Minimising Common Pregnancy Symptoms
Ever wondered why some women seem to just cruise through pregnancy with barely a sniffle, while others seem to get every symptom in the book?
Our absolute passion is to help our lovely pregnant and pregnant-to-be clients have the healthiest journey possible.
You can’t help age, genetics or a degree of luck.
That said, so many of the “normal” symptoms of pregnancy can be avoided or minimised with some extra knowledge of additional nutrition requirements.
We are here to help with our highly researched guide to nutrition in pregnancy.
Enjoy!
We’re here if you need us.
How to avoid common pregnancy symptoms
Iron
Why? Ahh iron. The eternal darling of the hormonal health/fertility & pregnancy realms.
Iron delivers oxygen via the blood to every part of you and your baby’s body. Absolutely essential for proper fetal development.
Symptoms you may be able to avoid: Fatigue!! Also, shortness of breath, dizziness, low blood pressure and just casually, pre-term delivery, low birth weights, reduced baby iron stores and post natal depression. See more here.
Blood test: Please get this routinely checked throughout your pregnancy. Your baby is an adorable vampire taking your iron stores.
Ensure you test FULL IRON STUDIES & FULL BLOOD EXAM/COUNT not just ferritin or hemaglobin levels as they don’t give the full picture.
Aim for your ferritin (iron storage) levels to be between 70-150ng/L. Find a GP who has extra training in iron infusions and pregnancy care to ensure your iron concerns are taken seriously.
Getting enough?: The RDI of iron in pregnancy, is 27mg/day. Some prenatal vitamins contain only 8mg!!
Red meat is of course high in iron. As are these foods.
Folate
Why? To prevent major birth defects including neural tube defects.
Note, not all folates are created equal. Folic Acid may impair the uptake of the active form of folate in the body. Too much folate can also be an issue.
Symptoms you may be able to avoid: Fatigue, mouth ulcers and neurological issues in addition to neural tube defects.
Blood test: Yes. The World Health Organisation recommends your levels be between 13.5 and 45.3nmol/L.
Getting enough?: Supplementing with a good prenatal, ideally 3 months before pregnancy is recommended to get your folate levels up.
The pregnancy RDI is 500ug/day and in breast feeding it increases to 600ug/day. Folate is also found in dark leafy green veggies, fruit, nuts, beans, meat dairy and seafood.
Vitamin B12
Why? B12 is also needed to prevent neural tube defects in your baby, make DNA and healthy red blood cells for you both.
Symptoms you may be able to avoid: Fatigue, sore/swollen tongue, memory loss, tingling hands and feet.
Blood test: Yes. Aim for your levels to be between 500-700pmol/L.
Getting enough?: The RDI in pregnancy is 2.6ug/day and when breastfeeding its 2.8ug/day.
Red meat, fish, chicken and eggs are the highest natural B12 foods.
Zinc
Why? Zinc is needed to make DNA, aka every cell in you and your baby’s body. It’s also a big player in your immune system.
Symptoms you may be able to avoid: White spots on your nails, getting sick often, often low in people with low iron or high coffee drinkers. There is some evidence that low zinc levels are associated with pre-eclampsia.
Blood test: Yes. Aim for your levels to be between 15-18umol/L. We want them nice and high as pregnancy will deplete levels.
Getting enough?: The RDI of zinc in pregnancy is 11mg/day and 12mg/day when breastfeeding.
Oysters (cooked), beef, crab, chicken & pumpkin seeds are all high in zinc.
More info on Zinc
Iodine
Why? Iodine is one of the biggest contributors to thyroid health. Your thyroid is your metabolism and controls everything including hormones. Pregnancy places a greater strain on the thyroid so Iodine in a pregnancy multi is a must (check with your health practitioner if you have Graves Disease).
Symptoms you may be able to avoid: fatigue. ‘nuff said! Also, a racing heart, insomnia and anxiety.
Blood test: Indirectly. We test for thyroid function. TSH below 3 in pregnancy is recommended. Pre-pregnancy, TSH levels between 0.5-2 and T4 levels of 15-20 are ideal.
Getting enough?: An RDI of 220ug/day of iodine is needed in pregnancy & 270ug/day when breastfeeding. Seaweed, fish, iodised salt, dairy and eggs are all sources of iodine.
