Pregnancy! Ah, the excitement. Oh, the many questions. Did you know that a pregnant woman needs 300 more calories than she normally would? Her need for calcium, iron, and folic acid are greater now than ever. The growing baby needs lots of calcium to grow healthy teeth and bones.

So what is enough calcium for a pregnant woman? On average, pregnant women need 40% more calcium then an average person. This equals to about 1,000 mg of calcium a day. You can get a good amount of the calcium you need through low-fat dairy products, cereal, green leafy veggies, and dried beans.

Pregnant women should also take an iron supplement, because anemia is a dangerous yet common problem during pregnancy. Eating lots of red meat, dried fruits, and various other foods like that can help get you the 27-30 mg needed.

Folic Acid is another crucial mineral. This prevents birth defects such as spina bifida. There are lots of foods that provide folic acid. See how some of your faves line up. Cereal, rice, pasta, spinach, and wholegrain breads. How does it stack up for you?

In addition to all this, pregnant women need to stay well hydrated. This will help prevent some of the annoyances of pregnancy and more serious things, like preterm labor.

Also, watch out for food poisoning. This can be very harmful to both you and your baby. Take care when handling raw meat and poultry. Consuming raw eggs should also be avoided.

There are certain types of fish that you should watch out for as well. These include shark, swordfish, king mackerel, and tile fish. These can prove to have very high levels of mercury which you should avoid.

Caffeine, drugs, and alcohol should also be avoided as these can cause serious harm to your baby. In some cases, the baby can become addicted to these substances before birth, causing great trauma when it is born. You are now making decisions for two not just one, so make your choices carefully.

Access various other educational articles by this writer regarding areas including full coverage dental insurance and dental implant surgery.

Okay, so you are pregnant. One of the draw backs or symptoms is nausea and vomiting. Well this is not so fun, it is one of the things that comes with pregnancy (unless you are one of the lucky ones). I was not one of the lucky ones.

Nope, I was not lucky at all when it came to nausea and vomiting, instead, I had it the worst ever! I was sick day and night, throughout my entire pregnancy, up until I delivered. Yuck!

This brings on the question whether or not you want to take the medication root or the natural root. There are many different things that you can do for yourself to help yourself through this time.

One of the things that I always did was eat tums like they were candy. Yes, they are packed with calcium, but your body will only use what it needs, and the rest will just be flushed out. Tums were especially helpful with nausea, and their chalkiness was even more helpful (as yucky as that sounds). You could also drink peppermint tea, and you do have the option of purchasing that caffeine free.

If you want to go the herbal route, check with your doctor first. Ginger is a great herb that is very soothing on your tummy. But, if you don’t want to take a herb but still want the ginger effects, something very tasty would be ginger snaps. You can buy that in a grocery store. I used to keep a box in my car.

I used to keep a package of unsalted or salted soda crackers at my bedside, or in my car, just in case I got a bout of nausea. I always kept peppermint tums in my purse so I could eat them whenever I needed them.

Although all these lovely natural things worked for me with both of my pregnancies with my sons, my pregnancy with my daughter was even worse. With all of my pregnancies I always had one thing that would set me off the most, but when I was expecting her, it seemed like everything was not allowed in my tummy. Since I was loosing weight so quickly, my OB/GYN prescribed me Diclectin. It is a pregnancy safe drug (if you look at it, there is a picture of a pregnant mommy on it) and that was the only way that I could actually keep anything down.

With both my sons I was prescribed Diclectin as well, but I was determined not to use it in fear of anything that would disrupt my pregnancy or my baby. Although my fears were common, I know now that I should have done the research and calmed my fears. So when it came to my health and the health of my unborn baby (my daughter) I realized that I had no choice but to take Diclectin. I did the research and I did take the medication. My daughter is healthy and happy and to think that I could have lost her is now put behind me. Thank goodness for research!