Diet and nutrition during pregnancy require wise choices for a surrogate mother. Are you prepared to make wise decisions regarding diet in pregnancy?
Do you currently enjoy foods that could be harmful to a developing baby?
If these questions are running through your head, you aren’t just being paranoid. These are all valid concerns that many women take into consideration when deciding whether to get pregnant, surrogacy arrangement or not.
Just like so many other things in life, diet in pregnancy can be as complicated or as simple as you make it.
While this page will give some ideas regarding diet and nutrition during pregnancy, it is important to talk about this subject with your doctor as well. You never want to substitute this information for the advice given by your doctor, since they know your personal medical history.
Once you know what they recommend, you can come here for additional advice on handling diet and nutrition during pregnancy responsibly.
Why Is Diet Important?
It is not uncommon for women to find out they are pregnant and instantly feel they have the right to eat whatever they want. After all, they are eating for two now, right?
It may be fun to think that you are eating for two and have great freedom to enjoy foods that you would otherwise limit, but foods that are not healthy for you when not pregnant are even worse for you during surrogate pregnancy. Even more important: foods unhealthy for your body are unhealthy for the developing baby.
Healthy diet and nutrition during pregnancy is not just a matter of controlling weight gain so you don’t have as much to lose after delivery. Even if you are surrogate mother, your diet in pregnancy has to be well balanced between all food groups for two reasons:
- Your body will have the nutritional support it needs to carry a growing baby full term.
- The growing baby will get the nutrients needed to develop without pulling nutrients from your muscles, bones and organs.
When you don’t eat nutrient dense foods that provide the nutritional support your body needs and the nutrients the baby needs, you compromise the baby and your own health. When you choose to ignore proper diet and nutrition during pregnancy, the following can happen:
- Nutrients can be pulled from your own body to sustain fetal growth. This leaves you weak and at risk for infection, illness, and pregnancy complications.
- You could develop toxemia or preeclampsia, which puts your health in danger throughout the pregnancy and could lead to an extended period of bed rest.
- The baby may not develop properly. This may lead to birth defects, stillborn delivery, low birth weight, or even a premature birth that could compromise the health and life of the baby.
- The baby may be more likely to get sick or suffer from conditions like ADHD when they are bigger, due to nutritional deficiencies when the brain and other important systems of the body were developing.
You don’t want to set yourself up for a difficult pregnancy, and you definitely don’t want to risk the health of the developing baby. This is why it is so important to watch what you eat while carrying a baby via surrogacy.
Introducing the Brewer Diet
The Brewer Diet isn’t really a diet in the sense of a meal plan designed for weight loss. It is a diet used for pregnant women to ensure proper nutrition for the mother and developing baby. The focus is not on managing or controlling your weight so you have an easier time getting back into shape after delivery. The focus is on getting the nutrients you need for a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby, without sacrificing a lot of time and effort tracking and measuring your food.
The plan was created by Dr. Thomas Brewer prior to him passing away. He dedicated his life to advocating on behalf of pregnant women and their babies, and he operated a successful medical practice with virtually no incidences of toxemia in his patients. He accredited that success to the use of proper diet and nutrition during pregnancy. The Brewer Diet passed around today is the plan he used with his patients to ensure toxemia did not set in and babies developed properly.
Following the Brewer Diet
The Brewer Diet operates off of simple checklists. You print the checklists out and keep them with you throughout the day, checking off food group servings as they are consumed. If you are eating more of a particular type of food than is represented on your chart, then you know you are eating too much for your health and the health of your baby. If you are not checking off all boxes for a given food group, then you know there is a potential nutrient deficiency in your diet that could be harmful during pregnancy.
More Info on the Brewer Diet
This makes diet and nutrition during pregnancy extremely simple. Diet in pregnancy is even made more flexible with the Brewer Diet, since there are three different types of checklists: the basic plan, the lacto-ovo plan, and the vegan plan. The plan works well for surrogate mothers as well, since there is a special checklist used for mothers carrying multiples. Many surrogates end up with multiples, and that means diet in pregnancy is even more important!
Remember, your goal during pregnancy should never be to lose weight. You can look at the eBook Pregnancy without Pounds if you are concerned with weight and want to make sure you are doing the best thing for your figure without harming the developing baby.
Have you ever heard of the Brewer Diet? What was your favorite food while pregnant?
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