A.1.1: Counselling about healthy eating and keeping physically active during pregnancy is recommended for pregnant women to stay healthy and to prevent excessive weight gain during pregnancy.¹
A.1.2: In undernourished populations, nutrition education on increasing daily energy and protein intake is recommended for pregnant women to reduce the risk of low-birth-weight neonates.
Type of recommendation: Context-specific recommendation
A.1.3: In undernourished populations, balanced energy and protein dietary supplementation is recommended for pregnant women to reduce the risk of stillbirths and small-for-gestational-age neonates.
Type of recommendation: Context-specific recommendation
A.1.4: In undernourished populations, high-protein supplementation is not recommended for pregnant women to improve maternal and perinatal outcomes.
Type of recommendation: Not recommended
Iron and Folic Acid Supplements
A.2.1: Daily oral iron and folic acid supplementation with 30 mg to 60 mg of elemental iron² and 400 µg (0.4 mg) of folic acid³ is recommended for pregnant women to prevent maternal anaemia, puerperal sepsis, low birth weight, and preterm birth.⁴Z
Recommended
A.2.2: Intermittent oral iron and folic acid supplementation with 120 mg of elemental iron⁵ and 2800 µg (2.8 mg) of folic acid once weekly is recommended for pregnant women to improve maternal and neonatal outcomes if daily iron is not acceptable due to side-effects, and in populations with an anaemia prevalence among pregnant women of less than 20%.⁶
Context-specific recommendation
Calcium Supplements
A.3: In populations with low dietary calcium intake, daily calcium supplementation (1.5–2.0 g oral elemental calcium) is recommended for pregnant women to reduce the risk of pre-eclampsia.⁷
Context-specific recommendation
Vitamin A Supplements
A.4: Vitamin A supplementation is only recommended for pregnant women in areas where vitamin A deficiency is a severe public health problem,⁸ to prevent night blindness.⁹
