pregnant women to go easy on the exercise. Turns out they were being conservative because so few studies had been done on exercise during pregnancy.
More recent research shows that exercise is so beneficial, it outweighs the miniscule potential risk to baby’s health. Signs of risk to the baby don’t even begin to show up until you’re exercising at a level that feels like an all-out sprint.
Benefits for mom and baby
Exercise benefits the brain, not just the body:
• Exercise increases blood flow, which stimulates the body to make more blood vessels. More blood vessels give the brain more access to oxygen and energy.
• Aerobic exercise also increases BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), a chemical that grows new neurons. BDNF helps keep existing neurons going by making them less susceptible to damage and stress.
• BDNF karate-chops the toxic effects of stress hormones, including cortisol. In turn, baby’s stress-response system and limbic system can develop normally.
Cardio beats weights
Strength training doesn’t affect the brain like aerobic exercise does. A combination is great, but if you’re pressed for time and energy, go with aerobic exercise. Swimming tops the list. The water supports your weight and disperses excess heat from your belly. The exercise works your entire body. Even if you’re just bouncing along in the pool during senior swim, you’ll feel so much better. Your impressively swollen ankles will, too.
Listen to your body
How much exercise is too much? Not enough research has been done to know for sure. Maybe that’s why everyone says: Listen to your body.
I thought pregnant women weren’t supposed to go running or bicycling, so I cut back on exercise when I got pregnant. Soon, I didn’t feel healthy. Mid-pregnancy, I went back to my active lifestyle, respecting my mood in terms of how intensely I exercised. I felt so much better. For me, around eight months pregnant was the right time to scale back and just stroll around the neighborhood.
THE RESEARCH
Pregnant women—not used to working out—began exercising four times a week for forty-five to sixty minutes at a time. They started at about 12 weeks pregnant and continued through 36 weeks, doing things like hilly walks and step aerobics. Compared with women who didn’t exercise, the exercisers were more fit, fewer had C-sections, and they recovered more quickly after delivery. In another study, women who were 28–32 weeks pregnant ran on a treadmill to exhaustion, and the babies experienced only a brief blip in heart rate and blood flow.
What will you do for exercise? Be
