What to Eat During Your Pregnancy: Foods for Trimester 3

As you step into the third and final trimester, your baby reaches full term and your body starts gearing up for birthing!  Needless to say, your nutrition intake is super crucial at this time.

This is also when your baby gains most of his/her weight, stretching your abdomen to its hilt. This can keep you from eating large meals but should not compromise your diet. Divide your meal into smaller portions and munch on every 3 hours.

Make sure you meet the prescribed 2500 calories a day with these key nutrients for trimester 3!

Protein

Your Protein requirement is at its peak in the last trimester – it’s crucial for your baby’s muscles and tissue development. Plus you need your own share of proteins to survive labor, delivery and breastfeeding.

Meat, chicken, fish and nuts are all good sources of protein.

Calcium

At this stage, your total calcium requirement shoots to 1100 mg/day and you can reason this to your baby’s rapid bone growth. Also 80% of fetal calcium accretions occur during the 3rd trimester so make sure you don’t falter on your calcium!

Low-fat milk, cottage cheese and yogurt provide additional calcium.

Omega -3

Apart from your basic dietary requirements you also need Omega-3 fatty acids and choline for your baby’s brain development.

Fish and Omega 3 supplements are good sources of Omega-3 fats.

Fats & Oils

This is when you need fats that come from whole foods (like nuts, seeds, avocados, olive oil, eggs, yogurt and cheese), over saturated fats from packaged foods.

Whole foods supply vitamins and minerals, along with healthy fat.

Essential fatty acids

Crucial to your baby’s brain development are the EFAs (Essential Fatty Acids), also called docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), is found in fish, fish oil and breast milk.

DHA plays a biological role in the structure and function of the brain, retina and nervous system.

IRON

Amongst all other nutrients, Iron is particularly important in Trimester 3. It prompts production of healthy red blood cells to carry oxygen to all tissues in the body including the placenta.

Meat sources of iron are well absorbed by the body. Vegetarians are at a greater risk of iron deficiency in pregnancy than meat eaters. Vitamin C increases the absorption of the iron found in vegetable sources.

*Maintain a diet rich in carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins and minerals, to avoid constipation and fatigue. These nutrients are low in fat and regulate weight gain. Vitamin A, copper, zinc and the B vitamins, vitamin C, vitamin E and selenium are also important for a pregnant woman as she approaches labor and delivery.

Here’s a sample Diet for you to stay and grow healthy in the third trimester:

Watch your sugar, salt and oil in your diet. Excess of these will lead to rapid weight gain.

Please Note: The above diet plan for pregnancy is a general sample chart. It may or may not necessarily suit everyone. Please consult your gynecologist or a qualified nutritionist to help you make a diet plan suited for your needs and lifestyle. Also take supplements only in consultation with your doctor.

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