Folic acid
Your midwife or doctor should give you
information about taking folic acid tablets (400 micrograms a day). If you do
this when you are trying to get pregnant and for the first 12 weeks of your pregnancy,
it reduces the risk of having a baby with conditions that are known as neural
tube defects, such as spina bifida (a condition where parts of the backbone do
not form properly, leaving a gap or split that causes damage to the baby’s
central nervous system).
Vitamin D
Your midwife or doctor should give you
information on getting enough vitamin D both during your pregnancy and while
you are breastfeeding.
This is especially important if you are at
risk of vitamin D deficiency (if your family origin is South Asian, African,
Caribbean or Middle Eastern, if you stay indoors a lot, if you usually cover
your skin when you go outdoors, or if your diet is particularly low in vitamin
D-rich food such as oily fish, eggs, meat, and vitamin D-fortified margarine
and breakfast cereal). We only get a very small amount of vitamin D from our
diet; the best source is sunlight. One way of ensuring you get enough vitamin D
is to take a vitamin D supplement (10 micrograms per day) as found in the
Healthy Start multivitamin supplement or from your community pharmacy.
Vitamin A
Excess levels of vitamin A can cause
abnormalities in unborn babies. You should avoid taking vitamin A supplements
(with more than 700 micrograms of vitamin A) while you are pregnant. You should
also avoid eating liver (which may contain high levels of vitamin A) or anything
made from liver, such as pâté.
Other food supplements
You do not need to take iron supplements
as a matter of routine while you are pregnant. They do not improve your health
and you may experience unpleasant side effects, such as constipation.
Food hygiene
Your midwife or doctor should give you
information on bacterial infections such as listeriosis and salmonella that can
be picked up from food and can harm your unborn baby. In order to avoid them
while you are pregnant it is best:
• If you drink milk, to keep to pasteurized
or UHT milk.
• To avoid eating mould-ripened soft
cheese, such as Camembert or Brie, and blue-veined cheese (there is no risk
with hard cheese such as Cheddar, or with cottage cheese or processed cheese)
• To avoid eating pâté (even vegetable
pâté).
• To avoid eating uncooked or undercooked
ready-prepared meals.
• To avoid eating raw or partially cooked
eggs or food that may contain them (such as mayonnaise).
• To avoid eating raw or partially cooked
meat, especially poultry.
Toxoplasmosis is an infection that does
not usually cause symptoms in healthy women. Very occasionally it can cause
problems for the unborn baby of an infected mother. You can pick it up from
undercooked or uncooked meat (such as salami, which is cured) and from the faces
of infected cats or contaminated soil or water. To help avoid this infection while
you are pregnant it is best to:
• wash your hands before and after
handling food
• wash all fruit and vegetables, including
ready-prepared salads, before you eat them.
• make sure you thoroughly cook raw meats
and ready-prepared chilled meats.
• wear gloves and wash your hands
thoroughly after gardening or handling soil.
• avoid contact with cat faeces (in cat
litter or in soil).
Courtesy: National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence
Courtesy: National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence
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