World Women’s Day: Optimal nutrition for expecting and lactating women
By Oluwatoyin Oluwastoyin
Friday, March 9, 2007

•PHOTO: THE SUN PUBLISHING

Appetit Index

If the future of a nation is not well nurtured from the womb through optimal nutrition, it won’t be surprising if the nation turns out unproductive and unintelligent in the future. To avoid this, a daily food pattern recommended for optimal nutrition during pregnancy is listed here as a guide for meal preparation at this time.

Sample meals are equally added. During the second and the last trimester of pregnancy, a woman just needs to eat enough to be able to meet her daily energy requirement. Remember you are not eating for two.

The meals are also applicable during breastfeeding; only the fluid content of the meals needs to be increased to enhance the flow of breast milk.

Foods Measurement
Milk, whole Half to full glass
Meat (lean), poultry, fish and liver
Two servings per day. A serving is a large cut
Cheese At least once a week
Fruit At least two servings. A serving equals 1¼2 cup of orange juice, one medium orange, a cup of tomato juice or 1¼2 medi um grapefruit
Potato (preferably cooked in skin) Dark green leafy or deep yellow
Two or more servings. A serving is 1¼2 cup Vegetables (Cooked or raw) of any of these vegetables

Bread & cereal
Three to four servings. One serving equals One slice of bread or 1¼2 cup of cereal Vegetable oil or special margarine,
A little spread of butter or fortified margarine
(If obese; has high blood cholesterol or any cardiovascular disease, it is advisable to exclude these)
Here is a sample plan of meals for expecting and lactating mothers. Please note that these are just minor examples of what their daily meals should be. They are not meant to be the standard meals.

Breakfast
The indigenous option
Orange juice 1¼2 cup OR 1 orange (medium)
Oatmeal 1¼2 cup Pap (ogi)
Soft cooked egg 1 Boiled beans
Whole grain toast 1 large slice
One slice of butter or fortified margarine
One cup of tea or other beverages
Mid-morning
Orange juice 1¼2 cup OR 1 orange
(medium)
Cereal/corn flakes 3¼4 cup Two slices of bread
Whole milk 1¼4 glass 1¼4 glass whole milk

Lunch
Two sandwiches with one slice of cheddar cheese or meat
Three large leaves of lettuce and two fresh (medium) tomato salad
1¼2 grapefruit (medium)
1¼4 glass of whole milk or
Two wraps of Amala
Vegetables soup with okro
Chicken
1 tangerine (medium)
Go softly on swallow foods because of their high calorie content.
Mid-afternoon
Whole milk 1¼4 glass or Potato chips 8

Dinner
Jollof rice with green peas and cooked carrot (1/2 cup-sliced)
OR
Boiled rice with same ingredients
Boiled liver 2-3 big pieces
1 apple or mango 1¼2 small

Bedtime
Hot/cold whole milk or tea 1¼4 glass
Incorporating the listed food items into the daily meals of pregnant women helps them to still be assets instead of burdens to their respective companies, if working. This is because these foods simultaneously provide them with the needed energy to perform their official duties at work with minimal absenteeism due to pregnancy-related discomforts as well as nourish their fetus. This way, pregnant career women, while nurturing the nation’s future in their wombs are not denied the opportunity to contribute their quota in their chosen profession to the building of the same nation.

Nutritional benefits of breastfeeding
After delivery, mothers are expected to initiate breastfeeding within 30 minutes. This is the position of UNICEF because “breast milk alone for the first six months of a child’s life provides the best nourishment and protection (for the baby) from infection.”

However, the United Nations agency laments that despite the benefits of breastfeeding “yet fewer than half of infants in developing countries are exclusively breastfed during their first four months.”
This is the challenge currently being faced by the medical profession in the country. However,medical personnel in the country are saying that they are up to the task of convincing mothers to exclusively breast feed their babies for the first six months. Mrs Obot, a pediatrician says this is the best way to nourish a baby since all the nutrients needed by an infant throughout the six month period are in the breast milk ‘including water’. This is a breakdown of the nutritional content of breast milk compared to cow milk being used for baby’s tin milk formula.

Nutrients *Colostrums Breast milk Cow milk
Water 60% 70-87% 80-7%
Protein 10% 1.1% 4%
Amino acids-
Taurine cystine enough enough not enough
Lactalbumin 1.1% 0.15% -
Casein % 0.5% 3%
Sugar 7.0 7.0 3-4
Mineral salt, for example,
Sodium and calcium Low Low High
Fat Unsaturated 4% Unsaturated 4% Unsaturated 4%
Breast milk contains antibodies, anti inflammatory and allergic factors. It has also vitamins A, B, C, D, E K, and folic acid.

*Colostrum is the first milk that comes out of the breast after delivery. In certain culture, it is regarded as impure because of its yellowish colour but it has been discovered to be the most nutritious of breast milk as shown in the comparison above.

NOTE: The high water content of the breast milk is sufficient, so there is no need to give the infant water again. This is more important given the fact that about two million children die each year due to diseases linked to unsafe water, sanitation and poor hygiene, mainly diarrhea diseases, according to UNICEF. This, in addition to the fact that in developing countries, more than one billion people lack access to safe drinking water, shows one benefit of breast feeding. That is, the removal of the burden of sourcing for potable tap water from the mother.

Also, breast feeding has zero links with infections common with bottle feeding. This is cheery news to Nigerians because one in every six children in the country had, at least, an episode of diarrhea in the previous two weeks as noted in the book, Poverty and Welfare in Nigeria. The Baby Friendly Initiative of UNICEF enumerates other advantages of breast feeding as follows:

• Colostrum is babies’ first immunization
• Breast feeding is more economical, contains all nutrients in the right temperature, with nothing to fix or mix.
• Virtually all mothers can breastfeed and the quantity of milk has no relevance to the size of the breast.
• If a baby is breastfed exclusively for six montha, water, vitamins, juices and the likes will not be necessary.
• Breast milk does not sour even if a mother does not breastfeed for some days.
• Breastfed babies are more intelligent, emotionally balanced and less prone to infections like diarrhea and respiratory diseases.
• Working mothers can breastfeed mostly at night.
• Express breast milk kept for baby in the cup is sterile for eight to 10 hours and up to 24 hours in the fridge.
• It promotes strong bond between mother and baby.
As we celebrate women at this period, know that caring for an expecting mother is synonymous with caring for her unborn child. And who knows? The child could turn out to be another Thomas Edison.