Hello,



I used to post on here ages ago and then havent for no particular reason. But I am back and this time with extra little vegan just beginning to grow in me. It's early days (baby due Sept) and I thought it might be useful to document my experience of it here... and to start a thread so that any one in the same circumstance can post/ ask questions/rave about how people do not understand, swap nutritional tips, etc.

I am pretty sure I am going to have some battles with health professionals over my diet even though I have been vegan for 19 years and I have a lot more nutritional knowledge than most meat eating women they will deal with.

Anyway...if there is anyone out there in a similar position or even if you have been through it and can pass on some tips, please post.



Cheers



Ruth

If you're concerned about catching medical flak, order some preemptive bloodwork so you have ammo when the battles break out. The numbers don't lie.

Good luck with your pregnancy!



You will probably get more interest and replies in the Raising Vegetarian Children forum (it's for vegan kids too!) so I have moved your thread there.

Hey there, I'm due in early Sept too ;-)



I'm having a vegetarian, not a vegan pregnancy, and I haven't heard two words about it. Actually, my OB is vegetarian so that probably helps some, lol ;-)



Make sure you are taking prenatals and vegetarian DHA supplements, and eating lots of leafy greens and whatnot to get enough iron. Nothing gets the eyes rolling like anemia. Don't give em fodder for the fire!! lol.



You have other kids? How many, what ages? I have a 2.5 year old.

Hi,



No this will be our first! (Scary and soooo exciting!) Your little girl looks gorgeous.



My partner (he is veggie too, not vegan) is on board with me and we are both eating tons of dates and spinach and walnuts etc to be busting with iron. Definately not going to give them any ammo and I am just crossing my fingers that the midwife we see in a couple of weeks isnt a veggiephobe! Also started keeping a food diary because I suspect they will send me to a dietician.



We shall see! How are you feeling? I havent had any first trimester symptons yet except a few cramps and a little nausea.



Ruth x

Ooooh, your first!!! Congrats!!! :-) Such fun!!!



I'd recommend really diversifying your protein intake as much as possible. Try not to overdo the soy. Spinach and dates are great! Eat lots of different foods, because the foods you eat during pregnancy, your child can taste (when they are a bit more developed, lol.) But my veggie daughter loves ALL vegetables and I credit the foods I ate during pregnancy and breastfeeding for her tastebuds!



I'm feeling like complete and utter crap. lol. But I felt this way with DD so I expected it i guess. Its actually a lot harder this time - because I can't rest when I want to, cause I have a little one to care for! I've been feeling a LOT of fatigue, and a good amount of nausea too. Worst in the evenings. I haven't puked yet, but any day now (and totally, totally could have a couple days ago, but really fought it - didn't want to throw up the expensive vegetarian DHA supplement, lol.)



Are you taking a prenatal or at least folic acid supplements? Those are important to prevent neural tube defects. Just checking ;-)



Congrats again! Let me know if you have any questions, and i really like the book

The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook

http://www.amazon.com/Vegetarian-Mot.../dp/0972469060



Not that I'm cooking anything from it right now, I'm too nauseous to cook evenings :-( But in a few weeks I'll be ok to cook for my poor family again, lol. They are eating a lot of organic frozen food right now!!! :P



:-) congrats again on your pregnancy and good luck to you!!!

Congrats on your Pregnancy and Good Luck on your Vegan diet. My husband wants us to not to depend on meats alot. That is why I am turning this direction. Its not easy for now we are on a budget but however, I am saying Good luck to you and we are trying to conceive by the way. I am starting off good by getting away from alot of bad things.

Yeah, I'm taking folic acid religously! Will check out other supplements. I dont use them generally as I hava a pretty healthy diet and never get ill and have definately upped the quality of nutrition even more since being pregnant but it's probably worth it to be on the safe side. What does DHA stand for? Interesting too what you say about soya. We do tend to eat a fair bit of tofu and I drink soya milk every day. Have heard before that generally you shouldnt rely on it nutritionally but are there any specific pregnancy no-nos about it?



Sorry to hear you're feeling crap and I hope it passes really soon - I guess you are a week or two ahead of me as I think I am due on around the 22nd Sept..so I probably have all that to look forward to!

But so far despite a little bit of cramping and nausea, I am enjoying every minute of it. It is so incredible! My partner is loving it too.



