It is essential to fill your plate with nutritious foods such as fruits, vegetables and milk, and restrict your intake of junk foods such as candy and soda. Ensuring that you eat plenty of nutrients will help you deliver a normal weight baby. At the flip end of the spectrum are fruits and vegetables, which pack loads of nutrients with few calories. Many birth defects are not preventable, but you can greatly reduce your risk of others by eating nutrient-dense foods. Pregnant women with severe anorexia or bulimia might have this experience if they conceive, but for women who eat three or more times a day, this is truly a rare result of improper nutrition. During the nine crucial months of pregnancy, you will receive a lot of well-meaning advice from friends and relatives about the type of food you should eat during pregnancy, and it can leave you all confused. Anorexia can be a lifelong, chronic condition, but can also become a problem during pregnancy. Improper nutrition can result in many neurological disorders. In some cases, the spine and/or the brain may fail to develop normally; in less severe cases, all may seem normal, but the child may suffer from learning disabilities. Neurological disorders are potentially preventable with a significant intake of folate and vitamin B12. Proper nutrition before, during, and after pregnancy is crucial to the health of both mother and baby; however, the exact effects of improper nutrition vary from case to case. Each case is slightly different. This supplement gives all the right vitamins and minerals, in all the right amounts. Avoid undercooked meat, poultry and eggs During pregnancy, you're at increased risk of bacterial food poisoning. Your growing little one relies on you to get the nutrients he needs to grow and develop into a healthy baby. If a mother is truly malnourished, it can lead to death of the fetus or a baby who is more likely to die in infancy than a child whose mother was properly nourished. Eating plenty of nutritious foods can protect your baby's health while she grows in your womb, but it has lifelong implications as well. See More: Foods and Drinks to Avoid During Pregnancy. If you do not consume foods with plenty of calcium, your baby will take what she needs from you, leaving you deficient in this important nutrient. it learns to replicate the nutrition habits, which … During pregnancy you may have morning sickness, diarrhea, or constipation. If you love eating fruits, especially, mangoes, you might wonder whether you can eat it or not during pregnancy. Gaining too much weight may also impact the health of your baby even after she is born. While the question is a very common one, the answer to this question is complicated. What Makes Your Water Break When You Are Pregnant? Anorexia nervosa is a type of eating disorder that involves dieting or starving oneself obsessively to avoid gaining weight. Early Symptoms of Pregnancy Through First Trimester, Labor and Childbirth Facts and Preparation Tips, Pregnancy Calendars and Weekly Developments, 25 Creative Ways of Remembering Loved Ones at Christmas, Things to Do When You Are 9 Months Pregnant. Since pregnancy is a time of rapid cell growth, lack of nutrition supply can lead to birth defects, low birth weight, and stillbirths also. Babies who are delivered as low birth weight often experience additional health problems as they get older, Eileen Behan reports in her book, "The Pregnancy Diet." Potato chips pack in calories, but add virtually no vitamins or minerals. Eat varied meals and aim for high nutrient density. Filling up on high-fat and high-calorie foods such as fried foods, soda and sweets, increases your risk of unhealthy weight gain. Some results of poor nutrition in pregnant mothers are: death of the fetus, low birth weight, and several congenital conditions, such as neural tube defects , which are a common result of inadequate consumption of folate in pregnant women. Several outcomes are possible, ranging from the fetus dying to having a child of low birth weight but with no other adverse symptoms. General malnutrition in the mother is far more likely to cause physical and/or neurological defects in unborn children than it is to cause their death. It has been found that maternal nutrition has a “fetal programming” effect on the baby i.e. Ipatenco holds a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in education, both from the University of Denver. Many infants born in the lowest end of the birthweight spectrum have mothers with a more or less nutrient-deficient diet. Proper nutrition before, during, and after pregnancy is crucial to the health of both mother and baby; however, the exact effects of improper nutrition vary from case to case. In addition to eating a well-rounded healthy diet, a woman who is trying to conceive or who is pregnant should consider taking a prenatal vitamin each day. Rarely, food poisoning affects the baby, too. Lacking essential nutrients may prevent proper growth and development of your unborn baby, which can lead to low birth weight. Heartburn is particularly common in the final trimester, where the growing baby causes the stomach acids to move up into the esophagus, thus making you feel extremely uncomfortable. Babies with a low birth weight are much more likely to suffer from chronic conditions and are also more likely to die during infancy. For a pregnancy to be healthy, a little weight gain is normal and necessary, but gaining a lot can lead to back pain and dental problems. A prenatal vitamin has all the right amounts for a pregnant woman. The foods you eat can benefit or damage the health of your unborn baby. What Happens to the Baby if a Pregnant Mother Does Not Eat Properly? If you are a healthy weight before getting pregnant, you should expect to gain 25 to 35 pounds before delivery. She started writing in 2007 and has been published in Teaching Tolerance magazine. Calcium and protein should be kept at significant levels and fat should be kept low (fewer than 60-65 grams per day in a 2000 calorie/day diet), similar to a generally healthy adult diet. During the nine crucial months of pregnancy, you will receive a lot of well-meaning advice from friends and relatives about the type of food you should eat during pregnancy, and it can leave you all confused. Taking individual vitamins during pregnancy is ill-advised because some vitamins can actually cause more problems in excess than when there is a deficiency. Eating a poor diet can contribute to unhealthy weight gain and make it more difficult to lose the baby weight following delivery. Your reaction might be more severe than if you weren't pregnant. The expectant mother should never go on a diet to reduce weight during pregnancyA major reason women may have a poor diet during pregnancy is because of cravings or aversions to any particular type of food. All Rights Reserved. Of course, being of low birth weight does not necessarily signify underlying problems; however, in many cases, low birth weight is a symptom of overall improper nutrition. If you love eating fruits, especially, mangoes, you might wonder whether you can eat it or not during pregnancy. Why wasn't this page useful? Folic acid is present in foods such as dark leafy greens and fortified cereals. Restricting these foods from your diet will put you in danger of losing significant amounts of calcium. Calcium is present in dairy foods such as milk, cheese and yogurt but can also be found in many fruits, vegetables and fortified juices and grain products. Behan notes that mothers who have poor diets while pregnant may increase their baby's risk of high blood pressure as a child. Copyright 2020 Leaf Group Ltd. / Leaf Group Media, All Rights Reserved. Fish. These cases are, thankfully, very rare in areas of the world with prenatal care. If you do not include whole foods such as these in your diet, you may increase your baby's risk of birth defects because you do not have adequate stores of essential nutrients to pass to your growing baby. While it is very scary wondering what happens to the baby if a pregnant mother does not eat properly, the best thing you can do is relax about the matter, remember to take a prenatal supplement once a day, and always ask yourself which food is more nutrient rich when you are selecting foods for yourself. Pregnancy does not require a lot of extra calories, but it is an extremely important time to look at whether or not you are eating enough vitamins and other nutrients. © 2006-2020 LoveToKnow, Corp., except where otherwise noted. Plus extra sugar in the body can lead to unnecessary weight gain, increase in insulin and glucose levels, and nutrient deficiency in a pregnant woman. Sara Ipatenco has taught writing, health and nutrition. “It can increase your risk of several pregnancy-related symptoms, such as fatigue, heartburn, stretch marks, gestational diabetes and more,” Mendes says. While a baby being small may not seem like such a problem on the surface, insufficient growth is often a sign of other, more serious, problems underlying it. Women who do not consume enough foods rich in vitamins and other nutrients may have babies who grow slowly due to the lack of resources available in the pregnant woman's body.