Pregnancy Nutrition Guide: The Top 5 Micronutrients for Pregnancy

The best time to start preparing your body for pregnancy is … right now.

Whether you’re in the preconception stage and balancing your hormones or you’re well into your second trimester and feeling undernourished, you still have time to optimize your nutrient intake.

For many women, pregnancy nutrition feels complicated. Some clients come to me when they’re bombarded with information overload and need clarity. Others seek advice when their concerns are ignored—and the only information they were given on pregnancy nutrition was an outdated pamphlet.

But the good news is, optimizing pregnancy nutrition is pretty simple. And it’s never too late or too early to start (I promise).

Why Pregnancy Nutrition Is Essential

If you’re pregnant or looking to become pregnant, then you’ve probably heard a lot about the relationship between your diet and your baby’s growth. It’s true: the more nutrients you have available in your body, the more you can give to your baby.

Well-nourished pregnancies are connected to things like:

• Positive birth outcomes

• Brain development

• Healthy weight

• The development of teeth and bone structure

• A strong immune system

… And so much more.

But I don’t want to bypass the fact that pregnancy nutrition also impacts you. Eating a wide variety of nutrient-dense foods can increase your energy levels, guard against postpartum depression, resolve “pregnancy brain,” and keep you feeling like yourself.

When you become a mom, a lot of things about your life will change. You’ll spend hours of your time taking care of someone else. And your knowledge of nutrition and nutrient-dense foods is an essential safeguard against burnout and exhaustion.

Nutrient-dense foods are baby-care and self-care.

Top 5 Micronutrients for Pregnancy

With my clients, I usually recommend some form of testing or bloodwork to ensure we’re on the right track to fill nutritional gaps. Information is power—and a necessary tool to optimize fertility and nutrients for pregnancy.

That said, these five micronutrients are commonly depleted in the clients I work with. If you don’t have the budget or time for bloodwork at the moment, these nutrients for pregnancy are a good place to start.

1) Choline

This micronutrient is essential for the growth of your baby—particularly, your baby’s brain and neural tube development. Recent scientific studies suggest that a mother’s adequate intake of choline can help improve learning, focus, and memory in children and babies through the years.

Choline is also an essential nutrient to safeguard your health during the pregnancy journey. It may fight against gestational diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Most pregnant women aren’t getting the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) of choline—and most grocery store prenatal supplement brands only include trace amounts of this micronutrient.

Choline Foods for a Healthy Pregnancy

• Egg yolk (from organic and free-range chickens)

• Grass-fed beef liver

• Chicken

• Pork

• Cruciferous veggies

• Raw and full-fat dairy products

2) Vitamin A

This powerful micronutrient helps your baby develop from day one. It signals stem cells where to go and how to grow. It also influences genes and is needed for almost every function in the body. Not all forms of vitamin A are the same, though. Beta carotene found in many prenatal supplements is a synthetic version of vitamin A that’s less bioavailable.

Weston A. Price’s research found that primal cultures were consuming ten times the amount of fat-soluble vitamins we do today (including vitamin A). The children of these cultures had better teeth and bone structure, plus well-functioning immune systems.

Vitamin A Foods for a Healthy Pregnancy

• Cod liver oil

• Grass-fed beef liver

• Egg yolks

• Raw dairy products

• Liverwurst

• Wild-caught seafood (salmon, tuna, and oysters)

• Leafy greens

3) Folate

Vitamin B9 (or folate) is crucial for neural tube development. It’s a popular choice for pregnancy nutrition due to its ability to help prevent birth defects. Folate helps to create other things in the body, too—like amino acids and red blood cells.

Folate is tricky because many prenatal vitamins include it in the form of folic acid. This is a synthetic form of folate that’s not only difficult to absorb but can be harmful to people with the MTHFR gene. For this reason, supplementing with folate instead of folic acid may help you avoid symptoms of postpartum depression.

Folate Foods for a Healthy Pregnancy

• Grass-fed beef liver

• Salmon roe

• Shellfish (scallops and mussels)

• Leafy greens

• Some root veggies

• Citrus

4) Vitamin K and K2

Vitamin K2 plays an important role in how we metabolize calcium. It’s essential for bone, tooth, and jaw structure in babies and children.

Vitamin K itself helps promote wound healing with effective blood clotting—for both you and your baby. Children with higher levels of vitamin K may be able to heal faster from cuts, scrapes, and injuries. A diet full of vitamin K-rich foods can also help eliminate the need for vitamin K shots for your baby right after birth.

Vitamin K and K2 Foods for a Healthy Pregnancy

• Raw cheese and other dairy products

• Grass-fed beef liver and organ meats

• Sauerkraut and other fermented foods

• Egg yolk

• Chicken

• Leafy greens

• Bacon

• Pork

5) Magnesium

This micronutrient is part of almost every system and function in the human body. This makes it especially vital for your baby. Most people are deficient in magnesium, even though it’s supposed to be easy to obtain through diet. This may be due to low food quality and the depletion of nutrients in the soil.

In pregnancy, magnesium may help reduce the risk of preeclampsia. If you’re concerned about a low birth weight for your baby, increasing your magnesium intake is an easy way to tackle this head-on.

In general, magnesium is great for optimized sleep and muscle relaxation. It can also help reduce headaches and promote better mental health.

Magnesium Foods for a Healthy Pregnancy

• Nuts and seeds

• Dark chocolate

• Edamame

• Avocados

• Wild-caught salmon

• Grass-fed beef liver

Download My Free Micronutrient Guide

To help women further navigate pregnancy and general nutrient deficiencies, I’ve created a free micronutrient self-assessment guide. This guide will help you review some of the micronutrients I talked about in this blog—and understand associated symptoms and cravings to better recognize and remedy nutrient deficiencies. It’s full of food and supplement recommendations, too.

Take the First Step Toward Better Nutrition for You and Baby