According to the Institute of Medicine in the United States of America, the following are the guidelines for weight gain in women of different body mass indeces – Underweight women, i.e. those with a BMI less than 18.5 are required to gain 28-40 pounds, normal weight women, i.e. having a BMI of 18.5 to 24.9 are required to gain 25-35 pounds and overweight women, i.e. those with a BMI above 25 to 29.9 are required to gain 15-25 pounds (“Assessing Your Weight”, n.d.).
For pregnant women, the required daily allowance (RDA) of the two macronutrients Calcium and Choline should be 1200 mg and 450 mg respectively. Food sources for calcium are yogurt, milk and cottage cheese. Sources of choline include eggs, broccoli and chicken.
Some of the risk factors of pregnant females, under the age of 16, i.e. teenage pregnancy are increased chances of contracting sexually transmitted diseases and infections since the young teenage body does not have as many antibodies as a woman. The maternal death rate of younger females is two and a half times higher than that among adults in the age group of 20-25 (“Advocatesforyouth.org.”, n.d.).
Two of the risk factors for women above the age of 35 undergoing pregnancy are low birth weight of the baby and placenta previa which is a condition in which the placenta is partially or fully inserted into the uterine segment. This could lead to vaginal bleeding in these women (Jolly, Sebire, Harris, Robinson, & Regan, 2000).
Energy requirements for lactating women in the first six months of breastfeeding are 675 kcal per day and requirements for women in the second six months of breastfeeding are 460kcal per day ("Human energy requirements", n.d.).
Two of the many micronutrients which are required by lactating women are Vitamin B, for which the RDA is 25 mcg per day and Vitamin A, for which the RDA is 1200 mcg per day. Vitamin B sources include meat, eggs and dairy and those for Vitamin A include leafy vegetables, potatoes and carrots (“Pregnancy Diet: Nutrients You Need”, n.d.).
References
Advocatesforyouth.org. Retrieved 24 August 2016, from http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/publications/publications-a-z/467-pregnancy-and-childbearing-among-younger-teens
Assessing Your Weight | Healthy Weight | CDC. (2016). Cdc.gov. Retrieved 24 August 2016, from https://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/assessing/
Human energy requirements. (2016). Fao.org. Retrieved 24 August 2016, from http://www.fao.org/docrep/007/y5686e/y5686e0b.htm
Jolly, M., Sebire, N., Harris, J., Robinson, S., & Regan, L. (2000). The risks associated with pregnancy in women aged 35 years or older. Human Reproduction, 15(11), 2433-2437. Retrieved from http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/content/15/11/2433.long
Pregnancy Diet: Nutrients You Need. WebMD. Retrieved 24 August 2016, from http://www.webmd.com/baby/pregnancy-diet-nutrients-you-need#2
