I’ve heard that having a healthy baby likened to gardening: you make sure you have good soil, plant the seed, water it, and then feed it so that it grows healthy. This concept also applies to the womb. Having optimum nutrition at the time of conception and during the first few weeks of pregnancy is the most important factor of baby’s growth. Reducing harmful substances, pollutants and chemicals is important. This will not just aid the unborn baby’s health but your own, too. Even though you may feel that you are eating healthy meals you may still be deficient in key nutrients or harbouring toxins, factors that can harm a developing baby. An unborn baby is highly sensitive to toxins or to the changes in the supply of nutrients. While a woman may not show apparent sign of folic acid deficiency, such deficiency can cause spina bifida in her unborn baby.
Anti-nutrients in pregnancy are not about what you eat but also about what you don’t eat, drink or breathe. We are surrounded by alcohol, smoking, and pollutants, all which can interfere with essential nutrients. For example, lead antagonises zinc and calcium; both these nutrients are important for development. Lead pollutants can originate from petrol and chemical fumes. High lead and cadmium levels and low zinc are associated with stillbirths…read the finding of Professor Bryce-Smith click on the link http://www.ion.ac.uk/information/onarchives/zinc.
As we know many fish now a day’s contain high levels of mercury. As a naturopath I recommend you avoid mackerel as it is a scavenger fish.
Copper is now in pipes, kitchen utensils and swimming pool anti-fungal agents, which means we are more at risk of toxicity than deficiency. The best thing when drinking water is to try and drink filtered water and to minimise the use of plastic containers. Instead use glass or filter it at home and store in a glass jug.
The same goes for aluminium, use grease proof paper to wrap up sandwiches, kitchen cookware. Aluminium has been linked to kidney problems in babies. Major sources of aluminium include antacids, deodorants and food additives. In a previous article I have written, I express how important it is to detoxify the body before pregnancy.