Vegan pregnancy 🌱

[glasspaw]

Anyone here vegan and pregnant? I’m pretty early (week 6) but looking for vegan specific pregnancy content and not finding a huge amount online.

Any blogs/vlogs or books that you would recommend?

I eat a 100% plant based diet and try to make vegan/sustainable choices where I can with beauty, lifestyle etc

Hi OP, I’m vegan and 38 weeks pregnant (first baby). I’ve just carried on with my normal plant-based diet throughout and been absolutely fine. I’ve had an amazing pregnancy - still feeling really good 2 weeks from due date! At around 7 weeks, my GP offered me extra blood tests to check vitamin levels etc as I was only taking Vit D and Folic Acid (no b12 etc) and they were all really healthy so I didn’t supplement with anything else until 2nd trimester where I switched to a vegan prenatal vitamin by Terra Nova. A routine blood test in third trimester showed very slightly low iron which is very common in pregnancy, so I just started taking spatone to top up. Overall, I’ve felt great, carried on working on my feet all day and teaching 4 yoga classes a week until week 37 where I’m now on mat leave. For me, it’s been an amazingly healthy choice 😊

In terms of beauty products etc, I scaled everything right back as found my skin was more sensitive than usual at the start. So I’ve just used a facewash for sensitive skin from Sukin and then coconut oil as a moisturiser. (Just made sure it’s 100% raw, unrefined, organic, high grade etc).

Hope this helps and wishing you a healthy and happy pregnancy too x

Hi I’m vegan and 21 weeks with my first, I haven’t really looked at any content for pregnancy but this looks really helpful for when baby is here static1.squarespace.com/static/59f75004f09ca48694070f3b/t/5e56fa31f3d6f227ed61362c/1582758484838/Eating_well_Vegans-Feb_2020_forweb.pdf

I had pretty bad morning sickness and lots of food aversions until about 17 or 18 weeks so I wasn’t eating too well at first, I tried to always get my 5 a day in but I couldn’t manage my usual healthy meals of bean chilli, chickpea curry, tofu stir fry, lentil shepherds pie etc I managed my porridge but not with the usual flaxseeds, nuts and berries. The midwife said it was ok to mostly eat yellow food as basically the aim when you’re being sick a lot is to keep things down. I’m much better now and eat a wider variety although I still can’t face cooking really but I’ve been gradually expanding what I eat. I took a supplement throughout and had my bloods done a few months before pregnancy and the results were all good and there have been no issues with my bloods in pregnancy so far and as far as tests and scans have gone all is good with baby so far so I hope it’s not been too detrimental.

Now I think about it I do remember looking at this prior to pregnancy which has been prepared by registered dieticians:

challenge22.com/vegan-pregnancy/

Hope you have a great pregnancy!

I unintentionally had a vegan pregnancy because I couldn’t keep meat / eggs or dairy down. I personally preferred to eat dried / roasted seeds and grains. Roasted gram / chickpeas / almonds / cashews pretty much kept me going. I also took supplements for Omega 3 and Vitamin D3.

Thanks for your comments all!

@Moon12345 - wow! Amazing you’ve managed to stay so active. I normally exercise a lot but the last week has been pretty horrendous symptom wise so I’ve been really drained. Can’t wait for my energy levels to head back in the right direction! I’m wondering if my levels are out - I’ll ask my midwife about a blood check I think just for some reassurance and guidance on where I might need to boost with supplements.

@kikisparks thanks for sharing these links. I’ll have a read through! I’m currently only able to keep down roasted chickpeas and plain toast. It’s an alarmingly beige diet compared to what I was eating before!

@Ozanj I’ve heard a few people say they experienced that in pregnancy too! How funny. Maybe baby was destined to be a vegan hehe

Can't remember how much vegan content there was but if any interest, Channon Rose is a Youtuber who has gone through 2 IVF pregnancies. She went vegan with her husband who I think had cancer as a young adult.

She has some very "interesting" content too as she was previously a porn star and how she started her channels.

