Here at Adoption Choices of Colorado, we aim to support you through all things. Even the questions you may have when you are faced with an unplanned pregnancy. You how to stay healthy and what foods you should and should not be eating.
You’ve come to the right place! We have a list of the do’s and don’ts for food, ways to get assistance when necessary and the explanation behind why eating healthy during your unplanned pregnancy is so important.
Why is it so Important to be Eating Healthy during Your Unplanned Pregnancy?
When you become pregnant, it is important to make a few lifestyle changes to prepare your body for the best in-utero environment and delivery for your baby. One of the biggest things is your diet. There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to weight gain; however, on average, most gain 25-30 pounds during pregnancy. Eating healthy foods aids in healthy weight gain. Your doctor will always be the best person to advise how much weight you should look to gain and what your daily pregnancy diet should look like.
It may seem obvious why it is so important to eat healthy foods during pregnancy, but let’s reiterate it again: everything you eat or drink as a pregnant mother will get passed through your bloodstream to your baby. It will be critical to your baby’s growth and development over the span of your pregnancy. Your baby needs certain vitamins and minerals in order to promote healthy development. It is up to you to get those needed vitamins and minerals into your system. Eating healthy also reduces risks of certain complications with your pregnancy and delivery and your baby’s development.
Helpful Resources
While an unplanned pregnancy completely changes your daily routine, it is important to take care of yourself emotionally, mentally and spiritually. But, most importantly, you need to take care of your physical health. Resources are a significant factor in the ability to make healthy dietary choices. If you are unable to afford healthy food, it can be remedied. There are Care Pregnancy Centers, government assistance such as WIC and food banks and local churches. It is okay to ask for help. After all, it is a selfless decision to maintain health in every capacity during your unplanned pregnancy.
What You Should and Shouldn’t be Putting on Your Plate
You may be bombarded with so many do’s and don’ts — eat this, don’t eat that, do this, don’t do that, but Adoption Choices of Colorado is here to simplify the endless, exhaustive lists and searching for you.
What You Should Eat:
The list of what you can eat is endless in comparison to what you should not eat. But here is the most important rule of thumb to remember: you should be eating from a variety of all food groups:
- three servings of protein daily
- four servings of fruit and vegetables daily
- four servings of dairy products daily
- up to 11 servings of breads and grains daily
- limit fats and sugars
Other things you should be inputting into your daily dietary habits include prenatal vitamins or supplements such as: probiotics, Omega-3s, vitamins and minerals like Calcium, Iron, Folic Acid/Folate (Vitamin B9), Vitamin B1-3, Vitamin B6, B12, Vitamin A, B, C, D and Zinc.
Then there’s the big obvious one — water! You should be drinking lots of water on a daily basis.
What You should Avoid:
- Unpasteurized foods such as milk, juice, eggs, cheese etc.
- Deli meats
- Rare or uncooked foods such as sushi, meat and other seafood
- High mercury seafood and shellfish
- Raw sprouts such as alfalfa, clover, radish and mung bean
- Alcohol
- High amounts of caffeine
*Cravings should be eaten in moderation, so if you really want that candy bar or bag of popcorn — get it!
Here is a condensed list of food ideas (it also explains what these specific food groups help with) to eat or recipes to make during your pregnancy, so you don’t get overwhelmed trying to figure out what exactly to eat for every meal.
Eating healthy while pregnant doesn’t have to be hard, just make sure you are balancing all the good things you need with all the things you want – everything in moderation. Also, don’t look at it as there are all these things you cannot have, but things you have more of an opportunity to explore or create with, get creative making things out of all your main food groups.
Eating Healthy During Your Unplanned Pregnancy
Overall, eating healthy falls in direct line with the selfless act of being pregnant — not only is it pertinent to your child, but also to you and your body. Eating healthy is one of the biggest building blocks to help you maintain a healthy balanced pregnancy. Also, it is a habit that you will go on to teach and replicate with those around you, especially your child.
Adoption Choices of Colorado
For more information on adoption please contact Adoption Choices of Colorado. We can be reached via our website or phone 303-670-4401.
Support Adoption Choices
Adoption Choices, Inc. is partnering with Crowdrise, a fundraising website for nonprofits, to help our adoptive parents and birth parents with much needed financial assistance. We understand that expenses keep clients from fulfilling their dreams. Both with birth parents making a plan for adoption, and with adoptive parents growing their family. It is our mission to provide financial assistance through grants and scholarships, awarded annually in November, in honor of National Adoption Month. Funds assist adoptive parents with matching and placements, adoption finalization and helping birth mothers improve their lives through higher education — and much more.
However, we can’t do it alone. Please read up on our programs and donate money where you are able. Your donation will make a huge impact.
