Pregnancy is very important period in all women’s life. Pregnancy starts when a male's sperm fertilizes a female's ovum (egg), and the fertilized ovum implants in the lining of the uterus. The nutrition for the mother in this period is important as the growing baby gets its nutrition from the mother’s body. What the baby gets is what the mother has to offer after her consumption, so it is important to get the right nutrients during pregnancy in good amounts.

While nutritional needs and your own tolerance for eating will change during the different trimesters of your pregnancy, there are some general guidelines that will be important to follow throughout the nine months. For starters, eat balanced meals, do not skip meals, eliminate caffeine and drink lots of water, six to eight glasses a day. Your calcium needs can be fulfilled by consuming dairy products such as skimmed milk, cheese, yogurt, pudding and ice milk etc, some of the non dairy sources of calcium includes salmon, kale, broccoli etc.

During early pregnancy folic acid is important in the development of the foetal brain and spine. An average woman should take 400 micrograms of folic acid every day throughout their pregnancy. Some of the important sources of folic acid are dried beans, tofu, green vegetables etc.
Vitamin b12 is important for the proper nerve and brain functioning of both mother and baby. This can be obtained from fortified soy milk and from vitamin supplements. Protein is also important and protein intake should be increased by 10 grams a day and some good protein sources are egg, meat and milk.

The kind of nutrition that you will need for each trimester will be different and so will be the stuffs you should eat. During the first trimester one of your main nutritional concerns may be battling morning sickness, which doesn't necessarily occur in the morning. Some strategies that might help include eating small meals frequently, whether you are hungry or not.

During the second three months you should take well balanced diet. Here you need extra calories and these extra calories can be obtained from milk, grains, meet etc. Iron supplement is also very important. It is best to take iron pills with fruit juice or water at bedtime or in-between meals. You may experience digestive problems because of the slowing down of stomach as the baby grows and will render you intolerable to milk and other hard to digest materials. To face this problem you should try to eat less main meals and more snacks, drink lots of water and try walking a little bit after the meal. During this season diary products will become more difficult to tolerate, but you should try eating easily digestible foods like yogurt, cottage cheese etc.

The third trimester is the last phase of the pregnancy before the delivery process. During this period you may feel full faster when compared to other trimesters, but it is important to keep on taking as much amount of food as earlier which contains balanced nutrients and sufficient calories. One strategy here is to eat smaller amounts of food more often. Foods like snacks are good choice. But when you pick snacks, pick the ones which will supply the nutrients you are going to need.

Women excrete more glucose during the pregnancy. Diabetic women should be closely monitored to make sure their blood sugar values are at or near normal. And it is also advisable for women to increase their body weight to 20-25 pounds during pregnancy. And also the body uses more salt during pregnancy than under normal conditions. And also low sodium levels can harm the foetus. So taking care about all these factors can result in the birth of a healthy baby.

Nutrition during pregnancy is thus important in the health of not only the mother but also the baby that is waiting to see the world. Supply of required nutrients in the right amounts is important here.