Building a healthy baby begins at conception but does not end there. Throughout the pregnancy the effects of good nutrition are evident in the development of fetal organs and fetal growth. There is evidence to suggest that a baby whose growth was compromised due to poor nutrition is at increased risk for developing diabetes, coronary vascular disease and hypertension later in life.

If you don't know how to feed yourself, how can you feed your child?

The Antepartum doula has a responsibility to promote and educate the need for good nutrition in a way that allows her clients to recognize how important nutrition is. By helping the client understand the basic principles of healthy eating, and teaching them how to best achieve this, no matter how challenging their pregnancy becomes, you empower them to adopt eating habits during pregnancy that are more likely to be maintained after the delivery. Healthy nutrition is important for feeding the infant once it has been delivered. If you don't know how to feed yourself, how can you feed your child?

During pregnancy the changes that occur in a woman's body often dictate changes in her diet. In a typical North American diet there is a heavy emphasis on fast, fatty foods. This diet may work fine for you as long as your bowels are moving, however when your bowels slow down due to pregnancy, this diet may cause you endless difficulty with nausea, vomiting and constipation. By focusing on which types of foods work with the body during pregnancy (simple and complex carbohydrates found in fruit and vegetables, lean meats, polyunsaturated fats) we also focus on the most nutritious and beneficial foods. These foods are often more readily broken down by the body, making greater use of their nutrients and work with the bowels to keep the whole system moving.

Since these changes begin about mid way through the first trimester and can be experienced throughout the pregnancy, it is reasonable to begin incorporating them into the diet at this point. These factors become even more important for those women whose pregnancies may have them confined to a bed for a large portion of the pregnancy, have pre-existing underlying dietary constraints, are older, or just have bad food habits.

A healthy diet ... [makes] skin and ligaments more able to stretch during labour and delivery. Healthier tissue heals better and faster...

With healthy nutrition, women who are having a compromised pregnancy can still provide their bodies with an advantage. A healthy diet promotes more strength and elasticity in tissue growth, making skin and ligaments more able to stretch during labour and delivery. Healthier tissue heals better and faster, making Cesarean section recovery easier, healthy diet as well protects against bone and tooth loss. There is evidence to indicate that a healthy diet reduces the risk of pre-eclampsia, neural tube defects and the chance of dysfunctional labour.