Eating a Fertility Diet for Pregnancy

Whether you are pregnant, want to become pregnant, or are breastfeeding, you want to fill your body with nutrients for your baby.  Your stores of nutrients directly affect, influence, and make a difference in the health and life of your child.  You can’t change everything about the health of your child, but you can contribute a lot when you care for your body pre-pregnancy, during pregnancy, and post-pregnancy.  Eating a fertility diet allows you to do what you can to promote the health of your baby.

“I thought that I shouldn’t diet during pregnancy.”

This diet is not like modern diets.  It doesn’t starve your body of calories, but rather gives your body the nutrients that it desperately desires.  Some ladies may find that they loose extra pounds while eating this diet, but that is only because their bodies are full of the healthy nutrients that it requires.  The goal of this diet isn’t weight loss.

The goal of this diet is to eat the nutrients that your body needs to build a new human.

If you eat this diet, you may actually . . . not be hungry EVERY single second of your pregnancy.  What a refreshing thought!

“I’ve Already Eaten Horribly Before or During my Pregnancy.”

It is never too late to start eating right!  Begin this diet to build up your child’s body with the nutrients she or he needs to thrive and build a strong brain, bones, and internal structure.  I began my journey into organic foods right before I had my son, but I had no idea how to eat right.  While my husband was deployed, I ate instant mashed potatoes a lot.  I was so sick because I did not have enough magnesium in my body.  When you have enough magnesium in your body morning sickness is practically non-existent.  How I wish I had known!!!  My body was utilizing the carbs from the mashed potatoes in order to synthesize the nutrients that my baby needed.

Note: This is why I do not suggest that mothers switch to Paleo during pregnancy.  If you do not have enough nutrients (vitamins and minerals) stored up in your body and you refuse to eat carbs, your body may not have the energy it needs to synthesize the nutrients that are missing.

Some mothers jump into guilt mode at this point.  If you didn’t eat well during a previous pregnancy and your child has had some problems, don’t beat yourself up.  You have no idea why the problem occurred.  It could be due to nutrients or genetics or random chance.  You can’t change the past, but you can change the future.  Eating well is ALWAYS a good choice.

What Should I Eat Then?”

I’m so glad you asked.  Since having my son back in 2009, I have been unable to have another child.  In order to promote a healthy reproductive system, I have studied the fertility/pregnancy diet concept thoroughly.  Much of this was possible due to the research done by Weston A. Price, a dentist who lived in the early 1900’s, the Weston A. Price Foundation, and the book Beautiful Babies by Kristen Michaelis.  I have also gathered information from attending two Weston A. Price Nourishing Traditions conferences in Ireland and in Montgomery, Alabama.  What I have found is that the ideal diet during pregnancy is not the modern processed food diet that supplements with a gigantic prenatal vitamin.

The ideal diet before, during, and after pregnancy is a traditional food diet that integrates foods dense in essential nutrients.

Fertility Diet - www.boholisticmom.com

Eat Healthy Fats

You need healthy fats and the cholesterol that comes with them in order to help your baby to develop.  Why do you get hungry constantly during pregnancy?  Your body is actively requesting nutrients from food.  It craves them!  When you eat healthy fats and obtain cholesterol, your body does one very important thing . . . create hormones.

Your body uses the fat/cholesterol to create the hormones you need to promote your pregnancy.  Cholesterol is the “mother of all hormones.”  You absolutely need healthy cholesterol in order to produce progesterone to maintain your pregnancy.  You cannot produce hormones without first having cholesterol.  Many mothers bodies become tired quickly because their bodies do not have cholesterol readily available and then their bodies has to make cholesterol in order to make hormones.  Give your body a break and eat foods with healthy fats and cholesterol.

Your body also uses the fat/cholesterol to absorb Vitamin A and D, which in turn produces other nutrients in your body.  You need fat to absorb Vitamin A and D.  You need Vitamin A and D to fully absorb/utilize calcium and magnesium.  Your body needs magnesium to produce hormones (it works with the cholesterol).  Your body needs calcium to build strong bones in your growing baby!

Eating healthy fats before, during, and after pregnancy is important to all of the pregnancy and breastfeeding processes.

EAT: Cod Liver Oil (GREAT for Vitamin A and D), Grass-Fed Butter, Coconut Oil, Schmaltz (from pastured chickens), Tallow (from grass-fed beef), Etc.


Eat Healthy Protein

Eating meat always seems like a great idea to me.  I’ve never been shy about consuming a juicy steak or slicing up a freshly roasted chicken.  However, in this day in age, it is very popular to be a vegetarian or a vegan.

Did you know that Vitamin A and D in their whole nature are ONLY found in animal (this includes fish) products?

