This document discusses maternal nutrition during pregnancy. It addresses concerns about maternal weight gain and nutrient intake during pregnancy. Certain groups are at higher risk of poor nutrition, including those restricting calories or dieting, adolescents with low income, and those with limited food choices or smoking. The nutrition of both the mother and fetus is essential, as the fetus relies solely on the mother's nutrients and competes with her for nutrients. Folate and B vitamins can decrease the risk of neural tube defects. The document also discusses avoiding drugs, chemicals, alcohol, tobacco, and caffeine during pregnancy as they can harm fetal development.

2. Maternal Nutrition
 Concerns about nutrition during pregnancy.
two basic areas:
 Maternal weight gain
 Nutrient intake

3. Maternal weight gain during pregnancy
results from a variety of factors….
 Maternal dietary intake
 Pre-pregnancy weight
 Length of gestation
 Size of fetus

4. Group at risk:
- women voluntarily restricting calorie intake or
dieting.
-pregnant adolescent women w/ low income or
limited food budget.
-women w/ eating patterns or practices that require
balancing food choices.
-smokers
-women w/ poor knowledge of nutrition,&
-women w/ special difficulties in food resource
management.

5. A nutrition diet throughout pregnancy is
essential for both the fetus and the mother.
Not only does the baby get all its nutrients
from the mother; it also competes w/ her
nutrients not sufficiently available to meet
both their needs.

6. B vitamin & folic acid - to decrease the risk
of neural tube defects.
Folate - is found naturally in leafy green
vegetables, legumes, and citrus fruits.

7. Avoiding Drugs and
Other Environmental
Hazards

8. In addition to the food the mother eats, the
drugs she takes and chemicals she is
exposed to affect the fetus. Everything the
mother ingests may eventually reach the
fetus in some proportion.

9. Other drugs can cause
damage throughout
prenatal development

10. Alcohol
 A high level of alcohol
consumption during
pregnancy is associated
w/ miscarriage, still
birth; & in live
babies, fetal alcohol
syndrome (FAS).
Tobacco
 Smoking during
pregnancy increases the
rise of miscarriage, low
birth weight and infant
death.

11. Caffeine
 It puts both mother and fetus under stress by
raising the level of the hormone epinephrine.
Caffeine also reduces the blood supply to the
uterus.