Maternal Health Required Extravagant Care

Nutrition has always been a corner stone during pregnancy as well as lactation phase. After the birth of the baby, the mother has to meet certain challenges like supply of breast milk, infant health condition, postpartum stress which can lead to postpartum pre-eclampsia. Traditional practices in which food restrictions are given to the mother may affect the health of the mother. The mother should be encouraged to eat energy and protein dense food. Additionally vitamin C, D, Zinc, Iron, Folate rich foods are equally important. The need of optimum nutrition is high during lactation because of breast feeding and recovery phase of LSCS mother. According to the RDA, the lactating mother require extra 450-500 Kcal/day and high protein diet average 60-80 gm/day, and plenty of fluids like soup, milk , fresh juices, coconut water, etc. The mother should eat more of whole grains and cereals. The diet should include methi seeds, ajwain, til seeds, ginger powder or juice, lauki, masor dal or mix dal, papaya, gond laddu, fennel seeds, dried fruits. Breast feeding to the baby should be given more frequently. As there is postpartum blood loss  iron rich food like bedailotha, manimuni, spinach, curry leaves, capsicum, beet, pomegranate, nuts, fish chicken, egg, dried beans, dal should be eaten.

Breastfeeding is the most important task in the earth that every mother should do. Exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months and continue till 2 years. The firth 1000 days of infant life is the most important period of life. So the mother should eat a good and a nutritional dense diet to reduce the rate of maternal morbidity and mortality.