[quote glasspaw]@Ozanj I’ve heard a few people say they experienced that in pregnancy too! How funny. Maybe baby was destined to be a vegan hehe[/quote]
I had ‘invisible’ severe preclampsia - no symptoms except sickness. I couldn’t keep much of anything down. Baby is the keenest carnivore you have ever seen lol

I'm 33 weeks pregnant currently and have been vegan for 4 years, veggie lifelong before. I haven't changed my diet particularly although I have noticed I've had a sweeter tooth than I would usually, so have been eating more fruit (normally more of a veg person). I have always taken a B12 supplement and added in vit D as recommended for pregnancy + iron as my levels have always been a bit borderline (despite lots of iron in my diet). I've not had any issues during my pregnancy, baby seems to be growing well and bloods are all fine. I've kept active throughout and do find I'm eating more than I would usually, particularly the last few weeks. I'm still running 3 times a week at the moment and have been lucky enough to have no real aches/pains except for the odd bit of back ache, although this was worse in the second trimester interestingly.

All in all if you are well educated about a balanced vegan diet already I'd just continue as you are. Beauty wise I also opt for vegan, mostly organic products and can't say I've changed anything. It didn't cross my mind to to be honest!

I should add, the first 12-14 weeks were horrendous and I was living on mostly beige food (already almost forgotten about that now)! I still followed vegan choices apart from two evenings when I couldn't stomach anything other than cheese on toast, which my husband was eating 🙈😂 I felt quite shattered during those weeks too but put it down to the rubbish diet and pregnancy combo. I managed to keep running as that was literally the only time in the day I didn't feel sick, so there was an added incentive!

Hi OP!

I’ve been vegan for four years. I was pregnant earlier this year and ran to book an appointment with a nutritionist and got a lot of good info. I ended up miscarrying, but I’m pregnant again (10 weeks!) and have been..kinda sorta following the guide she gave me. I think she jumped the gun on me eating extra, I really shouldn’t have started that in the first trimester.

Overall takeaways:
Focus on your macros and protein. 70+ grams daily.
Beans and lentils are a good way to great your protein, but as they’re super high in fiber, they will also help prevent pregnancy issues including constipation, high blood pressure, and gestational diabetes.
Reduce processed foods (white flour and sugar), but processed meat substitutes are fine if you need them, just choose as high quality as you can or make your own.

She also told me to avoid raw sprouts (like in Thai food) as this is really the only vegan food you’re likely to get food poisoning from, and also to avoid kelp/kombu.

Hi vegan ladies, I hope you and your babies are all doing well!

I've been following a plant based diet for over 10 years and am expecting my first baby this December :-)

I was wondering if any of you are raising your babies vegan? Have you found any good vegan infant formulas / baby food?

Yes. Got pregnant at 34, been vegan 6 months and vegetarian 15 years.

Healthy pregnancy, no anaemia. I ate raw broccoli in smoothies every day.

Very healthy pregnancy.

6 year old still plant-based, very healthy.

There's no reason we'd need meat. When pregnant it's important to eat a more healthy diet, not less.

@mrziggycoco that's so good to hear! I'm having major food aversions to certain vegetables right now (especially mushrooms, which I used to love - so weird!) but smoothies are a great idea! :-)

Once your baby was born, were you able to find plant-based infant formula and baby foods easily?

@JuliaBelgravia unless things have changed in the last couple of months there are only a couple of vegan formulas out there and you'd have to get them shipped to the UK from Europe. I presume most vegans choose to breastfeed.

Vegan pushchairs: www.urbanpushchairs.com/pages/100-vegan-cruelty-free

Try not to drive -- cars aren't vegan.

Vegan cycling may be possible.

Electricity & GFCH don't seem to be vegan, though. Wood-burning stoves might be vegan.

@mummyh2016 thank you! I hope to breastfeed but I know it's not always possible for some Mums. That's good to know there are plant-based formulas although shipping from Europe doesn't sound very environmentally friendly!

@lljkk thanks for sharing! I didn't know vegan pushchairs existed :-)