Pregnant? Is your diet providing you with all the nutrients you need?
Expectant mothers often lack certain vitamins or minerals. These deficiencies can adversely affect the health of their child both in the early months of life and as they grow into adulthood. Thanks to advancements in nutritional therapy, it is now possible to significantly reduce this risk. Two essential factors must be considered: ensuring the fetus achieves an ideal weight and meeting its micronutrient needs (vitamins, minerals, and other essential elements). Indeed, each nutritional deficiency can have identified repercussions on the health and development of your baby.
Balance and Diversity
During pregnancy, the watchword is balance and diversity. Your doctor may prescribe a blood test for certain key nutrients to adjust your diet and/or choose appropriate supplementation.
- Omega-3: Optimal intake of polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids contributes to the proper growth of the fetus, particularly in the development of the child's nervous system. Hence, it is important to establish a good omega-6/omega-3 balance in your fat consumption.
- Vitamin B: Maternal deficiency often promotes fetal hypotrophy (small size and low weight at birth), low vitality, irritability with an exaggerated tendency to cry, and later, adaptation difficulties.
- Vitamin B9: Inadequate intake exposes the baby to a high risk of prematurity, cerebral immaturity, or even non-closure of the neural canal (ranging from spina bifida to exceptionally absent brain).
- Vitamin B12: When combined with the two preceding vitamins in supplementation, it significantly reduces the risk of miscarriage in women who have had several.
- Vitamin C: When the mother is deficient, she exposes herself to high blood pressure and exposes her child to various complications: placental detachment with decreased nutrient supply, cerebral distress, hypotrophy, premature birth, and increased risk of bleeding.
- Vitamin D: In addition to rickets, the deficient baby is at risk of hypocalcemia shortly after birth (convulsions, bluish tint of the face and extremities, increased heart rate, risk of respiratory arrest, vomiting).
- Vitamin E: The greater the deficit, the higher the risk of preeclampsia (placental disease) (combination of high blood pressure and renal dysfunction). There is then a risk of fetal distress and intrauterine death.
- Calcium: The main risk here is preeclampsia, with the additional risk of tetany at birth.
- Iron: Maternal anemia due to iron deficiency increases the risk of malformations, heart problems, and respiratory distress.
- Iodine: Nearly 10% of children born to iodine-deficient women develop hypothyroidism, with the risk of irreversible reduction in intellectual abilities.
- Magnesium: Its deficiency exposes the fetus to intrauterine growth retardation and, later, to premature birth, lack of vitality, and a higher risk of seizures.
- Selenium: Its deficiency also exposes to the occurrence of preeclampsia and serious complications.
- Zinc: Possible complications due to its deficiency are numerous: spontaneous abortion, prematurity or post-maturity, hypotrophy, sexual maturation anomaly, loss of taste, psychomotor delay, and later, dyslexia and learning difficulties.
Please note that this list should not cause you to panic, but it should not be taken lightly either, as it provides a comprehensive overview of the risks associated with nutritional deficiencies. However, some nutrients, such as iron, should be handled with caution during pregnancy. That's why it should not be included in the composition of supplements specially designed for pregnancy.