The Power of Maternal Nutrition Why does What You Eat Matter to Your Baby? Did you know that how you eat during pregnancy can directly affect the baby growing inside of you? That’s right your diet, even before you are pregnant, has a huge impact on what your child will look like and how he or she will be in the future. While many people know that nutritional deficiencies can result in birth defects, there is also plenty of research to suggest that an overabundance of certain nutrients especially during the first trimester can also have dramatic effects on your unborn child’s development as well as his or her risk of developing certain diseases later in life. Pregnancy requires more calories If you’re carrying a baby, your body has to provide nutrition to two people instead of one. A safe target is 300 calories per day more than your pre-pregnancy weight. A healthy pregnancy weight gain also depends on what trimester you’re in, you should be gaining around 1 to 4 pounds per month during