The Food Guide Pyramid can be used as a tool to assess your current food intake. The pyramid contains all the food groups essential to a healthy diet. It is meant as a guideline to aid people in recognizing what and how much to eat of each of the five major food groups daily. Following the Food Guide Pyramid will help keep your fat intake at healthy levels and ensure that you are consuming all the essential nutrients that make up a healthy diet for the average person. It will help you increase your intake of nutrient-dense foods or foods that contain more nutrients than calories. By following the Food Guide Pyramid, you can rest assured that you are getting all of the nourishment that your body needs to plan for a healthy pregnancy.

On average, women who are not pregnant should consume the following servings daily from the Food Guide Pyramid (depending on activity level):

• 6 to 9 servings from the bread, cereal, rice, and pasta group-Include whole-grain and whole-wheat foods as much as possible.
• 3 to 4 servings from the vegetable group-Choose from a variety of vegetables, and stick to fresh or frozen for higher nutritional content.
• 2 to 3 servings from the fruit group-Choose from a variety of fruits.
• 2 to 3 servings from the milk group-Choose from low-fat or fat-free dairy products.
• 5 to 6 ounces (or 2 servings) from the meat group-Choose from lean meats and include nonmeat protein foods such as beans, lentils, and fish regularly.
• Fats, oils, and sweets-Use sparingly.

Keep in mind that the stated number of servings is for women who are not yet pregnant. These serving sizes increase with pregnancy.

Food in one group should not replace foods from another group. Because each group supplies different essential nutrients, no food group is any more important than any other. It is important to eat from all of the food groups each day and to eat a variety for optimal nutritional intake. In addition to your food intake, don’t forget your fluids, too!

Alert: Water is an important nutrient and one that is often overlooked when planning a healthy diet. For optimal intake, you should shoot for at least eight 8-ounce glasses per day. Water is present in just about every part of the body and has a vital role in almost every major function in the body, including pregnancy. The body has no provision to store water, so make sure you drink water every day.

You can get a reasonably accurate answer from a home pregnancy test within a couple of weeks after you’ve received your fertility treatment but the majority of clinics will do the tests for you. Always remember that oftentimes when home pregnancy tests are conducted too quickly after treatment, they can often suggest a false positive answer.

You may find other signs of pregnancy that you will see, for example: sudden mood swings, sore breasts and the desire to use the toilet more frequently, sickness, missing your menstrual cycle, tiredness and heightened sense of smell and taste.

Most of the time the fertility clinic will stay in touch in the first few weeks when you get pregnant to go through ultrasound scans to watch the growth of your baby. You may find that your clinic is one of those that do not continue support after their work is done so alternative arrangements will have to be sorted out to look after your pregnancy and delivery.

Quite often it takes a short while for a woman to get used to the fact they’re pregnant after successful fertility treatment so don’t concern yourself if, in the beginning, you are not as excited about as you thought you would be. This is perfectly normal but the fundamental thing is to learn to live with your emotions whatever they are, and to remember that most mums-to-be go through a mixture of emotions on discovering they are going to have a baby whether they have had fertility treatment or not.

Being pregnant after fertility treatment should not be any different than an individual who hasn’t gone through fertility treatment although you may find it more emotionally trying. At times it may mean you need more scans or appointments at the hospital. Possible reasons for this might be because they have had previous problems before like miscarrying for example, or, owing to their general health. Another possible reason could be the mother-to-be’s age because the older you become the more likely complications may occur.

More than a million babies around the world have been born as a consequence of assisted conception treatment such as In Vitro Fertilization and the prospects are you will give deliver a healthy baby. It is not possible to say that there will not be any problems experienced in a pregnancy, irrespective of whether it was assisted or not because they all run some risk but the majority of the time these are only minor. For the most part you should try to enjoy your pregnancy as much as possible and slow down even though it might be easier said than done.

Unfortunately the number of stillbirths that occur after using In Vitro Fertilization is higher those for natural conception. The two causes for this are well documented: the first being that almost all women that have fertility treatment experience a pregnancy test in the early days of the pregnancy. Whereas a woman who has become pregnant by the regular method might think she has had a late period but has in fact created a fertilized egg that did not implant correctly. The second reason is down to age because women who have fertility treatment are generally more mature than those who do not, and the prospects of losing the baby grow as the woman ages. Concerns raised on this subject would be best answered by your own fertility clinic gynecologist. Acai has no proven side effects and its a natural product which could only add to your health. It is so safe that it could also be taken during pregnancy.