 General complications of vegetarian pregnancy
Added: 01/25/2006 |
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It`s a common knowledge that a well-planned vegetarian pregnancy diet can easily meet all the nutritional needs of pregnant women. However, a vegetarian diet during the period of pregnancy has both benefits and risks. Common complications of vegetarian pregnancy include nausea, cravings and aversions, risks of various birth defects, etc.
Pregnancy is known as a time of increased specific nutritional needs for both woman and her child. But if the pregnant woman doesn’t get sufficient nutrition she may face certain complications. Among the most common pregnancy complications possible to appear in both vegetarian and non-vegetarian women are nausea, constipation, cravings, aversions, preeclampsia and other ones. The mentioned conditions also refer to general complications of a vegetarian pregnancy.
Vomiting and nausea belong to the complications of vegetarian pregnancy. However, these complications occur so often that there’s one coping mechanism of eating low fat, avoiding fob products with strong smells, eating tolerated and healthy foods and the ones which are fairly quickly digested. In some cases a pregnant woman isn’t able to drink or eat adequate amounts of food, that’s why she should be contacted with special health care provider.
Aversion and cravings are believed to be caused by normal hormonal changes during the period of pregnancy. According to the recent studies in this field, one of the main foods which are likely to cause aversions and cravings in pregnant women is meat. That’s why these conditions are not considered to be the complications of vegetarian pregnancy. It’s interesting to admit that many women for this reason often refuse eating meat and other animal products and become vegetarians during the pregnancy period.
One of other common complaints during the pregnancy is constipation. However, vegetarian women are the exception. Constipation doesn’t belong to complications of vegetarian pregnancy. One of the assets in avoiding the mentioned condition is a higher fiber diet with increased amount of vitamin C; assurance of an adequate intake of fluid may also be helpful in constipation preventing and alleviating.
Speaking about the complications of vegetarian pregnancy it’s important to take into consideration the results of the recent research regarding this matter. Medical experts indicate they have mentioned that vegetarian pregnancy diet might influence the developing male reproductive system. It has been found out that women who follow the vegetarian pregnancy diet are at greater risk of delivering a male infant with birth defect of a penis (known as hypospadias). According to British researchers, a hormone-like compound usually found in soy might be responsible for this complication. At the same time, the researchers believe that the risks of having infant with hypospadias can also be increased in women who have influenza during the first trimester of pregnancy or those, who take iron supplements.
Nevertheless, more research is needed to make more confident confirmations regarding vegetarian pregnancy problems. It goes without saying that vegetarian pregnancy troubles may occur in many women unless they take enough amount of vitamins, minerals, fat, energy, etc. So, it’s important to remember that during the pregnancy period the intake of recommended minerals and vitamins should be higher comparing with a non-pregnant condition.
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