Self -Care During Pregnancy - Research Paper Example

Weight gain depends a lot on diet, physical activity and a way of life of a woman. There are certain recommendations for gain weight for women, however they differ for those with normal weight, who are underweight and overweight or obese. The weight gain also depends on how many children a woman is carrying (one, twins, triplets etc.). These recommendations are ("Pregnancy Weight Gain", New Zealand Ministry of Health, "Fit for Two: Tips for Pregnancy"): The numbers may differ depending on the recommendations of doctors in specific cases.

But on the whole, a woman should try to keep to those limits, as lack of weight and weight excess may lead to undesirable outcomes, such as ("Pregnancy Weight Gain", New Zealand Ministry of Health, "Fit for Two: Tips for Pregnancy"): Thus it is necessary for a woman to try to keep to these limits, though it may be a challenge to many of them, especially that together with a growing baby, a woman has growing appetite. So it is important to her to monitor weight change and discuss it with her doctor.

Healthy diet, which includes necessary nutrients and calories, and moderate physical activity may contribute to proper weight gain (New Zealand Ministry of Health). However constant and exhausting exercises should not become the ultimate goal of a pregnant woman, who does not want to gain more weight than recommended. A caloric intake of a pregnant woman does not differ significantly from a non-pregnant, and is between 2000-2500 calories (BabyCenter Medical Advisory Board, Hark and Catalano, "Fit for Two: Tips for Pregnancy").

There are some basic principles or rules, which a woman needs to observe while being pregnant. One of them is that pregnancy does not mean that a woman has to eat for two persons, because a baby does not require the same caloric intake as a grown-up person. A woman has to take extra 300-500 calories (Hark and Catalano). During the first trimester a woman may have the same calories