All posts tagged: first trimester

beans

Constipation in Pregnancy

Oh the joys of pregnancy! While you might not have expected to discuss any ‘toilet talk’ other than your baby’s nappies, constipation is an issue for many women during pregnancy, and often an embarrassing one to bring up. But why does it happen? Well, there are a few reasons, some of which you have zero control over (like hormones & the growing weight of your baby). But it’s not all bad news as there are lots of things you can do to ‘relieve’ yourself (you get me?). A yogurt a day keeps the toilet away… Okay, not exactly, but a lot of people think that eating yogurt a day alone will keep you regular. The truth is, that’s just the advertising trick to make you buy more of that yogurt. Natural yogurt does have live bacteria that can be beneficial to your gut, but that does not replace fibre. Dairy products actually do not contain any fibre. A question I ask all of you ladies that I see during your pregnancy that have constipation; do …

Pregnancy Do's and Don'ts1

Pregnancy Diet Do’s and Don’ts

Finding out you are pregnant is such an exciting, amazing, nerve-raking, scary, and emotional time, in addition to a whole range of other emotions. It comes with a huge sense of responsibility that what you eat/drink/do/experience is inevitably going to affect your baby (whether positive or negative). Your baby is 100% dependent on you for all of it’s nutrients to build his or her bones, organs, blood, skin (no pressure huh?!). That’s why it’s so important to make sure you eat healthily during pregnancy. Different countries and cultures have their own advice on what you should or should’t eat and drink, most of it pretty common sense and basic (such as alcohol and foods that might make you sick). To make things a little more confusing and add to your stress, advice changes from country to country. But don’t despair, I have made list for you considering all the different advice out there, so that you can have a bit more of a definitive list. Most importantly, I have included a range of foods that …

ginger & mint

Top 15 Tips to Relieve Nausea in Pregnancy

Morning sickness is what we all associate with  early pregnancy, and it seems that most pregnant women experience some form of nausea and/or  vomiting at some point during their pregnancy. It is called morning sickness because it typically affects women in the morning, however many still experience it throughout the day as well. Some are very unfortunate to develop hyperemesis gravidarum; a severe form of vomiting during pregnancy, though this is the minority. Nausea & vomiting usually starts around 6 weeks of pregnancy and continues up to 12-16 weeks, but can last longer in some cases. It is one of the most unpleasant side effects of pregnancy, and yet there is little out there that has been shown to be really effective. You may have heard about a drug called ‘Thalidomide’ that was given to pregnant women in the 1950’s to help relieve nausea and vomiting, but was later found to cause severe malformation of the limbs in their babies. Since then most women are very cautious when it comes to taking drugs for morning …

bread

No knead Spelt & Multiseed Bread

Nothing beats the smell of freshly baked bread. Especially when you’re pregnant and craving carbs like crazy. Bread is one of those real comfort foods that goes with pretty much anything, at any time of day. I will admit that I am a bit of a bread snob, and my favourites are always the crusty and wholesome breads. But let’s be honest, who actually has the time to bake bread? Well, with this recipe, you will. Because it takes all of about 10 minutes. Max. (excluding baking and fermentation time that is). But first, let’s talk about why you should take 10 minutes out of your day to make your own bread. Unfortunately a lot of the supermarket breads are not very nutritious. Sliced bread, even if it is brown (which can sometimes just be dyed brown! not actually be wholemeal-brown), often has extra yeast, sugar and added chemicals to make the dough rise quicker, allowing for little or no fermentation time. Fermentation is normally required to allow for air pockets to develop making the bread …