Magnesium
Why? Magnesium is a muscle relaxant with so many benefits in pregnancy!
Symptoms you may be able to avoid: Tight hips, leg cramps (consider magnesium cream/gel in addition to oral magnesium), constipation (choose magnesium citrate) and insomnia (choose magnesium amino acid chelate) can all be minimised with sufficient magnesium.
Blood test: Magnesium levels should be between 0.8 to 1.10 mmol/L. Low levels also correlate with low potassium levels (ideal is 4.3-4.7mmol/L) which are readily tested as part of a Biochemistry Blood Test panel.
Getting enough?: An RDI of 360mg/day is needed in pregnancy and 320mg/day when breastfeeding. Pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, almonds, cashews, spinach and dark leafy greens are all high in magnesium.
Protein
Why: Protein is needed to make and repair muscles, to carry around hormones, make enzymes and as a fuel source to keep you full.
You need protein for these functions and so does your baby.
Symptoms you may be able to avoid: yo-yoing blood sugar and hunger levels, waking at night (have a protein snack before bed), nausea and sore muscles.
Blood test: A Protein blood test is part of a Biochemistry Blood Panel or Liver function test. Levels should ideally be between 70-74g/L.
Getting enough?: Protein levels will differ according to your weight (amount of muscle you have). An RDI of at least 60g/day up to 100g/day is needed in pregnancy (**up from at least 46g/day for non pregnant women).
A very very rough rule of thumb is to have at least 1g of protein per kg that you weigh (this will obviously go up throughout your pregnancy).
If you are breastfeeding, it goes up to at least 67g/day.
Lean meats including kangaroo, poultry including chicken, fish and seafood, eggs and dairy make up the highest protein foods. Consider a pregnancy safe supplement (either whey or hemp) if you need help getting up to these levels.
Collagen
Why: While protein is responsible for making muscles, collagen is needed for growing baby’s tendons and repairing your tendons eg your hips as they stretch. Collagen is also needed for GUT HEALTH, excellent for skin and wound healing (yes please!). As a bonus, it counts towards your protein levels too.
Symptoms you may be able to avoid: Collagen helps your blood vessels expand and contract, which helps with fluid metabolism. This means it helps with blood pressure and swelling!
Blood test: Not directly for collagen. See above for how to test your protein levels.
Getting enough?: See above for RDI of protein. Beef, chicken and pork bone broth are all high sources of collagen. Organ meats and some berries have higher levels of collagen too.
Calcium
Why: Calcium is needed to make both your’s and your baby’s bones. It also helps to neutralise stomach acid.
Symptoms you may be able to avoid: Soft bones and deformities are ones to avoid here! Calcium is also ace at reducing heartburn too.
Blood test: Not commonly tested but you want your levels to be between 8.5 and 10.5 mg/dL (2.12 to 2.62 mmol/L) in pregnancy.
Getting enough?: Australian RDI levels of calcium for pregnancy and breastfeeding at 1000mg/day. Interestingly, the World Health Organisation actually lists the RDI of 1200mg/day. High non-dairy levels of calcium include canned sardines in oil (as much as cows milk!), anchovies, rhubarb, broccoli, calcium fortified plant milks, white beans and oysters. Of course, cows milk, sheep milk (even higher levels!), natural yoghurt and hard cheeses all have high levels of calcium.
Vitamin D
Why: Vitamin D is used to help calcium get into the bones and is an immune regulator.
Symptoms you may be able to avoid: Soft bones are great to avoid! Vitamin D also helps prevent depression and is very much needed for those who get sick often or have autoimmune conditions.
Blood test: Ensure you have regular follow ups to know if your vitamin D levels are actually improving with any changes you’ve made.
Ideal levels are between 120-200nmol/L^65.
Getting enough?: Obviously, the sun provides Vitamin D, though this can be hard to balance with minimising skin cancer risks.
The pregnancy and breastfeeding RDI is 80ug/day which can also be tricky to work out when most supplements are measured in IU. Go off your blood test and retest.
Good food sources include salmon, mackerel, sardines, eggs, organ meats and red meat.
