Pregnancy is an exciting, unique time in a woman’s life. This season of life can also be marked with apprehension or fear—especially during a first pregnancy—and searching for information about how to make it go smoothly is a logical way to deal with that fear. These days, there is an abundance of information available about pregnancy, and knowing where to begin can be overwhelming.
It’s best to start with a few basic strategies. Here are a few to support pregnancy in a natural, holistic way.
Sleep
Creating a new life within uses up a lot of energy, so allowing your body to rest and rebuild each day is extremely important during this time. For many women, fatigue is one of the chief symptoms during their first trimester due to the many changes within the body. These include shifts in hormones, blood sugar, blood volume, and blood pressure.
Your body’s immune system is naturally weaker during pregnancy, thus adequate sleep is crucial for bolstering it. One study suggests that women who don’t get adequate sleep may be at an increased risk for pregnancy complications, such as gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, and high blood pressure.
By the third trimester, your baby can be quite active and may choose to perform acrobatic movements during the night, while you are trying to sleep. You’ve also likely gained a few pounds, which can make getting comfortable at night a bit more challenging. If you are struggling to get into deep sleep, consider investing in a pregnancy pillow to relieve some pressure and support your bump while you sleep.
Your body is going through extreme hormone changes that can lead to night sweats or insomnia.
Allow yourself to go to bed earlier, sleep in, or sneak in a nap during the day to make up for any sleep disturbance.
Sun
Contrary to conventional wisdom, the sun should not be feared, especially during pregnancy. It’s best to shoot for 15 to 30 minutes of sun exposure per day, making sure you expose as much skin as possible to the sun’s rays.
The body is best able to synthesize vitamin D from the sun. If the climate where you live does not make daily sun exposure feasible, consider food sources of vitamin D, such as quality cod liver oil, beef liver, egg yolks, dairy from grass-fed animals, and wild salmon.
Vitamin D supports your immune system, which is working double-time during pregnancy. It also helps support healthy bones, muscles, and teeth and is vital to the bone growth and development of your baby.
Hydration
Staying hydrated is important to pay close attention to throughout your pregnancy as your body’s blood volume increases significantly. Proper hydration not only keeps you and your baby thriving but also helps to create amniotic fluid and aids the body’s elimination of toxins. Staying hydrated will also lessen common pregnancy issues such as urinary tract infections and constipation.
Adding in mineral-rich drinks will also help to nourish you. Bone broth is a comforting drink that provides electrolytes and minerals along with gut-healing collagen. Drinking pure coconut water or adding trace mineral drops to your filtered drinking water will help ensure you and your baby stay properly hydrated and get the nutrition you need throughout the pregnancy.
Nutrition
I’m sure you’ve heard the adage “eating for two” in reference to your diet during pregnancy. However, this doesn’t mean it’s a free pass or an excuse to eat whatever you want. The general rule of thumb is to consume roughly 300 extra calories per day.
It’s important to avoid empty calories and refined foods, and focus on clean, nutrient-dense whole foods. What you eat provides the body with the raw materials needed to build your growing baby.
Protein
Pregnant women need higher amounts of protein. While needs vary for each individual, it’s best to aim for 80 to 120 grams of protein daily. Many women find eating adequate protein lessens their morning sickness. Excellent sources of protein are grass-fed beef, bison, lamb, pasture-raised chicken and their eggs, raw yogurt and cheeses, and wild-caught salmon.
Health-Promoting Fats
High quality fats are vital to a baby’s organ and brain development. Grass-fed and pasture-raised meats, ghee, butter, cream, coconut oil, and extra virgin olive oil are all good fats.
Blood Sugar
Balancing your blood sugar throughout pregnancy is crucial for the baby’s well-being as blood sugar spikes are inflammatory for the body. Blood sugar balance is vital for avoiding gestational diabetes.
Eating balanced meals with protein, healthy fats, fiber, and moderate complex carbs will help avoid blood sugar spikes. Avoiding refined sugars, processed foods, and industrial seed oils can go a long way in fostering proper blood sugar regulation.
If you know you have blood sugar dysregulation, supplementing with inositol will help support your blood sugar and can have a calming effect on the body.
Gut Support
Much of our overall health begins in the gut, so supporting gut health will benefit both you and your baby throughout your pregnancy. Additionally, it will help to establish a thriving microbiome in the baby once she or he is born.
Adding fermented foods such as sauerkraut, kimchi, pickles, or other lacto-fermented vegetables will offer support to your gut. Incorporating a tablespoon or two of fermented foods to each meal provides the body with a regular dose of beneficial probiotic organisms throughout the day. Additionally, supplementing with a quality probiotic is equally beneficial.
Due to the shifts in hormones during pregnancy, the digestive process can slow and cause symptoms such as acid reflux, heartburn, nausea, or bowel issues. Supplementing with hydrochloric acid can support proper digestion and absorption of nutrients.
Iron
Support your body with iron-rich foods because anemia is common during pregnancy. Iron is crucial for red blood cells to carry oxygen throughout the body. If you have anemia during pregnancy, you may feel exhausted, dizzy, cold, or short of breath.
