Lesson 1 : Overview of Groups With Special Nutritional Needs
Lactation
The nutrition needs of a nursing mother are much more, because the kind of nutrition she consumes, will determine the quantity and to a minor degree the quality of milk that will directly affect the health of the baby. The food that the mother consumes not only fulfills her nutritional requirements, but is also used in the production of milk. A nursing mother produces 650 – 800 ml of milk per day and thus, there arises a need to consume 600 extra calories per day.
The nutrition for nursing mothers plays a vital role in defining the quality of breast milk. There is a possibility that the nursing mother might have a healthy baby, despite the fact that she had not fed herself properly, but then that is likely to happen often at the detriment of the mother's health itself. It is during the time of lactation that the body makes milk production as its first priority, leaving the nursing mother deprived of nutrition.
Participants