Weight and Diet

The best amount of weight to gain depends on how much you weighed right before you became pregnant. The doctor or staff will let you know if this weight is thought to be overweight, normal or underweight. For a single pregnancy:

• If you are overweight, the best amount to gain is 15 or so pounds
• If you are normal, the best amount to gain is between 25 and 35 pounds
• If you are underweight, the best amount to gain is between 27 and 40 pounds
• Twins, triplets, or more will have different weight gains recommended

Your body needs a good balance of foods to keep you healthy and build a healthy baby. Try to eat regularly and not skip meals. Important parts of your daily diet should include:

• Protein at each meal from meat, chicken, fish (one to two times a week), eggs, beans, milk, or cheese
• Calcium, Vitamins A and D from a few glasses of milk each day (low fat is best)
• B Vitamins from whole-wheat cereals, breads or noodles
• Vitamin C from the fruit or juice of oranges or grapefruits

Other healthy foods to add to your diet are fresh fruits and vegetables. Butter, margarine, or vegetable oils should only be used in small amounts, as these are empty calories. Try to avoid “junk food” (candy, sodas, and desserts). These are very high in calories and filling but have few nutrients or vitamins.

To keep from becoming constipated, try eating high fiber foods like bran, bran cereals, and breads, as well as fresh fruits and vegetables, including salads.

If you eat a proper diet, the only extra things you may need are iron and multivitamins with folic acid. Later in your pregnancy we may suggest you take an iron pill up to 3 times each day. Taking more vitamins and supplements that you buy over the counter may hurt your developing baby. Please talk to us before taking other vitamins or medications.

If you eat adequate amounts of food with iron in it, you may not need to take iron pills. These foods include: fish, meat (mainly organ meats like liver), bread or cereals with added iron, green leafy vegetables (like spinach), eggs, peanut butter, dried fruit (like raisins and prunes).

Too much of some types of vitamin A can cause damage to your baby’s brain and nervous system. Natural vitamin A, called beta-carotene, appears safe. Below is a list of the types of foods containing vitamin A that are safe and the kind you need to watch for carefully. You should follow these recommendations during this pregnancy and later when you are trying to get pregnant again.

Types of Vitamin A that can be dangerous in large amounts:

• Liver can have large amounts of vitamin A. If you like it, limit it to once or twice a week
• Vitamin tablets and foods with added vitamins, such as cereals
• Package labels may list this preformed vitamin A as compounds such as retinyl palmitate and retinyl acetate
• Including the vitamin A that your doctor tells you to take in your prenatal vitamin, you should not have over 8,000 IU of this type of vitamin A per day