Good luck with it all and it's nice to talk to someone in a similar position (although I appreciate that having another little one there will make resting a bit harder!) who is veggie. x

Thanks for that and good luck with you trying for a baby. I am 37 and my partner and I thought it would take us ages to conceive as I know for a lot of people my kind of age it can take at least a year. But its only a couple of months ago that we started trying so its a big surprise.

Sounds like you are making a good start by not depending on meat as its full of hormones and antibiotics as well as being generally bad for you...but I am sure you know all that. Generally being veggie could work out cheaper for you, if you buy things like lentils and beans and lots of natural foods that are better for you anyway - its only really the veggie convenience foods like fake meats that can be expensive and those are really on a par with how expensive meat is . My advice for what its worth would be to arm yourself with a good veggie cookbook and check out your local health food store. the staff are usually helpful and will give you some ideas as what to eat.



Good luck with it all!

We are going to a health food grocery store already and I don't like mock meats or fake meats. Those turn my stomach and insides up. I have black beans and pinto beans for now I been collecting LOL. However, My husband don't want me to depend on meat no more because we are limited. I am learn tho so once I know our routine then we can clear some things up. If I do have meats yes going to say that it will be limited on a few places and stores. I am already staying away from fast food places. I have salads stuff ready for this week so we will see

Too much soy was recently linked to certain fertility and health issues:



http://podclimate.environmentalhealt...effects-of-soy



Also, if you are pregnant with a boy, vegetarian women who consume too much soy are at a slightly higher risk of having a son with certain penile issues. I try to keep it to just a couple times a week for me, that would be very hard while vegan. I eat a lot of indian food (lentils) and mexican (beans) and italian too (pastas and cheeses.)



I was borderline vegan before I got PG with DD (I would eat rennet-free cheese, but not milk, would only use soy milk, soy yogurt, etc.) When i got pregnant, I hate to say it, but I decided to switch to dairy. :-( It tasted NASTY at first, too. Soy milk tastes so much better, lol. I'm not at all suggesting you need to do that, but for me, that was the choice I had to make, because I was having too much truoble getting enough protein while keeping the soy to a minimum. I am absolutely certain it can be done, I just couldn't figure it out for me.

Thanks for that. Interesting article though I am always sceptical that studies on animals are ever relevant to humans. Also people in Asia have been eating soya bean products for thousands of years with no known problems.Still I am going to watch it just in case. It wouldnt be too hard to reduce my soya as I could have rice or almond milk and just eat tofu a bit less. Think my protein intake would be fine with less soya as I eat plenty other beans, lentils and nuts. And I eat tons of hummus. Oh and milled flaxseed sprinkled on everything is my latest thing! As you probably know already that has tons of omega 3 as well as a bit of 6 and 9 and calcium, zinc iron etc.

I am taking lots of tips from my sister too who is also vegan and aged 40 and 42 gave birth to two healthy vegan children now aged 7 and 5 (they are gorgeous glowing examples of healthy vegans!)



Where are you based? I am in the UK. x

Oh thats good. I reckon that these forums are a good place to look for meal ideas and all of the thousands of healthy veggie foods that you can enjoy. You will feel better for it too because you wont be clogging your arteries with lots of saturated fat. It will become easier as you go along and it sounds like yu are making a good start. x

Yep My heart and artries are ok because I didn't eat to much of those meats in the passed. If they are overly proccessed like I said I get sick that is why I am picky what I eat now. I am going to go in a bit and check out the recipes to get ideas . Again Good Luck on the pregnancy's

I'm in the US, on the east coast (Massachusetts.) :-) Nice to meet you, too!!! Its hard being pregnant, lets do this together :-)



Some animal studies don't mean anything, others do. Its hard to differentiate. But the "asians eat soy" thing doesn't convince me. They don't eat nearly as much soy as westerners do now, especially in processed forms (soy milk, soy yogurt, soy meats, etc). They eat it in combination with meats, usually as tofu, edamame or tempeh, which are minimally processed, and they don't eat it all the time. That said, I had a simply wonderful tofu stir fry for dinner tonight, with asian style veggies and a yummy sweet/salty sauce. mmmm!!! DH said it was the best I've made in a while, my daughter loved it too. I love watching her eat snow pea pods, water chestnuts and lots of other veggies :-) Melts my heart to see her munching away :-)



For breakfast I had a bagel. For lunch, I had a delicious eggplant sandwich I prepared the night before, and an organic yogurt, and an organic apple. For dinner, the tofu veggie stir-fry over rice. I had some organic popcorn as a snack midday, with some organic ginger ale from whole foods (I discovered the ginger really helps with the nausea!!) ;-) It all went down reasonably well, which is good. A few days ago i couldn't even eat dinner, lol.