You can get vitamin building blocks such as Beta-carotene that your body can use to make Vitamin A from vegetables, but building vitamins is a tedious task for your body.  Your body will most likely never make enough Vitamin A or D each day to support your nutrient needs without eating animal products.  I know many of you may disagree with me, but I am telling you what I firmly believe.  You cannot fully be nourished without eating fish and/or other animals.

You want to eat meat and fish that you can believe in and know where they have been raised and how they have been cared for during their lives.  Animals should be respected and treated humanely.  Stressed out animals that live on feed lots do not have the types of hormones we want to consume.  Do you want to consume the hormones of a stressed out cow, pig, or chicken?  If I am going to eat meat, I want happy cows, pigs, and chickens (not to mention lambs, deer, bison, and other animals).  I look for the words pasture-raised, grass-fed, and sometimes organic to help me know what type of meat I want to buy.  Organic means that the animals have not been given antibiotics, growth hormones, or GMO feed, but it says nothing about how they were raised.  The animals who are pastured and eat grass (or the chickens who get to eat bugs) are happier animals who get to live a full life before they become food.

EAT: Eggs and Egg Yolks (from pastured hens), Beef or Lamb (from grass-fed cows and lambs), Broth (from the bones of grass-fed cattle or pastured hens), Liver (from grass-fed cows or pastured chickens, GREAT for Vitamin A and D), Milk (from grass-fed cows), Seafood (fresh wild-caught seafood from trusted sources)

Eat Probiotics

You have an opportunity to pass on something to your baby during pregnancy that goes beyond nutrients.  You have the chance to pass on your healthy (or unhealthy) gut flora.  During childbirth, your baby will actually gain some of its brand new stomach flora while it passes out of your body and through the birth canal.  I used to think this was gross, but now I think of it as a one time chance.  It’s one time that your baby has to gather just the right bacteria (probiotics) from you.  My baby didn’t have this chance.

During a cesarean, your baby does not pass through your birth canal.  My son didn’t.  After being at 10 centimeters and pushing for 2 1/2 hours my doctor told me that my only option was having a C-section.  Ladies, this is where I’ll encourage you to get support.  Hire a doula.  Hire a midwife.  Have a support network who will help you to know what you can do and cannot do while having your baby.  Soapbox over.

Since your baby gains its new flora in such a unique way, you want to have the BEST flora you can possibly have.  To boost your happy gut flora, you want to eat copious amounts of fermented foods!  You can make kefir, sauerkraut, drink raw milk (from a trusted source), and you can make fermented condiments.  The ways to naturally boost your stomach bacteria are numerous.  I highly suggest the book Wild Fermentation.  In this book you can learn the ins and outs of fermenting your own foods and making this a part of your life.  Don’t just do this for your future baby, do this for you!  You’ll feel like a million bucks when you are regularly consuming foods with natural probiotics.

EAT: Fermented Vegetables, Raw Milk, Fermented Drinks, Fermented Condiments

Fertility and Pregnancy Diet Printable

I made this chart for my equally crunch friend who became pregnant last year.  She also loves Weston A. Price and has read Nourishing Traditions that was released by Sally Fallon the head of the Weston A. Price Foundation.  I had read Kristen’s book Beautiful Babies (she hadn’t yet) and she was out of town.  So what does a Printable designing friend do when her friend asks her for help?  Make a printable.

My tagline?  There’s a Printable for that!

If you want to eat well during your pregnancy and you want an easy guide to help you eat according to tradition, click the link below to download this Fertility and Pregnancy Diet Chart on PDF.  I sell Printable PDF files on Etsy, but how could I charge a mom who wants to eat right for her baby?  I want ladies to have this resource and seek further resources in order to maintain a happy and healthy pregnancy.

What can you do for me?  Pray for me.  I’ve been trying to have a second child for six years unsuccessfully.  I don’t know why we haven’t gotten pregnant, but I do know that I’m eating well.  That’s one check in the box!!!  Your prayers would be the best payment of all.

I hope to cover what you shouldn’t eat during pregnancy in another post, but for now . . . happy eating!!!


Fertility Diet and Pregnancy Diet | Boholistic Mom

Download Here —-> Fertility and Pregnancy Diet Chart | Boholistic Mom

 

 

Portrait-Brooke-300-x-300

Brooke Shambley

THE Boholistic Mom

 Sources and Resources

How Diet Affects Fertility, Pregnancy, and Newborns – Food Renegade

Beautiful Babies Nutrition Course – Food Renegade

Diet for Pregnant and Nursing Moms – Weston A. Price Foundation

Beautiful Babies: Nutrition for Fertility, Pregnancy, Breast-feeding, and Baby’s First Foods

Honoring Our Cycles: A Natural Family Planning Workbook

Nourishing Traditions

 

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