It is recommended to get proper testing to determine if you are dealing with anemia and what type of anemia it is, as this can determine how to best support your body.
Iron-rich foods include liver, grass-fed beef, beets, and dark leafy greens. Keep in mind that iron from animal protein is more readily assimilated than iron from vegetables.
For proper absorption, it’s best to pair iron-rich foods with vitamin C-rich foods, such as citrus fruits, strawberries, kale, broccoli, and peppers. I often recommend pregnant moms supplement with desiccated liver since it provides important cofactors for proper iron assimilation.
Magnesium
Due to our nutrient-poor soils and food systems, taking a high-quality prenatal vitamin is a strategy to provide important vitamins and minerals during pregnancy. The vast majority of the American population is deficient in magnesium, which is particularly important in pregnancy.
Supplementing with magnesium can help your body avoid pregnancy conditions such as preeclampsia, which is characterized by high blood pressure and signs of organ damage, such as high levels of protein in your urine. Magnesium can help ease morning sickness, improve energy levels, alleviate constipation, calm restless legs, and help with blood sugar regulation.
Red Raspberry Leaf Tea
If you’ve had a pregnant friend, you’ve likely heard about this nourishing tea. It’s made from red raspberry leaves and has a mild, black tea flavor that is easy to make into a tasty beverage that can be served cold or hot.
Red raspberry leaf tea is a powerhouse of readily absorbable vitamins. Those include vitamins A, C, and E, several B vitamins, magnesium, calcium, zinc, potassium, and manganese. All of these vitamins and minerals are a great addition to a nutrient-dense diet to ensure you and your baby are well-nourished.
Midwives and doulas have recommended drinking red raspberry leaf tea to women for centuries. This tea helps to strengthen the pelvic muscles and tone the uterus. This can improve the effectiveness of contractions, shorten the duration of labor, and help to lower the chance of birth complications.
Many practitioners will recommend waiting to drink this tea until at least the second trimester, sometimes even the third trimester, as it has been known to cause uterine cramping. As always, it’s best to discuss with your health care provider when to begin drinking it and how much to drink each day.
Movement
Get your body moving as often as you can. Daily movement will not only make you feel good, it can also make a huge difference in preparing your body for labor and supporting healing postpartum.
Walking
A simple way to stay in shape is taking a 30-minute walk each day. If you walk outside, it has the added benefits of breathing fresh air and soaking up some sunshine.
Squatting
Squatting is an excellent way to build and maintain strength and make sure your range of motion is the best it can be, even as your body changes. Squatting daily is a great resistance exercise to tone your pelvic floor muscles and help to open your pelvis in preparation for giving birth.
Be sure you are performing squats with proper technique that engages your core and supports your lower back and belly, especially as you get further along in your pregnancy.
Spending Time in Nature
Get outside as much as you can to spend time in nature. Grounding by touching your bare feet to the earth and spending time outside will lower your stress levels, help to balance your hormones, and give you a deeper sense of peace and relaxation.
Stress Management
You might be thinking “easier said than done!” as you read this, but managing stress is crucial to a healthy pregnancy. Whatever you, as the mama, are feeling affects the little one growing inside you. If you are living in a state of stress, that stress is being transferred to the baby and can cause negative effects.
Practice breathing techniques to calm and keep yourself regulated if you start to feel stressed.
It can be challenging, but ask for help if you feel overwhelmed. Don’t put pressure on yourself to “do it all,” and do try to accept help when it’s offered.
Daily exercise, grounding, prayer, gratitude, warm baths, and journaling are all helpful methods for managing stress.
Functional Medicine
Getting a full panel of blood work done early in pregnancy is helpful in understanding and addressing any issues.
Some things to check are various thyroid markers, iron handling, inflammatory markers, and hormone levels. Progesterone is vital to a full-term pregnancy, so knowing if your levels are high enough early on can give you great peace of mind.
Chiropractic Care
Chiropractic care can help maintain a healthy pregnancy, ease nausea, relieve back, neck, or joint pain, reduce the time of labor and delivery, and potentially prevent cesarean delivery.
It’s important to find a chiropractor that you trust and who is trained to work with pregnant women. Working with a chiropractor trained in techniques such as the Webster technique can help to flip breech babies, ensure babies are in the best position for birth, and achieve proper balance in your pelvis.
Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy
Working with a pelvic floor physical therapist throughout pregnancy will help to tone your pelvic floor muscles, prevent long-term diastasis recti, provide postural support and pain management, and offer strategies for safe exercise during pregnancy. Pelvic floor therapists empower women with knowledge of how to labor and push effectively to do less damage and have a shorter recovery period after birth.
Supporting yourself and your baby throughout pregnancy can be overwhelming at times—but it doesn’t have to be overly complicated. Focusing on eating a whole-food, nutrient-dense diet, supplementing where your body may be lacking, and making sure you get movement every day are the building blocks for a healthy pregnancy.
Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Epoch Health welcomes professional discussion and friendly debate. To submit an opinion piece, please follow these guidelines and submit through our form here.