During pregnancy, family members started taking extra care of a would-be mother. Sometimes, they push overeating forcefully to the mother.
During pregnancy, proper nutrition is necessary for a woman but forceful overeating might backfire by increasing the risk of unnecessary weight gain, gestational diabetes, and metabolic disorder, even if it can increase the negative impact like miscarriage also.
Why should family members refrain from forcefully overfeeding pregnant women?
During pregnancy, by the body’s mechanism system, women demand more food than normal life. In this period, women feel cravings for several things, they need more food but forceful overfeeding is not at all important. There are some adverse effects of forceful overeating during pregnancy:
- Obesity
- Gestational diabetes
- Preeclampsia or high blood pressure during the gestation period
- Proteinuria or discharging too much protein with urine
- Large-sized babies cause premature birth and increase the need for C-sections
- Long labor time
- Delivery complications
- Miscarriage
What should be the daily nutrition chart for a pregnant woman?
It’s not at all compulsory to have food by calculating its nutritious value. However, still, knowledge about the daily requirements of nutrition is important for a woman during the gestational period and her family members.
- During the first trimester, no extra calories are mandatory.
- During the second trimester, 300-350 extra calories per day are required for a healthy baby and mother.
- During the third trimester, per day approximately 400 extra calories should be consumed by a would-be mother.
According to a study from the University of Michigan, the daily essential nutrients needed during pregnancy are:
| Nutrients | Requirements |
| Protein | 75-100 g/day |
| Carbohydrates (without any history of diabetes) | 175 g/day |
| Folic acid | 60 mcg/day |
| Iron | 27 mg/day |
| Calcium | 1000 mg/day |
| Vitamin D | 600 IU/day |
| Vitamin C | 85 mg/day |
| Iodine | 220 mcg/day |
| DHA | 200 mg/day |
*DHA = Docosahexaenoic acid; an omega-3 fatty acid important for brain development
*mcg = micrograms
*IU = International Unit for measuring fat-soluble vitamins
Final thoughts
Everyone roots for a healthy baby and the mother’s safety. For the betterment of mother and child, people used to overeat or overfeed a pregnant woman. Forceful overeating does not satisfy our mind, so, our body do not properly accept these foods. Forceful overeating during pregnancy can result in a negative impact on mothers and baby’s health. Not only maintaining proper nutrition but also maintaining proper hygiene is also recommended in the gestational period.