nikaLIVE: How does lifestyle affect pregnancy?

Test results, ailments and possible complications during pregnancy and folic acid supplementation - these are the most common topics discussed in gynecological offices during pregnancy visits. The lifestyle of a woman expecting a child usually remains in the background. And this is a mistake - says Dr. n. med. Tadeusz Oleszczuk. He talked about why diet, sleep and physical activity are so important for future mothers in nikaLIVE on Instagram. You can watch the recording at this link , and below is its text version.

Hanna Borowska: How does lifestyle affect pregnancy and is it really that important for a pregnant woman?

Tadeusz Oleszczuk, MD : I'm surprised that so little is said about it, so I'm very happy to say it: a pregnant woman doesn't notice that the fetus lives with her. We miss this and make a lot of mistakes. They say: "Eat for two, now you are pregnant, you have cravings, you want something sweet - eat it. If you want fruit, eat it – NO! Pay attention to what you eat and how you live, especially during pregnancy! Then the baby will be born, and it will have the same eating habits that it acquired during the 9 months of pregnancy. If you ate fruit, ate sweets, ate sprayed, chemical... then the baby will be born and say: "Where's my sweet?" You try to breastfeed and he cries, "Where's my sweet baby? Throughout my pregnancy I ate meringues, apples, tangerines, where is it?" He has abdominal bloating, gets angry and nervous. If I ate sweets for half a year, then I would rebel, if suddenly in half a year someone cut me off because I was born...

Why isn't anyone talking about this? It's so obvious! And now I have my own experiences with patients. A girl comes in who is pregnant for the second time. I didn't manage her first pregnancy, but she gave birth to a 4.5 kg baby and gained 25 kg. I say: "Ma'am, you gave birth to such a big baby because your blood sugar was too high during pregnancy, what did you eat?" – “Apples, tangerines…” So I explain that during this pregnancy, we don't eat fruit, we don't eat sweets , hard foods, and we pay attention - this is incredibly important in these times - that the food is organic . It cannot be sprayed, because the child will "see" these poisonings/pesticides (now the fetus, then the newborn) in the blood. That's why there are many more disadvantages nowadays than 30 years ago, when I started working. I rarely saw a child with defects, but now such a child happens almost every few months. Besides the ubiquity of sugar and sweet varieties of fruit are available all year round.

So, according to the Doctor, all these toxins, environmental and food loads affect the course of pregnancy and possible developmental defects of the child?

Yes, and the accumulation of these toxins in the time before a woman became pregnant. There are also vitamin and mineral deficiencies. And to the already mentioned patient, during her second pregnancy, I talk about eating mainly organic vegetables . And during the second delivery, the woman gives birth to a baby weighing 3,600 grams, she gained 13 kg herself and says: "Doctor, I will feed this baby and it sleeps! And it kept happening..." The feedback I get from the other side is that it is practical. And I started wondering, where did this come from? And actually, it makes sense! Another danger that we do not pay attention to - the amount of things sprayed . Especially apples, sprayed many times (rains do not wash them away), if someone eats an apple with the core, they eat this chemical (e.g. glyphosate) and then it is in the blood. You can check its level in your blood if someone argues that they eat healthily.

I recommend such a test if someone has intestinal disorders, intolerances or allergies, or if something is wrong. I ask about bowel movements - they are supposed to be once a day, and many women who complain of severe cramps during pregnancy are constipated. And there are ways to avoid it, but basically diet is the most important thing . I also do the so-called an oncopackage of six minerals, because it indicates the functioning of the thyroid gland: zinc, selenium, arsenic, cadmium, lead, copper. But you can still test the presence of glyphosate in your blood if you want, as well as ferritin and iron ! Ferritin is often responsible for anemia during pregnancy. If someone has low ferritin, it means that they have a problem with their intestines . To put it briefly and concisely - it is worth switching to organic vegetables and looking for ecological sources. This is only just breaking through in Poland, there is a top list of 50 ecological producers. It is still expanding, but we need to reach them. I don't want to list them here, but if you look for them, you can get them. Let's also avoid processed food, fast food, sugar and trans fats!

However, prices in organic stores are often terrifying... What if a woman cannot afford to eat only organic food, is there anything else she can do?

I speak from experience, I also go to these stores and see how much 5 pieces of boiled beetroot cost. In Lidl - PLN 5, corn salad, walnuts, olives, sauce and you have a salad! Now a great journalist, Mrs. Bosacka, prepared dinners for PLN 5 and she also makes sure that the food is clean. It really is possible, we just think so. I buy buckwheat in an organic store and it may be a zloty more expensive, but in the end it will be cheaper, I don't have stomach bloating and I would like to postpone it because it is very practical. It will be cheaper because I do not need to treat unpleasant symptoms .

