Prior to your first consultation, you will need to complete a new patient form prior to seeing the dietitian. This will be sent to you or completed in clinic. If you have any recent results from your doctor, feel free to bring them along! Otherwise, you don’t need to bring anything – just yourself! After the consultation, we will schedule a follow up appointment, but if you have any questions or concerns between appointments, your dietitian will be available to answer your questions via email or phone call. If you have any recent results from your doctor, feel free to bring them along! Otherwise, you don’t need to bring anything – just yourself! After the consultation, we will schedule a follow up appointment, but if you have any questions or concerns between appointments, your dietitian will be available to answer your questions via email or phone call.

There are many lifestyle, and environmental factors that can impact your fertility, and the health of your unborn baby. Seeing a dietitian is crucial to ensuring your baby’s future health. A dietitian can guide you through how to manage the preconception period, and what is right for you. Fertility dietitians will look at your medical and obstetric history to make decisions around tailored advice and/or supplementation. Behaviours such as smoking, alcohol intake and caffeine intake directly impact your ability to conceive. Smoking reduces a woman’s ovarian reserve, and increases time to conceive (2). Nutrition can play a role in egg maturation, quality of embryos and successful implantation (2). When working with a women’s health dietitian, you can feel confident that you are working with someone who really wants to show up and be there for their clients.

It is recommended that you enjoy a wide variety of foods during your pregnancy and this includes regularly consuming common allergens during pregnancy (unless you are allergic to a food – then do not consume this). It is important to consume common allergens such as nuts (peanuts, walnuts and cashews), some fish (shellfish – make sure it is well cooked to avoid listeria risk) dairy products (milk and eggs), soy and wheat. This will expose your growing baby to these things, and hopefully reduce the risk of allergy. Once you and your dietitian believe that you are confident in navigating your food and nutrition, and meeting your original goals, this is a good indication that you are getting results.

The current recommendation for weight gain during pregnancy comes from the Institute of Medicine (IOM). These guidelines are a little outdated and they do not account for specific conditions in pregnancy (i.e. Twin pregnancies or other health conditions). It is not common practice for GPs to weigh women during pregnancy, as there is enough for women to worry about. If you would like to be weighed, please let us know at your appointment.