“Improving clinicians’ understanding of effects nutrition can have on maternal health and fetal and neonatal development can have a considerable impact on achieving a healthy pregnancy and reducing childhood morbidity” (Symonds and Ramsay 3). It is the statement from the book Maternal-Fetal Nutrition During Pregnancy and Lactation by Symonds and Ramsay that reflects the authors’ main idea. This book is very useful for people who are somehow connected with pregnancy such as mothers, doctors, nurses, and others. In the book, the authors are concentrated on demonstrating that nutrition during pregnancy and lactation is extremely important with the focus on nutritional requirements, the physiology and phycology of pregnancy, and factors that affect the nutrition during pregnancy and lactation.
The book is divided into three sections. The first section refers to nutritional regulation and requirements for pregnancy and fetal growth. The second section is aimed at describing nutritional requirements for lactation and infant growth. The third section is called Specialized requirements, and it is devoted to such topics as teenage pregnancies, vegetarianism during pregnancy and lactation, and multiple pregnancies.
It can be said that the authors present the essence of main topics. For instance, Symonds and Ramsay state that nutrition is important even in the early stages of pregnancy, and they support this idea describing the process of the placenta formation and emphasizing the key role of nutrition during this process (4). In their book, Davies and Deery pay a lot of attention to micronutrients and macronutrients (33). Symonds and Ramsay also investigate this topic and underline that micronutrients and macronutrients contribute to supporting mother’s vital activity and the development and growth of her baby (48). As it is described by the Healthline, “micronutrients are dietary components, such as vitamins and minerals, which are only required by the body in small amounts; macronutrients, on the other hand, are nutrients that provide calories or energy” (“Nutritional needs during pregnancy” par. 2). In the first section, Symonds and Ramsay support this definition and describe main macronutrients that should be included in a woman’s daily diet such as protein (for the proper growth of fetal tissue), calcium (for building fetal bones), iron (to supply enough oxygen to the fetus), folate (to reduce the risk of neural tube defects), and others (56).
It goes without saying that the authors follow their strategy to remark on the effects that nutrition have on maternal health and fetal. They analyze gathered information and make connections between the nutritional requirements and different stages of fetal development and growth. It is worth mentioning that the authors fulfill the following task and success with their objectives in the book. In the second section of their book, the authors consider breastfeeding and highlight key factors related to it. A lot of authors such as Aune et al, Kornides and Kitsantas, Victora et al argue that breastfeeding protects children from many diseases, and Symonds and Ramsay agree with them (67). Besides, in the last section of the book, Symonds and Ramsay analyze and pay a lot of attention to some specific problems that occur during pregnancy.
To sum up, in the book Maternal-Fetal Nutrition During Pregnancy and Lactation, the authors illustrate the idea of the connection between nutrition and pregnancy. They accentuate the idea of the importance of nutrition during pregnancy and lactation. This book is an excellent guideline for doctors, health-care workers, scientists, and pregnant women. The authors fulfill the following task and reveal why nutrition plays a vital role in the development and growth of the fetus.
Works Cited
Aune, Dagfinn, et al. “Breastfeeding and the Maternal Risk of Type Two Diabetes: A Systematic Review and Dose–Response Meta-Analysis of Cohort Studies.” Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases, vol. 24, no. 2, 2014, pp. 107-115.
Davies, Lorna, and Ruth Deery. Nutrition in Pregnancy and Childbirth: Food for Thought. Routledge, 2013.
Kornides, Melanie, and Panagiota Kitsantas. “Evaluation of Breastfeeding Promotion, Support, and Knowledge of Benefits on Breastfeeding Outcomes.” Journal of Child Health Care, vol. 17, no. 3, 2013, pp. 264-273.
“Nutritional needs during pregnancy.” Healthline: Medical Information & Trusted Health Advice, 2016, Web.
Symonds, Michael E., and Margaret M. Ramsay. Maternal-Fetal Nutrition during Pregnancy and Lactation. Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Victora, Cesar, et al. “Breastfeeding in the 21st Century: Epidemiology, Mechanisms, and Lifelong Effect.” The Lancet, vol. 387, no. 10017, 2016, pp. 475-490.