Pregnancy has a way of making you suddenly interested in things you may never have thought much about before. Iron and iodine. What is actually in your prenatal. Whether the supplements you took while trying to conceive are still appropriate. What those blood test results mean now that you are pregnant, and whether you really need to follow every piece of pregnancy advice someone sends your way.
There is a lot of information available, and not all of it will be relevant to you.
At Fertile Ground, pregnancy naturopathy is an opportunity to look at your nutrition, health, pathology, medications and supplements in the context of your pregnancy. We can help you understand where things are already going beautifully, where some extra attention may be useful and what might change as your pregnancy progresses.
Your care can evolve with you, from those first exciting weeks through the changing trimesters and into preparation for birth and postpartum.
Pregnancy is an extraordinary period of growth and development, and nutrition is one of the practical ways you can nourish yourself while providing the building blocks needed throughout pregnancy.
Requirements for a number of nutrients change as pregnancy progresses, making this a useful time to look more closely at what you eat, where your diet is already serving you well and whether there are areas that deserve some extra attention.
There is no single perfect pregnancy diet.
We consider the foods you enjoy, how you normally eat, your cultural and dietary preferences, your health history, relevant pathology and your stage of pregnancy, then help translate nutritional requirements into food that works in your actual life.
Every pregnancy is different and nutrition can adapt if your needs change along the way. If nausea or food aversions affect eating in early pregnancy, or reflux, constipation or changes in appetite become relevant later, we can work with what is happening at that stage rather than expecting you to follow an idealised pregnancy diet regardless of how you feel.
It is very easy to arrive at pregnancy with quite a collection of supplements.
You might have a prenatal, something prescribed while trying to conceive, supplements from IVF, an iron product, vitamin D, fish oil or other products recommended along the way. Sometimes several products contain the same nutrients without it being obvious from the front of the bottle.
Pregnancy is a good opportunity to put everything on the table and ask a much more useful question: what do I actually need now?
We can review your prenatal and other supplements alongside your diet, pathology, medications, health history and stage of pregnancy. If you were taking supplements or herbal medicines before conception, we can also review whether they remain appropriate now that you are pregnant.
Bring the bottles, photographs or a list of everything you are taking to your appointment. You do not need to work it all out beforehand.
Iron deserves particular attention during pregnancy because requirements increase and iron status can change as pregnancy progresses.
If you have recent blood results, we can review them alongside your diet, how you are feeling, current supplementation and stage of pregnancy. Where supplementation is appropriate, the form and dose can be considered individually rather than assuming everyone needs exactly the same thing.
This can be particularly useful if you are unsure how much iron your prenatal already contains, your requirements have changed, or an iron supplement is contributing to nausea, constipation or digestive discomfort.
Iron deficiency and anaemia during pregnancy require appropriate monitoring and medical care, so we work alongside the testing and management provided by your GP, midwife or obstetric team.
Blood tests are a routine part of pregnancy care and can provide useful information about how you and your pregnancy are progressing.
Pregnancy itself changes physiology, which means some results need to be understood in the context of gestation rather than interpreted exactly as they would be outside pregnancy.
Depending on what has been investigated by your maternity team and what is relevant to you, we may review results relating to areas such as blood count and iron status, vitamin D, B12 and folate, thyroid function or glucose regulation.
You do not need to organise an enormous panel of tests before seeing us. Bring whatever recent pathology you already have.
We can help you understand how relevant results fit into your nutrition and naturopathic care, and if something deserves further investigation or medical management, we can direct that question back to the appropriate member of your healthcare team.
Pregnancy can feel wonderful, completely ordinary, surprisingly different from what you expected, or various combinations of all three and more over nine months.
If nausea, food aversions, reflux, constipation, disrupted sleep or other common pregnancy symptoms become part of your experience, there may be practical ways to make things more manageable.
For nausea or food aversions, for example, the focus might be finding foods and eating patterns that feel achievable while maintaining nutritional intake. For reflux or constipation, we may look at food choices, meal timing, hydration and other practical strategies, with supplements or complementary medicines considered where appropriate.
