Nutrition during Pregnancy

This review focuses on the nutritional needs and reality of women while pregnant. In addition the physiology of the pregnant woman is discussed including the weight gain associated with pregnancy the energy and nutritional requirements of pregnancy and the changes is basic metabolism and homeostasis. Pregnant women are considered a nutritionally vulnerable group; however if women were so vulnerable why is there a massive overpopulation problem? That is to say that obviously many women living in nutritionally poor environments sustain healthy pregnancies. To investigate this paradox clinical and epidemiological studies are reviewed and it was found that: 1) in communities where dietary standards are not grossly defective the improved feeding of pregnant women produce only a marginal but by no means unimportant increase of reproductive efficiency; and 2) maternal stature has a considerable influence on reproductive efficiency possibly as a result of the influence of nutritional status during growth i.e. preceding pregnancy. This review compares recorded dietary intakes of pregnant women with recommended dietary allowances but such a comparison fails to produce cogent evidence of serious deficiencies. Nor was evidence found to indicate that many clinical abnormalities can be unequivocally attributed to dietary defects. Maternal weight gain and its implication for nutritional requirements are discussed. And alterations of maternal metabolism and homeostasis are now thought to favor transfer of nutrients to the fetus over uptake of nutrients by the maternal tissues; before these alterations had been viewed as signs of nutritional depletion.