Vegan pregnancy

[Sara1988]

Anyone else pregnant and vegan? Would love to connect with other vegan mums to be and shared advice/experiences

Done it twice, DC are now teens. Never anaemia, don’t let anyone tell you you’re doing something ’wrong!’

*anaemic

Hello! Currently 7 weeks with number 2! Have one DD 2.5, been vegan for about 8 years and DD vegan since birth. Had a super healthy pregnancy last time and DD was an absolute chunk!

@BrownSauceOnBeans expected to be asked at booking appointment but it never came up. My mum insists I need to tell midwife but don't see why if everything is OK? She was veggie when pregnant with me and was ordered to eat me. Times have changed though thankfully!

@Leonarda89 amazing to hear! I'm 9 weeks. Have you had any non-vegan cravings? I've almost been caught short when really hungry and there's no vegan options. Have learnt to plan better!

Me! 20 weeks with my first :)
I've had hyperemesis which is thankfully easing since last week, so I've lived on mashed potatoes and ice lollies so far!! Not the healthy vegan pregnancy diet I had imagined!
It differs between hospitals, but my midwife checked my ferritin (stores of iron) at booking as an extra blood test because I am vegan. My iron and ferritin were both really good levels :)

I'm having the exact same cravings. Literally eating an ice lolly as I type and made partner make mash and sausages four nights in a row!

I really intended to stay super healthy and get in some exercise...hasn't happened. Hoping to have more chance next trimester!

Both pregnancies I have had a craving for cheese! Luckily this time the vegan cathedral city hits the spot! I am constantly eating at the moment as it's the only way to curb my nausea 🙈 mainly living off fruit and salty crisps at the moment! Last time I was able to eat much better after 12 weeks so hoping it's the same this time 🤞
Has anyone been unsupportive of you being pregnant and vegan? My boss last time made a comment about not telling the midwife in case they told social work!!

Your midwife will have absolutely no judgement of you being vegan, I can assure you. They are not nutritionalists either, so don’t expect any expert advice from them either on how it will impact your pregnancy unless perhaps they are vegan themselves or have a special interest in nutrition. Would just say read up yourself on what you need to do, I’m vegetarian and there’s lots of things I wish I had known about the importance of certain nutrients e.g. B12 before I had children

@Leonarda89 I'm the same! I dreamed of a super healthy vegan pregnancy but I'm living off of starchy cards, Fresh fruit and lollies. Sparking water is good too. Then only judgement I've had is people asking if the baby will be vegan and people going silent when I say yes. I don't think people realise all breastfed babies are vegan until they move onto solids! I haven't told midwife. Didn't come up. My only non vegan craving is dairy milk chocolate but the vegan version of that is pretty good now!

@Phiy43 oh we're pretty good on the vitamins. Both myself and partner got these sorted from 3 months before ttc to ensure good egg and sperm quality and have carried on now.

You sound quite switched on so sure you’ll be fine, when I had my first the general message was that it didn’t matter what you ate and that baby would get what it needed from you, not much info for vegetarians and vegans except about getting enough iron. So much have learned since, the most important time to have a good diet is the 3 months before conception, so wouldn’t worry to much about not being able to eat much in first 3 months of pregnancy, just good nutritious diet and not too much sugar when able and relevant supplements for the micronutrients can’t get in diet

Despite the username, I am vegan! (Vegan meatballs are my absolute downfall). Very recently had my BFP - I'm four weeks today with our first. I'm taking a pregnancy supplement (Proceive) to cover all my bases but I'm pretty confident everything will be fine. I'd take it even if I was an omnivore - their conception version did me well it seems! Everyone needs folic acid.

DW and i went vegan a couple of years ago, regularly donated plasma where they check our iron levels and it has always been fine (I really enjoy telling them I'm vegan after the result). We're not perfect, err slightly towards UPFs in low energy weeks, but I am not worried for pregnancy or for baby.

I am slightly bracing myself for thoughtless comments but I'm hoping I can let them wash over me like all the rest of the useless comments people make when you're pregnant!

@Meatballsandpasta congratulations! Yes, we used proceive! We're also on nothing fishy supplements. We were more or less eating less than 20% upf before pregnancy but now upfs have taken over again! Cooked my first from scratch meal for ages tonight so hoping that as I move into second trimester I'll get back on it.

Does anyone have any Instagram accounts or books they'd recommend?

ive had two healthy babies and a vegan pregnancy 👍🏻 Just be ready for even more annoying questions such as ‘are you raising your children vegan?’ Oh I need more vegan friends!!!

I had a very healthy vegan pregnancy over 25 years ago when it wasn't so common.

They tried to prescribe iron tablets. I insisted they checked my levels first. They were astonished (I wasn't) that my levels were very good, better than those of many meat eaters.

OP just show them you know more about nutrition than they do. Raise your baby vegan if you want to, but beware of disapproving relatives trying to feed them meat. I had to avoid leaving DD alone with one relative. DD is very healthy, strong and fit. She is still vegan.

Midwife has been absolutely fine so far and blood work has been excellent. A few funny looks and silly questions but nothing awful. My favourite was being told breastfeeding wasn't vegan!

I'm mostly vegan but sometimes eat egg (don't eat dairy). I'm a few months postpartum and I'm anaemic. I don't think I was before pregnancy although iron has always been on the low side. Raising my child as a vegetarian rather than vegan.