Organic vegetables, not artificially infused, actually have vitamins . I read a diet manual - "eat a carrot" - that's where beta-carotene really is, very important for the development of pregnancy. But if I buy a carrot forced with nitrates, it doesn't even smell like a carrot, it just looks beautiful and big. I cut the celery open and it's empty inside. And this salad even tastes different . Let's just try to make a salad with only organic vegetables and a lot of olive oil, this is extremely important during pregnancy, but somehow we miss it. We recognize cramps during pregnancy, anemia during pregnancy, but we don't care about the fact that this girl has constipation. I meet pregnant women like that - she was released from the hospital, she had contractions that increased the risk of miscarriage or premature birth, and she had a bowel movement once a week and was given antispasmodic drugs. We changed our diet, we have bowel movements once a day and the contractions are gone.

During the first two years after birth, a child's intestinal flora (microbiome) develops. This is why it is so important to breastfeed. Breast milk contains compounds that promote the development of proper intestinal microflora. If we give other foods later, it is worth "showing" the breast to the baby from time to time, because it shapes him for life - the first two years of life and the formation of intestinal microflora. After all, children are also smarter if they have a lot of minerals and vitamins.

It is often said that you should eat 5 portions of vegetables and fruit every day. However, if someone wants to eat healthily, they start eating more fruit. Why is there not enough talk about the fact that sweet fruit is not as healthy as we may think?

First of all, physiologically, in nature, for thousands of years, when our digestive tract was developing, rather sour fruits were available . Just like when grandma had pulpwood in her garden - two weeks and the pulpwood was gone. And right now, these varieties are made sweet enough to contain as much fructose as possible . It is the same glucose, only the molecule has atoms arranged differently. Fructose, like glucose, is very addictive and producers know it well! The idea is to sell as much as possible . Fruit too. At the moment we have a year-round period of abundance, we are sold that fruit is healthy, and there is much more fructose than before. I would generally prefer to eat vegetables . We cannot assume that I will eat apples in March, January, December, even though they are available, of course, because they sell well, but in general I should eat vegetables. And remember about moderation and periodic fasting.

So you should rather focus on seasonal vegetables?

And ecological! And above all, from the place where we live, not from Africa or Japan, but our local vegetables . We have food microflora developed by our grandparents, great-grandparents, who lived here and ate it. Our bacteria should be as diverse as possible - pickles help here, a very cheap vegetable - beetroot , there are so many cool things there! Beet leaven is something excellent and valuable! Sauerkraut , we can pickle a lot of things, just make sure it is natural, ecological, because if we start pickling the stuff that is sprayed, sprinkled, fertilized, it will rot and it will not turn into silage. It's a bit of a myth to eat fruit, because sometimes I say to the patient: "Madam, we don't eat sugar because you are at risk of impaired glucose tolerance." And she comes back in a month and has gained 4 kilos - "what did you do?" – she ate tangerines and oranges, because the fruits are healthy. I hear this from pregnant women. And when they stop eating fruit or sugar, even their swelling begins to disappear!

Of course, if I eat one apple a week, an even more sour one, or one tangerine, nothing will happen to me, but these girls usually crave sweets so much that they eat a whole bowl of strawberries, cherries or tangerines. That is not possible! During pregnancy, 80% of your meals should be organic, clean vegetables . Then I see how the pregnancy is progressing and by paying attention to it, we can have nice results.

We're mainly talking about plant-based products here, but what about meat and fish? How to choose good quality animal products?

Here are some answers. Fish - there are nice fish farms in Greater Poland, but we should generally eat wild fish that cannot be farmed. The idea is that they do not receive chemical additives. The Chinese have even learned how to breed shrimp, but they add so many chemicals to their food that, unfortunately, it has little to do with health. Let's get our arsenic levels checked and we'll find out. The norm is 0.6, it is enough to have 1 or 2 and the risk of cancer is up to 10 times higher. Wild: herring, cod, sardine. Unless it's wild-caught salmon, which is true - it will be expensive. As for meat – no pork, please! If so, only cooked and beef meals, three times a month.

Do we rather limit meat?

You can not eat at all, but then you supplement vitamin B12 and B vitamins. Many athletes with good results do not eat meat at all. But if someone has a problem with this, they can eat beef, veal or lamb. But cooked ! Not fried! Grilled is fine... Three times a month won't hurt us, and if someone needs it, it wouldn't be that bad.

I have a question about exercise during pregnancy and physical activity - the Polish Society of Gynecologists and Obstetricians recommends reducing the level of physical activity during pregnancy, even if the pregnancy is physiologically normal. Recommendations from foreign companies, e.g. American or British, say something different. They encourage pregnant women to exercise, even if they were not very active before pregnancy. What is the Doctor's opinion on this matter?

This is a different specificity of the population - ours and the American one. There is more overweight and obesity there, so encouraging activity is highly recommended. In our case, if this recommendation applied to the general public, 20-30% of women would have problems carrying their pregnancy to term. Threatened labor, premature contractions, shortening of the cervix... Generally speaking, it is safer to say limit than to say that special groups can. This is where the attending physician decides , because if I see in the ultrasound that the cervix is ​​long, there is no risk of premature birth, then absolutely!

