Dietary behavior during pregnancy.

ABSTRACT

During pregnancy, maternal diet is a modifiable factor that impacts the birth outcome. Since the nutritional needs of a pregnant women vary during preconception, gestational and breastfeeding period, it is necessary to adapt the diet and lifestyle, optimally under the personalized nutrition guidance of a specialist. High quality research regarding diet during pregnancy remains challenging as nutritional concerns also vary according to religion, financial income, age and education of the pregnant woman, as well as specific traditions of each country, limited number of dietitians with special training in maternal nutrition. The obstetrician usually plays a major role in dietary counselling and the use of nutritional monitoring tools can help identify pregnant women who may be at risk due to an inappropriate diet. The age of the pregnant women can be important when it comes to dietary and lifestyle changes. In this context, we addressed a questionnaire to 100 pregnant women in third trimester of pregnancy in order to evaluate a possible correlation between the age and the dietary behavior and lifestyle of a pregnant woman. Furthermore, the maternal compliance with dietary recommendations in pregnancy and the exposure to various risks due to unhealthy nutrition were also analysed in the study.