Nutrient Replenishment in Pregnancy Recovery

In their book, A Natural Guide to Pregnancy and Postpartum Health (Now available - Avery, Putnam, Penguin), Dr. Dean Raffelock and Dr. Robert Rountree say that the underlying cause of many postpartum ailments (especially in those women who did not suffer from those ailments before pregnancy) are deficiencies in important nutrients. If a woman's body is deficient in key vitamins, minerals, fatty acids or amino acids, the fundamental energy producing metabolic processes in a woman's body that help maintain emotional and physical health will not function properly.

A Natural Guide to Pregnancy and Postpartum Health shows the reader all the specific nutrients required to feed the basic energy producing metabolic pathways of the body. Most of the major biological pathways are shown along with the nutritional "co-factors" required for these physiologic pathways to function optimally. For example, if a woman's body becomes deficient in even one of the vitamins or minerals needed to fuel the Citric Acid Cycle, a metabolic pathway within the cells that produces 36 units of physiologic energy (ATP), the body will only produce 2 units of energy instead of 36. Post pregnancy fatigue, baby blues and mood swings may be the result of this inefficient energy production. The book is grounded in science and nutritional biochemistry and makes a strong case for " pregnancy recovery" which is a woman's need to replenish her body's nutrient reserves postpartum. Some of the important points made in this book are:

1. A newborn baby's body is entirely composed of nutrients donated from its mother's body. The placenta and umbilical cord are also entirely composed of nutrients donated from the mother.

2. It is very common for a mother's body to become deficient in some of these key nutrients because her baby's body has taken nutritional priority over her own.

3. Deficiencies in certain nutrients are known to cause fatigue and other health problems.

4. Women who had their babies years or even decades ago may still be suffering from a kind of fatigue that was originally caused from postpartum nutritional depletions if their nutrient reserves are still deficient.

5. It is vitally important for a mother to consciously "recover" her nutrient reserves if she wants to regain her health and stay healthy.

6. Blood tests are now available that can tell a mother exactly what nutrients her body is deficient in.

7. It is vitally important for a woman to take a combination of nutrients postpartum to replenish her nutrient reserves.

8. Prenatal and postpartum nutritional needs are entirely different so a prenatal formula will not be adequate for postpartum recovery.

The need for a woman to replenish her nutrient reserves postpartum so that she will be able to avoid fatigue and other postpartum ailments and regain her own health seems so obvious that it is surprising that this is a new idea. The concept of “pregnancy recovery” is especially important if a woman is planning on having more children because nutrient deficiencies can cause problems in her health and the health of future children.

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