Pregnancy Signs & Symptoms, Week by Week Pregnancy Guide

You are the source of food for your unborn baby. The baby receives food, basically nutrients from the mother when it is inside the womb. The food reaches the baby through the umbilical cord that is the only connecting cord between the mother and the baby in the womb.

The umbilical cord connects the placenta to the child thus making the nutrient passing method possible. The cord acts as the carrier of the nutrients from the mother’s blood stream and then nourishes the child till the time it is in the womb, keeping it healthy. Here is a detailed discussion on the process –

The Process:

The way the baby gets the food inside the mother’s womb is not a very simple process. The food you eat first gets broken into many tiny elements and then it passes across the placenta to ultimately reach your baby. The baby not only gets nutrients, but everything from oxygen to water is derived from the mother’s blood stream. Though complex, but involves just a two-step process.

Step 1

The placenta has a network of blood vessels through which the blood of the mother flows. The molecules like glucose, fats, proteins, oxygen in the mother’s blood flow out of the mother’s blood and gets absorbed into the network of another blood vessels which contains the baby’s blood.

Step 2

This baby’s blood passes through the umbilical cord and reaches the baby. The molecules of proteins, glucose, vitamin, fat, etc. reaches the mother’s blood stream through the small intestine and then that in turn moves to the placenta and then reaches the baby through the only connection that is  the umbilical cord.

To ensure that your baby gets proper nutrients you should also eat well. Your food intake affects the growth of the child directly and indirectly.

Tips for a Healthy Diet During Pregnancy

Being a mother it is your sole responsibility to take care of your unborn child by eating a balanced diet and avoiding certain foods so that your baby gets all the required nutrients to grow properly in the womb.

• You should plan your diet in a balanced way so that it has all the essential nutrients.
• Include plenty of vegetables along with lean meat.
• Too much sugar and carbohydrate is going to make you gain weight and moreover there is hardly any nutritional content for the mother and the baby.
• High sugar content food may risk you for gestational diabetes, which results in various health issues.
• Increase in weight due to wrong food habit may also lead to preeclampsia and many other complications.
• To burn off the calories one should not avoid exercising rather a proper diet along with proper exercise helps the baby to remain healthy as the mother remains healthy and does not gain excess weight.

The baby growing in your body is completely dependent on your food intake to get the required nutrients. So during pregnancy make sure to eat healthy along with exercise to give your baby a healthy life.