Hey Veggielove,



It will be interesting to get a US perspective on it all too and see how different the process is there to here. I am thinking about (havent decided yet) having a homebirth which legally I have a complete right to do although our services are a bit anti-home birth here....Probably getting ahead of myself anyway, havent even had my first appointment yet! Having it on the 4th Feb when I will only be about 7 weeks gone...wish the 12 weeks point would hurry up so I dont have to worry so much about miscarriage...although I do feel this baby will stay!



I still have no symptoms really apart from indigestion yesterday (I never get indigestion usually) and still eating me greens religously!

How you feeling?



Ruth x

Congrats! Wow... what's with September? I'm due the 22nd with my first and (obviously) this will be the first time I've done the whole vegetarian pregnancy. I came across this thread while searching for tips. I'm so nervous! It was okay if my diet got a little skewed when it was just me to worry about, but now I'm nourishing a little bean too. I'm lucky in the fact that my midwife totally supports me being vegetarian... no obnoxious MDs to deal with as long as I stay healthy through this. The fact that I had a miscarriage last year is making things even more scary. Waiting for that 12 week mark to! So far my symptoms have been pretty mild... a little morning nausea, some indigestion and achy milk-machines. LOL

All I know is that my wife and I have two kids, and both pregnancies were done vegan, bradley style. Frankly, we probably did not need all the protein. It was easy. We had support though, from a vegan set of peditricians, and with both of us being vegan. We had a boy and a girl. Both were fine. No penile issues or some crazy stuff like that.



I pretty much suspect that is fear-mongering based on the fear that veg*n men are weaker or something... if a study that said that veg*n men were stronger, faster, etc. than meat-eating men it would not get much traction because it would go against dominant beliefs. We just made sure to get protein from all different sources (again, easy as heck in the US and in South America when we had no tofu, soymilk, etc), and lots of veggies.

Hey guys! September must be a good month, lol, my DH and I are also expecting our first on September 2nd or 3rd! When I told my Obstetrician that I'm a vegetarian, she actually seemed glad, and said that it can be a lot healthier especially in pregnancy because of all the extra veggies and stuff, she just told me to keep an eye on my calcium, protein, and iron, which she said she tells everyone to do anyway. My mom on the other hand thinks that we are nuts and that I should eat "at least a little chicken or something" to ensure the baby is healthy. I just told her we appreciate her concern, but our doctor said it's fine.



So, yay September veggie babies!!

I didn't have time to read every post. But might think of switching your care all together. I work for a midwife lots of our clients and vegan or veggie and we are very supportive of both and I think you find that more with midwifes...

ooh me too, please? I had a positive test today. scared. excited. you know.

Oh man! I've missed the September Boat! My third child is due on the 22nd of August! he he.



This is the first time in my life I have ever decided to change my diet. I'm not going to say I'm Vegetarian because it's only been two weeks and I still have fish until I can get my hands on some Flaxseed and know what to do with it, but all other animals are out of the home and we love it! I've also stopped drinking cows milk and we no longer have any dairy products or eggs... and this is also the first time i have read all labels to see what's inside! lol!



Both my children were good vegie eaters to begin with, so the transition to not eat meat has been fine with them and now I know it will be even easier for Bean # 3



Lucidaisy - a member of this forum pointed me in the direction of two websites:



http://www.thekindlife.com/



&



http://www.spawnbetter.com/



I haven't yet been able to go through them alot, but am excited too as they seem to have a lot of info and thekindlife has a forum too for pregnant women.



Good Luck with everything!

xx J

There are vegan DHA supplements as well if you have a hard time finding flaxseed

Hi everyone and its great to see so many veggie pregnancies!



I havent posted on here for a while because sadly I miscarried my pregnancy at eight weeks (about five weeks ago). Was really sad and a traumatic experience....BUT last thursday I tested and I am pregnant again (unless my body is playing serious tricks). I know its very soon but there is no medical reason why not -it just can make dating the pregnancy more tricky. SO..its early days and I am cautious about it all but hopefully I will soon be back on here happily posting away.



Here's to healthy, happy pregnancies



Ruth xxxx

RuthU, I will be keeping you in my thoughts. So sorry to hear about your lost pregnancy but congratualtions and sending postive thoughts to you about this little bean

Sorry to hear that you had a miscarriage. Hope you are feeling ok and that news of a new baby on the way helps you in some way! Wishing you all the best!!!