Myths about Pregnancy |
Dr. Ellen Schwartzbard, Obstetrician and Gynecologist with Baptist Health South Florida, recommends all of her patients to take prenatal vitamins, avoid caffeine abuse, and take 300 additional calories per day.
Also, she explains gestational diabetes is not getting by an extra sugar consumption during pregnancy. “The risk factors that cause gestational diabetes are being overweight and family history,” she adds.
Transcript
Here’s a graphic I want you to tell us the facts versus the myth myth number one prenatal vitamins are only for women who have vitamin or mineral deficiencies. I recommend that all of my patients take prenatal vitamins we want you to eat a well-balanced diet you want we want you to get all of your vitamins and minerals through your diet but you’re not always going to eat perfectly every day so prenatal vitamins are going to get you all of those vitamins and minerals that you need and it’s going to make sure you’re getting that iron iron is really what’s in your prenatal vitamins that you’re getting and as the baby is growing that placenta your iron requirements really go up you’re getting your folic acid most prenatal vitamins today have omega 3 fatty acids so we want all of our patients to be taking prenatal vitamins. You’re eating for two and you’ve got to have the extra calories. You do need to have extra calories but it’s not the amount that you need for two people so the requirements we say for pregnancy is about an additional 300 calories a day and I don’t know about you but I can get my 300 calories very easily. Number three now caffeine amounts can stay the same that’s the myth true or false? So large amounts of caffeine have been shown to be harmful especially in the first trimester so the recommendations and what the studies have shown less than 200 milligrams a day so I told my patients to restrict their caffeine intake to at most one caffeinated drink a day a lot of people don’t want to give up their caffeine so at most one coffee one cup of tea one soda a lot of my patients just give it up completely and that’s absolutely fine. Eating too much sugar causes gestational diabetes is that true? No I mean again sugars not great for you so you don’t always want to be eating a lot of sugar but that is not what’s causing gestational diabetes we have a lot of risk factors that causes gestational diabetes being overweight family history but you’re not gonna give yourself gestational diabetes by eating a lot of sugar.
