Nutrition and Pregnancy

What a mother eats during pregnancy directly impacts the nutrients that are supplied to the baby and has an influence on the fetal nourishment throughout each stage of gestation.

The division of nutrients between mother and fetus favours maintenance of the maternal body weight,rather than normal fetal growth.If nutrient intake of mother is restricted despite some metabolic competition between mother and fetus proportionally the mother will continue to receive a large share of  nutrients.

The mother will protect her body against the demands of the growing fetus. Once the demands of natural metabolism are met,fetal growth increases linearly with the availability of additional natural energy stores but,only up to the point where the mothers post-par tum  weight is 100 to 110% of her ideal body weight.But when the mother accumulates excessive body nutrient stores (weight becomes overweight) there is no longer any further positive effects on fetal growth.The health of a mother thus have a very large effect on the health of the body.