Physical activity is the cheapest way to fight stress , but it must be an activity such as: walking, cycling, etc. Of course, depending on the trimester, this activity will be different. Until the third month, if the pregnancy is progressing normally, you can do anything. However, when we are already eight or nine months old, it will be difficult for the woman herself. But if a woman can handle it, she can ride a bike, then there is no problem! A long time ago, I guided pregnant women in rural centers. Some of them came by bike. They gave birth to children nicely and went back to work immediately. Physiology and how it was done hundreds of years ago. This activity does not bother you if everything goes well during pregnancy. And since 20-30% of pregnant women have problems carrying the pregnancy to term, they are advised against any activity and are often even advised to lie down. That's where the recommendation came from - to limit it.

Are there any activities that are more preferable during pregnancy? For example, yoga, pilates, because they seem "safer"...

Yes, of course, it won't be weightlifting or shot put, but yoga is definitely great! We learn to breathe, we get oxygen , and besides, physical activity is incredibly valuable because it improves the flow of lymph . We forget about it, everyone says "circulation, arteries, veins", and lymph is responsible for a functioning immune system. Stress has a negative impact on immunity, so if we are physically active, our immunity increases, we are stronger, we fight infection more easily and our stress level decreases . Moreover, a pregnant woman has this mechanism that if she is seriously ill, she fights an infection that could reach the fetus. It has a lot of antibodies, so the child is safer. However, let this movement take place outdoors, and not in the city center of Warsaw or Krakow, in the smog. Environmental pollution is increasing. It is better to walk and exercise outdoors, but away from city centers or in centers that are prepared for this.

And when it comes to sleep? Many pregnant women have trouble sleeping, probably partly due to hormonal changes, and at the end of pregnancy also due to anatomical changes, because it is difficult to find a comfortable position. How to improve sleep quality during pregnancy?

Generally, in the first trimester, a woman sleeps more because progesterone is secreted in large amounts. Likewise, prolactin lowers blood pressure. And often a woman even recognizes that she is probably pregnant because she sleeps all day long .

Sleeping is more of a problem in the last month of pregnancy , when the diaphragm is already raised high by the pregnant uterus. Then a semi-sitting position or lying on your side may help.

You can drink warm water, 2-3 glasses a day, it is also good for the digestive tract. Reflux symptoms become more severe during pregnancy , 40-60% have asymptomatic reflux and this irritates the gastric mucosa. Irritation of the mucous membranes also makes it difficult to fall asleep and sleep quality. Breathing exercises can be helpful - this means, for example, taking a breath, holding it in your lungs for 5-8 seconds and releasing it. It also relaxes muscle tension. That's why yoga and learning how to breathe is so cool and effective in relaxing and calming emotions. The body then thinks that we are calm and makes it easier to fall asleep. If a woman eats poorly, exercises little and is under constant stress, she will have trouble falling asleep. It is important to remember that healthy sleep should last 7-8 hours, not 4. It should not be interrupted. Getting up at night is often caused by excessive amounts of fructose or glucose eaten during the day.

Many women experience nausea and vomiting during pregnancy and it can be said that this is considered a symptom of pregnancy. Is this the norm?

No, although I said so myself 30 years ago when a patient was vomiting during pregnancy . Nausea and vomiting should be controlled. Now there are even medications that contain vitamin B6 and inhibit the vomiting reflex. But it turned out that if a girl grates two small spoons of ginger, she will make a paste with a banana, but she will not eat sweets, fruit, dairy products, eggs, meat, bread, anything that causes acidification of the stomach lining, and she will only eat organic vegetables. , lemon juice, linseed, probiotics, i.e. something that soothes the condition of the mucous membranes, so there is no vomiting! And it turns out that by eating good organic food we can control vomiting .

Let me warn you right away - many women have thyroid problems and this is indirectly related to vomiting. Therefore, it is good to check it, do an ultrasound, and not just TSH. TSH and fT4 are normal (because the woman got pregnant), but you also need to do an ultrasound - there may be nodules and cysts there. Especially if someone in your family has had thyroid problems. And here, diet is also important to perfect it. Ultimately, the antibodies that cause thyroid inflammation are formed in the gastrointestinal mucosa. Diet and the resulting microflora are therefore still important.

I can't help but ask about stress. Of course, he devours us all. How to deal with this stress? Are there any techniques particularly recommended for pregnant women in this respect?

Yoga, breathing , which I mentioned. It is often said - and this is a mistake - that when we are stressed, we lose magnesium. And when you're stressed, you need vitamin C! But not in the form of tablets, but - parsley, black currant, sauerkraut, peppers, sea buckthorn, avocado - there is this natural vitamin C. When we are under stress, our immunity reacts and needs vitamin C for this. Besides, vitamin C is very good at flushing out from the body. poisoning us , like arsenic. And we have almost no vitamins in processed food. Sometimes producers even add vitamin C to orange juice... But by eating avocado or blackcurrant, we can provide a lot of vitamin C and it will generally strengthen our immunity and fight against stress. We will be stronger, the immune system will definitely feel it, as will our well-being.