Family - Food during Pregnancy

Your body is working incredibly hard to create and grow this new life, and so needs high quality nutrition to do the best job possible.

During pregnancy, it's important to eat a well-balanced and nutritious diet, in order to provide your baby with the nutrients it needs to grow. Your diet should also give you energy for the changes taking place in your body.

However, that does not mean that you can literally 'eat for two' and not be likely to pay the price after the birth of your baby in finding that you have a spare stone or three to lose.

Current NHS recommendations are as follows.

• Fruit and vegetables
Five portions of fruit and vegetables every day. They can be fresh, frozen, tinned or dried. A glass of pure fruit juice also counts towards one of your portions, although no matter how much juice you drink, it only counts as one portion.

• Carbohydrates
You need to include plenty of starchy foods in your diet, including bread, potatoes, pasta, and rice. If possible, try and eat wholegrain options as they contain more nutrients.

• Protein
Protein is an important part of your diet, especially when you are pregnant. Protein-rich foods include fish, lean meats, chicken, eggs, and lentils, nuts and beans. You should aim to eat at least two portions of fish a week, one of which should be oily fish. All of these protein-rich foods are also high in iron, another nutrient which will help keep your baby healthy. You should avoid eating some fish when pregnant -  see below.

• Fibre
Constipation during pregnancy is common, so include plenty of fibre in your diet to help prevent it. Foods that are high in fibre include wholegrain bread, pasta and rice, pulses and fruit and vegetables.

• Dairy foods
Foods such as cheese, yoghurt and milk are all rich in calcium. Your body needs more calcium during pregnancy, especially during the last 10 weeks, when it's used to help strengthen your baby's bones.

Although you need to avoid some dairy products, such as soft or blue-veined cheeses, and unpasteurised goat's milk or goat's cheese, most dairy products are safe to eat.

You can also eat other dairy foods, such as mayonnaise, ice cream and salad dressing, although you need to make sure they haven't been made using raw egg.

• Folic acid
Pregnant women should take a daily 400mcg supplement of folic acid every day. Ideally you should begin taking this from the time you start trying for a baby, until your 12th week of pregnancy.

As well as taking a folic acid supplement, you should also make sure you eat foods that contain folate (the natural form of folic acid), such as green vegetables, brown rice, and fortified bread and cereals.

Folic acid reduces the risk of your baby developing a neural tube defect, which is a condition which affects the development of your baby's spinal cord and brain. One of the most common neural tube defects is spina bifida, a condition which causes the spine to develop abnormally.

• Iron
During pregnancy, your body needs more iron than normal to help ensure your baby has an adequate blood supply. To help make sure your body has enough iron, you should eat plenty of iron-rich foods.

Pregnant women who can't get enough iron from their diet may have to be prescribed an iron supplement.

• Vitamin D
During pregnancy, you should take a 10mcg supplement of Vitamin D every day. Vitamin D helps to regulate the amount of calcium and phosphate in your body - two substances which are needed to keep bones and teeth healthy.

Vitamin D can be found in a small number of foods, such as oily fish, and eggs, but most of vitamin D intake comes from sunlight. However, when you're out in the sun, you should always make sure you keep your skin adequately protected.