Protein Rich Diet in Pregnancy and a Postpartum Diet Plan

During pregnancy, eating habits affect your baby’s growth and development and prepares your body for pregnancy. Your body will change drastically, and many nutrients will be needed to support the growing fetus and developments taking place from that first month onward.

A healthy pregnancy diet may help you reduce birth defects and other related issues and give the mother the nutrients needed to stay healthy and important eating habits that help sustain the pregnancy.

Why is protein so important during pregnancy?

In pregnancy, protein is necessary for the development of baby tissue as well as the repair and development of breast and uterine tissue, blood and muscles. A developing baby needs protein which supplies the adequate amino acids needed for bone and muscle development. Protein is also necessary for regenerating healthy new cells in the placenta and maternal tissues as well as  increasing healthy blood production.

Protein Recommendations for Pregnancy

A pregnant woman over 30 would need 5 ounces of protein daily. You may need to make leaner and more varied selection of the foods in the protein foods group.  Protein rich foods for pregnancy come from lean beef, skinless chicken, fish as well as a plant based diet for pregnancy that gets protein from dried peas, beans and nuts such as pistachios, coconuts, hazelnuts, almonds as well as seeds like sunflower, sesame and pumpkin. To ensure a safe and healthy pregnancy, a pregnant woman must take at least 60 grams of protein daily.

Other protein rich foods during pregnancy include dairy products such as yogurt, eggs, milk, and cheese.

Postpartum nutrition boosts recovery

Healing tissues that have been stretched, torn or cut require plenty of protein during postpartum recovery, especially the amino acids glycine and proline, which your body uses to make collagen, need postpartum nutrition to boost recovery. The Great Lakes Bone Collagen (on Amazon)  for example, is a pure, versatile protein dietary supplement fully digestible containing 19 different amino acids including 8 of the 9 essential amino acids.
These amino acids forming the building blocks of protein to help support the growth and foundation for enzymes, hormones and all kinds of body tissue, can be consumed in the form of hydrolyzed collagen powder as a collagen peptide postpartum supplement . If you are suffering from symptoms of chronic fibromyalgia in the postpartum recovery stage, research has shown that collagen powder helps aids in the pain from fibromyalgia.

An expectant mother’s diet that does not consist of protein can result in a number of health issues in both the mother and the developing baby. She might feel weak or light-headed and lethargic which would make it difficult to manage day-to-day tasks. A lack of consistent protein in the baby’s diet results in poor muscle, bone and joint development, deformities with muscle and bone, miscarriage, brain damage and a high risk of birth defects.

A healthy postpartum recovery diet that is protein rich helps you feed your body while setting you up for the next stage of motherhood. If you are breastfeeding, you can provide your growing baby with optimal nutrition. A healthy postpartum recovery diet can help maintain energy levels as well as protein, calcium and iron intake.

For safe postpartum recovery, you’ll want to continue a postpartum diet plan of protein-rich foods. Fueling up on fruits and vegetables, whole grains and also, lean protein like fish, beef and soy will give you the necessary energy especially for those early morning feeding sessions.