About the Author
Taylor Tsakopulos, the bestselling student. She has interned locally in Denver and internationally in Dublin, Ireland, taken classes/workshops and worked odd jobs and yet always comes back to being a student and the desire to learn or create.
She is a jack of all trades (i.e. a Gemini). She is a Denver-based writer, creator, artist and student. A graduate from Metropolitan State University of Denver (MSU).
When she isn’t creating content she’s off dancing and hiking. Always chasing after new things and experiences. After living and working in Europe, she is hungry for more.
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Sources:
How to Have a Healthy Teen Pregnancy. (2019, November 24). Retrieved February 1, 2020, from https://americanpregnancy.org/unplanned-pregnancy/healthy-teen-pregnancy/
Staying healthy and safe. (2019, March 14). Retrieved February 1, 2020, from https://www.womenshealth.gov/pregnancy/youre-pregnant-now-what/staying-healthy-and-safe
Stephanie joined the Adoption Choices family in 2014 as the Child Placement Supervisor. Her love for adoption began in first grade when she made friends with twins adopted from Vietnam. Her heart grew strong over the years for adopted children and ultimately led her to graduate school where she continued her focus to her dream of working in the adoption field. Stephanie earned a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Denver in 2001. Over the past 15 years, Stephanie has worked as a pregnancy counselor and as an adoptive parent counselor for foster care, international adoption and domestic adoption, writing hundreds of home studies for families, and helping build their forever families. Stephanie is married and has three boys ages 12, 9, and 5. Together with her family she enjoys riding bike, playing games, watching her three sons compete in their various sporting and musical activities and go on vacations.
Christy Ikeler, is our Executive Director and Birth Parent Director. Christy has been with Adoption Choices Team for 18 years, since opening the doors in 2002! Christy has a true passion for what she does and her true love is working with and helping each birth parent. Whether she is up all night on the phone talking with them, taking them to doctors appointments, out for their favorite treat, providing counseling or at the hospital during labor and delivery, Christy is very involved every step of the way. She has a contagious laugh and a spunky personality that our birth moms all can bond with and relate to. As an adoptive parent herself, adoption holds a very special place in her heart and she can relate on every level with both birth parents and adoptive parents. In her free time Christy loves spending time with her daughter, gardening, baking and taking vacations with her family. Christy is an excellent leader for our team at Adoption Choices and is truly one of a kind!! As Executive Director, Christy spends time with the staff, birth parents and adoptive families in order to ensure that the agency is running smoothly. She has placed a huge emphasis on community outreach and programs for birth parents. Christy loves the opportunity to lead the agency into a brighter future.
Ms. Mackenzie has built a successful counseling career over the past 20 years, supporting mothers and families, people of all ages and genders, students, community professionals and fellow clinicians. Liv values a diverse professional focus, including the entrepreneurial life of a sole proprietor, the evaluative process of certifying foster/adoptive homes, the insightful and mindful one-on-one one work with enthusiastic clients, and serving as an advocate for underserved populations. Liv is a Licensed Professional Counselor and holds a BA in Pre-Law and Economics from American University, an MA in Counseling from Adams University and a certificate in Human Resource Management from Villanova University. Away from work you will find Liv spending time in nature, biking to the farmer’s market and adventuring with her family.
Catherine A. Madsen, joined the Adoption Choices family as legal counsel in 2013. Catherine is responsible for providing legal guidance to the Agency, training and updating staff on developments in adoption law and legislation, and program development. Catherine
Virginia Frank is an adoption attorney accredited since 1991 with the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys. Ms. Frank is a leader in the field of private adoption and has completed over 4,000 adoptions in her career. Ms. Frank has a law degree from Oklahoma City University and a BA in both Political Science and Communications from the University of Oklahoma.
Cassidie has been with Adoption Choices since 2015, she has her bachelors in Interdisciplinary Affairs with concentrations in both Sociology and Business Management. Cassidie has additional training in Victim Advocacy, foster care and has been working in women’s services for over 10 years. Cassidie has always had a heart for adoption and it was her career dream to work in adoption. She started off doing volunteer work for advocacy programs, adoption organizations and worked in High Risk Maternal Fetal Medicine through the University of Colorado Hospital and Children’s Hospital of Colorado. Cassidie is also blessed to have personally experienced an adoption of her own in 2012, completing her family of five! Cassidie loves what she does as a case worker from initial phone calls, meetings, doctor appointments, interaction with the adoptive families to delivery and counseling. Cassidie has a passion for those in need and strives to help make a difference in the lives of the people she meets. She is a firm believer in being kind, compassionate and open minded in all situations. “Unless you’ve walked in their shoes, there’s no place for judgment. A kind word or compliment can go a long way!” The bittersweet moments in adoption reminds Cassidie each and every time, why she loves what she does!