REAL OR RUMOUR? Apple or biscuit? Apple or biscuit... Wait, why am I asking you, baby bump? I'm the grownup here!
Why good nutrition matters Is there a connection between a mum-to-be’s nutrition and her baby’s health? Tiffany Brown investigates.
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f you’ve ever been pregnant and politely turned down the offer of a glass of wine or an unsafe or unhealthy snack from an older woman, you may well have heard the offerer mutter something about her own generation to the effect of, “We didn’t follow all these crazy rules when we were pregnant, and our kids all turned out all right, didn’t they?” Well, did we? According to Ministry of Health figures, around 66% of Kiwi adults are overweight or obese. Chronic illness
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Pregnancy BUMP & baby
abounds, diseases and disorders are rampant... In fact, it seems as if we may never have been more unhealthy. So did we really turn out all right?
Hold up a minute, Grandma While studies on the last few generations of children from alcohol-free, or at least minimum-alcohol-consuming mothers, as well as those consuming a more nutritionally optimised diet before and after conception are limited, there has
been plenty of research over the last few decades supporting the notion both your pregnancy and pre-pregnancy eating can affect your child’s birth outcome. As far back as 1987, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced there are “well-established direct causal impacts on intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR or low birth weight)” from factors including pre-pregnancy weight, paternal weight, gestational weight gain, caloric intake, cigarette smoking, and alcohol consumption. Essentially, if you’re underweight or overweight during pregnancy, if you pack on too many pounds while pregnant, and/or if your diet goes out of control, and especially if you’re smoking or drinking, your baby’s risk of IUGR is
