The importance of Zinc in Pregnancy

During pregnancy there is a super high demand for nutrients and you want to make sure you are getting enough for yourself and your developing baby.

Zinc is an essential mineral that has many crucial roles to play in the body including supporting immunity, protein and DNA synthesis and cell division, making it a key mineral during pregnancy.

For such a critical nutrient, its so unfortunate that zinc deficiency is very common, (about 86% of all women) and up to 80% of pregnant women worldwide are not consuming enough zinc.

When a mother is zinc deficient during pregnancy, the growing baby has poorer health outcomes including early labour and low birth weight and the mothers normal labour hormones can be negatively impacted.

Zinc is also needed for a healthy appetite, to reduce anxiety, for tissue growth and repair and for the production of our thyroid hormones. A must have mineral!

Why do we have low Zinc?

Well, due to poor soil quality, diets low in zinc foods and the extra demands of stress requiring zinc its no wonder its a common deficiency.

There are some foods that contain zinc such as oysters, pumpkin seeds and legumes but for pregnancy, zinc supplementation is definitely recommended.