Nutritionals for Pregnant and Breastfeeding Mothers
Your Vital Daily Nutrition Foundation!
Women certainly need to ensure that they take good care of themselves, and an adequate supply of high-quality nutrients and phytonutrients can go a long way to help power through the demanding day. Getting these nutrients from eating ample amounts of fruit and vegetables, whole grain foods, omega-3 rich fish as well as lean protein sources is recommended, but often very difficult to achieve.
NeoLife’s Pro Vitality is a superior quality nutritional pack designed to tackle the typical nutrient and phytonutrient gaps in our daily diet. This convenient, 4-in-1 pack is ideal for life on-the-go. Pro Vitality delivers 23 essential vitamins and minerals, lipids and sterols from whole grains, carotenoids from fruit and vegetables, and omega-3 fatty acids from fish. These nutrients and phytonutrients provide the vital nutrition foundation for all women to sustain optimal health and vitality through life.
And while it is important to have a great foundation for women’s health, women DO in fact have some very specific nutrient needs because of all the stages we go through. In this article, we will help guide you to what these are!
It Gets Even Better with Omega-3!
Omega-3 fatty acids, such as eicosapentanoic acid (EPA) and docosahexanoic acid (DHA) as well as the other members of the omega-3 family such as the omega-3 “parent” alphalinolenic acid are incredibly important to our health. A tremendous amount of research demonstrates the benefits to virtually all the systems and organs in our body. Our immune system balance, heart, brain and visual function depend on an optimal daily supply of omega-3, particularly the long chain omega-3s, DHA and EPA. Recent science has also demonstrated just how important an adequate intake of omega-3 is to muscle and bone health.
Omega-3s During Pregnancy and Lactation
For women, positive relationships between omega-3 intakes during pregnancy and infant birth weight, as well as subsequent visual and cognitive development of the infant have been reported. Post-natal benefits of omega-3 fatty acids can be seen during breastfeeding, when moms transfer DHA through their breast milk to their developing infant. Due to these vitally important benefits, the American Academy of Paediatrics encourages intakes of 200 – 300mg DHA per day through the consumption of 1- 2 servings of fish per week.
Omega-3s and Menstruation
In addition to the tremendous benefits during pregnancy and lactation, it appears that omega-3 can even help in relieving symptoms of primary dysmenorrhea (a condition where women may experience severe, painful menstruation symptoms).
In a study, women were assigned to take one omega-3 capsule (containing 180mg EPA and 120mg DHA) a day for 3 months. There were marked differences in the women who took omega-3 for pain intensity, along with fewer pain killer tablets used as a ‘rescue dose.’ To ensure a regular supply of all nutritionally important omega-3s it is recommended that you choose a superior quality, contaminant-free, clinically proven supplement such as NeoLife’s Omega-3 Salmon Oil Plus.
The Brilliance of B Vitamins
The recommended daily dose of vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine) is around 2mg per day depending on sex and age. Typically, this vitamin is found in foods such as beans, vegetables, fruit, liver, meat and eggs. It is important VITAMIN B CO. SUSTAINED RELEASE ›› Perfect balance of all eight B vitamins ›› High potency for optimum metabolic support ›› Threshold controlled for sustained release of nutrients for treating anaemia that oftentimes results from low vitamin B₆ levels. In addition, it’s a vitamin that is used to treat heart and blood vessel disease, homocysteine control, high cholesterol and other fats in blood.
Vitamin B and Pregnancy
Another B vitamin of importance is folic acid. Folic acid/folate, or vitamin B9, is important for many functions—it is involved in the production of blood cells and DNA for new cells, helps in the prevention of premature births and low birth weight babies, and for the prevention of neural tube defects that can most commonly occur during the first three months of pregnancy. Recommendations during this time include 400 to 800mcg of folic acid per day from dietary supplements or fortified foods. With the increase of folic acid in the body, there is another vitamin that plays a large role with folic acid in the production of red blood cells, and that’s vitamin B12. This vitamin is essential for many groups of women—pregnant women because of its involvement in a baby’s development, vegetarians because vitamin B12 is obtained from animal products and adults older than 50 because of the reduced ability to absorb vitamin B12
‘Her’bals
For centuries, master herbalists have known that women have unique cyclical needs, and that certain herbs work to balance the female cycle. Alternative therapies have often been sought by people who want symptom-relief during menstruation and include the use of herbal strategies or increasing different types of exercise to alleviate symptoms. Herbal strategies are used in many cultures as a form of traditional medicine to alleviate ailments.
If adopting this approach for symptom relief, it is important to select products that have high standards of purity, potency, consistency and go through rigorous quality control. Some botanicals that can be used by premenopausal women include Vitex agnuscastus (chasteberry), Zingiber officinale (ginger), lavender, chamomile, and Glycyrrhiza glabra (liquorice). For example, Vitex agnus-castus has been investigated in in vitro models for its role in Menopause/PMS and the reported action has been on the central nervous system and regulating oestrogen levels.
NeoLife’s Feminine Herbal ComplexTM was designed with a unique approach to provide broad, synergistic effects of the herbal constituents, which optimise their ability to support a woman’s unique cyclical needs.
FEMININE HERBAL COMPLEX
Formulated with 10 different herbs to support balancing women’s unique cyclical needs, restore physiological and emotional balance, relieve symptoms of PMS, and restore feminine well-being. The different botanicals in this unique blend include ginger root to support muscle relaxation and reduce swelling, with St. John’s wort to elevate mood and support calmness, dandelion root to reduce bloating and fluid retention, and Vitex fruit to help with regulating the menstrual cycle.
Conclusion
Women certainly need a healthy lifestyle to be able to face all the challenges that life throws at them! That’s why it’s so important that you take in the nutrients your body craves and needs—a whole-food based diet that includes nutrients and phytonutrients from fruit and vegetables, whole grains, omega-3s and lean proteins. That’s why supplements like Pro VitalityTM can be an important part of the foundation that women need through life, helping to fill the nutrient gaps women often have. A plentiful supply of these vital nutrients can make sure that we can exhibit strength and diligence—girl power!
Pregnancy is the most challenging period for many women. However, so many women get discouraged over time due continuous miscarriages and non-conceptualization complications. Perhaps, you were recently treated for infections and or fibroids. Are you still desirous of conceiving this year? Delay in pregnancy are caused by ovulation failure, blocked fallopian tube, birth control pills, uterine fibroid, endometriosis, S.T.D’s, ovarian cysts or perhaps hormone imbalance etc. You are already PREGNANT!
Pregnancy and breastfeeding is that special time of the year for both the mom and her unborn baby. It’s the most nutritionally demanding times in a woman’s life, because it’s the time when your body needs enough nutrients to support the growth and development of your unborn baby; while maintaining the health of the mother’s body. Daily nutritional food nutrients needed during pregnancy and lactation every woman needs are Protein, Omega-3 fatty acids, Choline, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, Vitamin K, Calcium, Folate, Iodine, Iron, Magnesium, Niacin, Phosphorous, Riboflavin, Thiamin, Zinc.
NEOLIFE nutritional whole-food supplements are very helpful and needful to assist your body’s metabolism to return back to its normal state; especially after delivery.
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