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Prenatal Nutrition

Canada's
Food
Guide

A woman's nutritional and overall health, before and during pregnancy, influences the health of her developing baby. Eating well, combined with taking a daily multivitamin with folic acid and iron, can give a woman the nutrients she needs to feel good, have energy, and support a healthy pregnancy.

Eating Well with Canada's Food Guide provides women with the information they need to eat well during pregnancy and includes specific Advice for Women of Childbearing Age.

Detailed Background on Canada's Food Guide recommendations for women during pregnancy and breastfeeding is available for the health professional.

Prenatal Nutrition Update

Health Canada is in the process of revising select prenatal guidelines to align them with the current nutrition standards, the Dietary Reference Intakes, and Eating Well with Canada's Food Guide.

Key messages for pregnant women from the latest revised guidelines include:

Encourage all women to eat at least 150 g of fish each week. Fish contains omega-3 fats and other important nutrients for pregnancy.
Women who could become pregnant and those who are pregnant should take a multivitamin containing 0.4 mg of folic acid every day.
Pregnant women should also ensure that their multivitamin contains 16-20 mg of iron.

Frequently asked questions are also available.

An Expert Advisory Group is providing guidance to Health Canada throughout the revision. Health Canada also receives valuable input on its draft prenatal guidelines through open consultations.

Next Steps

Canadian gestational weight gain recommendations have been replaced with the newly released U.S. Institute of Medicine recommendations for gestational weight gain presented in the 2009 report titled Weight Gain During Pregnancy: Reexamining the Guidelines.

To promote these recommendations, Health Canada has developed draft resources for health professionals. Interested stakeholders can participate in an online consultation and provide input on a background document, a quick reference tool and a weight gain tracking tool.