How to Have a Healthy Pregnancy Naturally: The 5 Things I Personally Prioritised (and Why)

I'm writing this at 37 weeks pregnant.

For the last nine months, I've had the opportunity to experience something very different.

With this pregnancy, I was able to go the extra mile and explore/ study maternal and baby's health in a comprehensive functional way. I wanted to actually understand all the changes that my body and my baby's body were going through.

I wanted to adapt to each phase without the pressure of it but to feel confident that I was doing the best. Though, something I realised very early on is that pregnancy doesn't start the day I saw two lines on a test. The foundations have been built long before that: I had built nutrient stores, my gut health, stabilised my hormones and metabolism, built a happy relationship with food, and had the toolkit that allowed me to recover faster in times of stress.

Growing another human being is probably one of the most extraordinary physiological processes I will ever experience. Every day, my body is building a brain, a heart, bones, organs and an entirely new immune system, all while adapting to enormous hormonal, metabolic and physical changes.

But having the knowledge to understand what was happening inside my body gave me so much confidence and peace.

Today, I am sharing with you what I think made the biggest difference for my health and to support my baby's health.

1. I started by understanding what my body needed

One of the very first things I did was a comprehensive blood testing at the beginning - first 2 months.

I like understanding what the body needs before deciding how to support it.

In my case, the results showed that my iron levels were already very low, which explained why I was feeling so exhausted, despite eating a healthy diet and taking a multivitamin.

Iron deficiency is extremely common during pregnancy because blood volume increases significantly and the baby's growing needs place extra demands on maternal stores.

Knowing this early allowed me to adjust my supplementation and deliberately include more iron-rich foods and take specific supplementation before it became a much bigger problem. To me, this was about giving my body the resources it needed to adapt, be more resilient during pregnancy.

2. I never stopped looking after my gut microbiome.

If you've followed me for a while, you'll know how passionate I am about gut health and pregnancy wasn't the moment to stop.

One thing many women don't realise is that a mother's microbiome becomes one of her baby's very first sources of beneficial bacteria. These bacteria play an important role in the development of the baby's immune system and metabolism during those first months of life.

Throughout pregnancy, I continued rotating probiotics and eating a wide variety of plant foods. For me, it also made a practical difference. It helped support my digestion, bowel regularity and mood, which are things many pregnant women struggle with.

3. I ate real food

One of the phrases we still hear is that pregnancy means "eating for two."

I never really looked at it that way. Instead, I tried to make every meal count.

Protein became a priority because growing a baby requires amino acids to build every new tissue. I made sure I ate plenty of colourful vegetables and fruit every day to increase the variety of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants naturally present in food.

One nutrient I paid particular attention to was choline. Alongside supplementation, I ate two eggs almost every day because they are one of the richest natural sources of choline.

Research continues to show how important this nutrient is for baby's brain and nervous system development.

Eating enough protein also helped keep my energy much more stable and reduced the cravings that can become quite common during pregnancy.

4. I prepared my body for pregnancy, before I actually got pregnant

I am glad that I was able to detoxify and optimise my nutrient levels before. Even with a balanced diet, pregnancy dramatically increases nutritional requirements, so pre-building my stocks was key.

Alongside my prenatal vitamins, I kept taking omega-3 and magnesium.

Omega-3 has an important role in supporting baby's brain and eye development.

Magnesium helped reduce muscle cramps, supported ligament discomfort as my body changed and, quite honestly, made me feel much more comfortable during the later stages of pregnancy.

5. I kept moving, but differently.

Exercise has always been part of my life and pregnancy didn't change that. It simply changed how I approached it.

From the beginning I reduced the intensity but not frequency, by avoiding jumps and high intensity trainings.

I reduced the intensity, but I still did strength training, walked almost every day and used my Pilates ball a lot, especially while working. 

There were clearly weeks that I would feel more tired or some ligaments pain so I adapted my movement to what my body needed.

Looking back

Looking back, I don't think one supplement or one habit made the difference. What made the biggest difference was having a plan.

Compared to my first pregnancy, I felt that my mood was more stable (important, when you already have a child!), I was feeling less tired and I could better control any physical symptoms typical of pregnancy, like reflux or back pain.

I know that every pregnancy is different, but understanding why I was doing each thing gave me confidence that I was doing the best for me and my baby, and helped me enjoy this healthy pregnancy much more.