Summary

In this study session, you have learned that:

1. Eating well during pregnancy and breastfeeding means eating a variety of foods and enough foods — at least 200 additional calories every day.
2. Eating well with little money is possible by buying cheap nutritious foods like beans and organ meats, growing legumes, keeping chickens, using whole grains, and making soups.
3. Pregnant and breastfeeding women need to eat a variety of main foods (carbohydrates), grow foods (proteins), go foods (sugars and fats), and glow foods (vitamins and minerals, particularly iron, folate, calcium, iodine and Vitamin A).
4. Iron pills and folate (folic acid) tablets should be provided to pregnant women as part of routine antenatal care.
5. Personal hygiene, especially hand washing and keeping the genital area clean, helps to prevent infection during pregnancy (and at all times).
6. Getting plenty of rest and sleep, and avoiding alcohol, cigarettes, illegal drugs, strong chemicals and infectious persons helps to protect the pregnant woman and her unborn baby.
7. Immunization against tetanus should be a routine part of antenatal care.
8. Feeding colostrum, followed by full and exclusive breastfeeding, is the best and only nourishment a baby needs in the first 6 months of life.
9. Full and exclusive breastfeeding may protect the woman from becoming pregnant again up to 6 months after the birth, but only if feeding is very frequent and her menstrual periods have not returned.
10. Birth spacing of at least 2 years is good for the health of the woman, her baby and any older children — in fact for all her family.