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| World Home » Life Style » | Fri. Nov 21, 2008 |
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Pregnant woman should avoid alcohol and smoking MIL/Agencies, Apr 26, 2006. When the question of pregnant woman comes the next question automatically involves the health of an unborn child and the negative or positive effects of the mother over the child follow: There are special precautions, which a pregnant woman is required to take. She should maintain her health, limit her weight and to keep control in her allergies, not to drink alcohol, to observe total non-smoking state and to keep her temperament under self control during her pregnancy so that it may not adversely affect the child in womb and its growth in any manner whatsoever. In addition, she is required to take enough milk during her pregnancy and her walking is as essential as the milk itself. Walking is a light exercise, which she should regularly do. Suggestions by scientists as reported by Sam Lister of The Times are given as under: A team of scientists compared the birth weights of babies born to mothers who drank a cup or more of milk a day during pregnancy with ones whose mothers did not. The babies of milk drinkers were heavier. All 300 women who participated in the study, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, were non-smokers and followed conventional health advice during pregnancy. But a quarter admitted to drinking less than a cup of milk a day. The research team leader, Kristine Koski, director of the School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, said: "This is an important finding because increasing numbers of women are restricting milk consumption during pregnancy believing that it will lower fat intake, minimize weight gain, treat self-diagnosed lactose intolerance or prevent their children from developing allergies. "Mothers and health professionals need to understand that this dietary practice may restrict essential nutrients and negatively affect foetal development." The women taking part in the study were aged 19 to 45 and attended antenatal classes at three hospitals in Calgary between May 1997 and June 1999. Of these, 72 drank less than a cup of milk a day. A cup of milk was chosen as the benchmark because it contains about 2.5 micrograms of vitamin D. It is significantly below the daily intake of 5 micrograms recommended by some dieticians and nutritionists. Vitamin D is considered important in skeletal growth and in producing strong bones. It is needed to transport calcium from a woman during pregnancy through the umbilical cord to the foetus. The increasing pressure among pregnant women to avoid excess body fat and lose weight very quickly after giving birth has been attributed to media coverage of celebrities such as Victoria Beckham, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Madonna who regained their pre-pregnancy figures within weeks of giving birth. Previous research carried out by scientists at the University of Southampton showed that children whose mothers are deficient in vitamin D during pregnancy may grow up with lower-than-normal bone mass, putting them at risk of osteoporosis-related fractures later in life. The Canadian study found that each daily cup of milk added, on average, 41g to the birth weight of the baby. "Although most nutrients in milk may be replaced from other foods or with supplements, vitamin D is found in few commonly consumed foods except for milk," the report said.
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