We also know when a symptom needs more than naturopathic support. If something is severe, persistent or concerning, we will recommend appropriate medical or maternity assessment.
One of the most common questions after a positive pregnancy test is:
“Can I still take this?”
It is a very good question.
Natural does not automatically mean appropriate throughout pregnancy, and a herbal medicine used during preconception does not necessarily remain part of the prescription once pregnancy is confirmed.
The suitability of herbal medicine can depend on the herb itself, preparation, dose, stage of pregnancy, medications and individual health circumstances. Where herbal medicine is being considered, we review it specifically in the context of pregnancy.
If you have been taking herbal medicine while trying to conceive, let your practitioner know when you become pregnant so your prescription can be reviewed.
For people who have spent months or years focused on becoming pregnant, a positive pregnancy test can be an enormous moment.
It can also bring a new set of questions. You may still have fertility medications to take for a period of time, supplements accumulated through preconception and IVF, instructions from your fertility specialist and uncertainty about what now stays, stops or changes.
If we have been seeing you during fertility treatment, pregnancy gives us a natural point to review the naturopathic side of your care. Nutrition and supplements can be reassessed for pregnancy, while medications prescribed as part of fertility treatment remain under the direction of your treating specialist.
Read more about IVF Naturopathic Support
One of the lovely things about pregnancy care is that the conversation changes.
The questions someone brings at eight weeks can be completely different from those they bring at 28 or 36 weeks. Nutrition may shift, blood tests provide new information, supplements may need reviewing and attention gradually starts turning beyond pregnancy itself.
By the third trimester, we can start thinking practically about the transition ahead.
What might make eating well easier in the first weeks after birth? Are there meals that can be prepared or organised beforehand? Which supplements should be reviewed after birth rather than automatically continued? If you are planning to breastfeed, how might your nutritional requirements change? Is there anything in your recent pathology worth following up before or after birth?
There is something very useful about preparing for postpartum before you are in it, when someone else isn’t dictating your sleep schedule.
Preparing for birth can be an exciting shift in focus after months of pregnancy.
Within naturopathic care, this is a time to make sure your nutrition, supplementation and general health are being thoughtfully supported as you approach birth, while your midwife, obstetrician and maternity team guide the medical and obstetric aspects of birth preparation.
We can also begin looking beyond the birth itself.
The early postpartum period brings another significant nutritional transition, particularly if you are breastfeeding. Recovery, feeding, sleep, appetite, access to good food and your individual birth experience can all influence what you need afterwards.
Rather than automatically continuing everything you took during pregnancy, we can review your supplements and nutrition again after birth and adapt them to this new stage.
Pregnancy care can therefore become a natural bridge into postpartum care rather than ending when your baby arrives.
Read more about Postnatal Naturopathy
Pregnancy naturopathy sits alongside antenatal care, not in place of it.
We work with people who are also receiving care from midwives, GPs, obstetricians, fertility specialists and other healthcare providers, and we encourage you to keep your maternity team informed about supplements and complementary medicines you are using.
Sometimes the useful thing we can do is help with nutrition or supplementation, or to help you understand a result or formulate the right question to take back to another practitioner, and sometimes our recommendation will simply be: this is one for your maternity team.
Fertile Ground has worked with people through fertility, pregnancy and early parenthood since 2001.
You can begin pregnancy naturopathy before pregnancy, in the very early weeks, midway through pregnancy or as you start preparing for birth and postpartum.
Bring any recent pathology or relevant reports you already have, along with your medications and supplements. We can start with where you are now and build your care around what is relevant to you.
Pregnancy naturopathy appointments are available in Melbourne and via telehealth Australia-wide.
Up to 85% of people experience some vomiting and/or nausea in pregnancy, ranging from mild morning sickness in the first trimester to severe vomiting at any time of the day, sometimes lasting until birth. Symptoms include food aversions, smell sensitivities and digestive upsets (bloating, diarrhoea or constipation).
Download this free guide to find out how to naturally alleviate nausea in pregnancy.