Omega 3’s
Why: Omega 3’s including DHA & EPA are crucial for baby brain and eye development
Symptoms you may be able to avoid: Other than baby brain & eye development, adequate Omega 3 consumption has been linked to avoiding preterm births, depression in pregnancy and when taken post birth, less baby allergies and eczema!
Blood test: There’s not a specific test for Omega 3’s. Ensure your total cholesterol is between 5.1-6.2mmol/L (cholesterol is needed to make hormones!), HDL (good cholesterol) is between 2-2.5mmol/L & LDL (“bad cholesterol”) is between 1-3mmol/L.
Having lots of fish and fish oils in your diet will help keep your Omega 3 levels in a healthy range.
Getting enough?: The best natural sources of Omega 3’s are fish. Sardines and Salmon (wild caught not farmed, they use antibiotics!) are great sources of Omega 3’s with low mercury risks. Here’s a great reference of which fish to consume and which to avoid in pregnancy.
Choline
Why: Choline is used to avoid neural tube defects and for brain and liver development. Its also the precursor to acetyl-choline which is needed for memory in all folks, not just in pregnancy.
Symptoms you may be able to avoid: Other than for avoiding neural tube defects and developing healthy brains and livers, adequate choline (with good iron levels) intake can help mitigate baby brain !!
Blood test: Not commonly tested.
Getting enough?: The daily adequate intake levels for choline are 440mg/day in pregnancy and 550mg/day if breastfeeding. The safe upper limit for choline is 3500mg/day. The best natural sources of choline include liver (or liver capsules), eggs, beef and chicken.
Vitamin A
Why: Vitamin A is needed for baby brain, eye, bone, organ AND immune function, a super key nutrient!
Symptoms you may be able to avoid: In addition to the above reasons, ensuring you’re having enough Vitamin A means you can avoid your night vision and eyesight diminishing in pregnancy!
Blood test: Not commonly tested but can be either privately or upon request to a good GP.
Getting enough?: The RDI levels for Vitamin A are 800ug/day in pregnancy and 1100ug/day if breastfeeding. The safe upper limit for Vitamin A is 3000ug/day. This can get confusing as Vitamin A is often listed in UI measurements.
Here’s a great resource on how to know you’re getting enough Vitamin A but keeping to safe levels.
Unfortunately, the Vitamin A found in vegetables is hard to convert to the bioactive form for the body to use. Some people also have a gene mutation that makes this conversion even harder. This means vegetarians and vegans are at risk of vitamin A deficiency. Foods with the highest levels of Vitamin A include liver (or liver capsules), fish, eggs and dairy products.
A special shout-out to these key nutrients
If you are worried about getting Gestational Diabetes in your pregnancy, adding Chromium Picolinate and NAC to your reduced sugar, high protein diet can help. Consider these changes from 20 weeks.
To help keep UTI’s to a minimum in pregnancy and to ensure tip top flora & microbiome for babies to pass through if birthing vaginally, ensure you have a probiotic high in LGG - Lactobacillus rhamnosus strains. Consider taking this from 20 weeks (or earlier if getting UTI’s) and post natally too.
What to do next?
For sure it’s lots of info here!
There’s so much happening in pregnant bodies and you’re making a human from scratch. Of course, you need all nutrients in all the right levels for optimal health for you and your baby. Covering all of the nutrients needed would make this blog go forever!
However, we hope this is a really useful starting guide.
How to get started
To find out how much of each nutrient is in each food you’d eat, you will need to spend time researching food nutrient levels.
This is time-consuming but crucial info if you don’t want to take a lot of supplements.
Some people find My Fitness Pal app helpful.Absolutely get the ball rolling (even before pregnancy!) with a good activated pre/postnatal vitamin & with some pregnancy-safe protein/collagen supplements.
We highly recommend Naturobest & HQ Intelligent Health for Australian, high-quality supplements.FYI - All our RDI and safe upper limit ranges are from the Australian Government in case you want to see them for yourself!
Our passion is for people to have the best healthiest and safest pregnancies possible.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this heavily researched blog on ways to feel good and avoid as many “normal” pregnancy symptoms as possible!
Need some support?
We ALWAYS tailor our treatments to suit your symptoms and latest blood test results.