So no matter what you choose to do for Lent, if it's anything food-related be
sure to talk to your doctor or your midwife before you jump into making in
diet changes during the Lent season.
Hey Mamas! It's Lenten season here at the BirthHouse
and Jenny and I are gonna talk to you a little bit today about diet
restrictions and fasting during Lent. But before I begin
My name is Midwife Kira
and I believe in truly natural birth because I know it makes for better birth experiences
Consider subscribing to my channel and joining in today's
conversation about fasting during pregnancy.
Jenny Thompson is one of my
longtime friends and a doula here in Lafayette for a group called MotherBirth
She's also one of my friends who is a practicing Catholic here and so I
thought she would be a really good resource for us to ask some questions
about Lent and also talk to you guys about diet restrictions and what to do
and not to do when you're pregnant.
So Jenny what kind of things do you see
during Lent when it comes to your pregnant clients or your friends who are
pregnant.
Yes, so one thing I should say first about the Lenten season is that
there are some of things that we do during this time.
So it's a time of prayer. It's a time of almsgiving -like giving to others that's what that
means and then it's also a time of fasting. So during that time, you know
that time of Lent, we get a lot of moms who know that they're excused from diet
restrictions and fasting during Lent.
If you don't want to do any of the fessing
at all that is totally fine you're not less of a Catholic or a religious person
if you if you don't do that. What I also tell some of my pregnant moms is you
know in addition to like praying think about you know the discomfort that
you're having I know like as pregnant ones we can complain a lot. All of us can
benefit from trying to complain a little bit less... and just being happy for others
is always a great way to celebrate the season of Lent.
Great! So in my
practice one of the first things I see during Lent is tremendous amounts of
swelling during Lent! Now Jenny and I live in south Louisiana
where giving up meat on Fridays turns to crawfish boils
and and things like that... and so very often during Lent my mom's come in with
tremendous amounts of swelling due to the shellfish. But, working in a Catholic
based, largely Catholic-based practice, I've also seen other families take Lent
and do other diet restrictions besides just giving up meat on Fridays.
Jenny and I talked about this before. I had one mom who their church just does a very
intense fast and I noticed that she was not gaining weight appropriately.
I knew it was Lent but she wasn't swelling so I just didn't put two and two
together until I asked.
So Jenny, are there different types... like okay,
heard you say Catholics... Catholic pregnant women don't have to practice Lent,
but for those that do do they have certain restrictions or things that are
recommended by the church?
So for a non-pregnant person during Lent
most of us fasts on Fridays.Some of us will also fast on Wednesdays as well.
Some of us will do like a fast throughout the entire season of Lent
that can include food, but still doesn't restrict their calories and the nutrient
and nutrients that they need during pregnancy. So usually like what I
have seen is some women will follow a diabetic diet. So that's good.
Some women will follow a like whole foods diet. Some women will still
abstain from meat on certain days but that doesn't mean you need to like
restrict your calories. It just means you need you need to
replace that with something else. So, you have to be a little wary about fish
because there are some fish that are not good for pregnant women. So usually I
recommend doing like eggs or beans or something of that nature to replace the
protein that they're not getting from meat consumption.
So depending on what diet
you choose to do during Lent, if it's a food based diet it's really important
that if you're pregnant you inform your healthcare provider of what your plans
are because like Jenny had mentioned some moms will follow a diabetic diet
and in most pregnancies, it's actually a really good clean whole food-based diet.
But, moms of twins, for example, or mothers with preeclampsia or things like that
may have other different diet needs that only your health care
practitioner will know about. So no matter what you choose to do for Lent,
if it's anything food-related be sure to talk to your doctor or your midwife
before you jump into making any diet changes during the Lent season.
If you want to know if there's one thing I can recommend, because some moms really
want to eat you know seafood during the time of Lent, is if you can try to eat this
little crawfish as you can I know that makes it even that's non pregnant people
really swollen. But, there is an an organization out there. If you just
google "Seafood Watch". It's the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I have used them for years
and they have great recommendations for seafood that is healthy for pregnant for
pregnant moms.
Is it based on the the region?
Yes, it's based on the region which is
better so for your moms that are outside of the Gulf of Mexico it has
recommendations for the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean... I think it even has
the Great Lakes yeah and the Gulf of Mexico.
If you guys have any questions
for me or for Jenny about the Lent season or fasting during pregnancy be
sure to post them in the comments below otherwise you can follow us at one of
our videos up here. Thanks for watching this week for Midwife Monday!
Bye bye