Welcome to my new blog, "askaboutpregnancy". After almost 8 great years as an obstetrician, I decided that many women would love to have an aesier and faster way to communicate with their obstetrician. Although there is so much information out there on the internet, it somehow doesn't seem to answer that specific question that is bothering you. It is also not always clear if the information is truly reliable and up to date. Many don't feel comfortable calling their doctors at weird hours of the day, especially when some issues might not be that important.
For this reason, I decided to start my new website askmyob.com. On this website you can ask whatever you want, whenever you want. You can get specific answers to your questions, from board certified and licensed obstetricians only. We also placed lots of free information in the form of questions and answers. I hope to post example questions n this blog on a regular basis.
One topic I always get asked about is proper diet in pregnancy.
We have a great amount of information about this topic, and I hope that this will be helpful for you. Here are some of our questions.
Is there any special diet that I should follow when I am pregnant?
In general, you should make sure that you have a well balanced diet throughout your pregnancy to help you and your baby grow properly. Diets that restrict or emphasize certain food groups have not been shown to be helpful, and in some cases have caused harm.
Is it true that I am "eating for two"? Should I really eat twice as much?
Absolutely not. Of course, your baby has different requirements than you do, and he or she does not require the same amount of food as you do. In general, you should follow the following guidelines:
Calories — the National Research Counsel recommends a 300 kcal per day increase in calories above nonpregnant levels throughout pregnancy. Calories are the single most important nutritional factor in determining birthweight.
Protein — the fetal/placental unit consumes approximately 1 kg of protein during pregnancy, with the majority of this requirement in the last six months. Thus, a pregnant woman needs to ingest an additional 5 to 6 grams protein/day above the non-pregnant state.
