Question: Which nutrients are most important for an unborn baby? What effect do these have on the baby and in which foods can they be found?

Simon Langley-Evans answered on 11 Nov 2013:

The unborn baby goes through amazing changes. From the moment of conception it has to grow from a single cell right up to a 3.5 kg human, with all organs in place and ready to survive outside the womb. All of that growth and the formation of complicated organs like the brain or kidney requires energy and all nutrients. It is hard to say which are the most important nutrients, but if I wimp out and don’t answer you won’t be satisfied!

So…. I will put my neck out and say which ones I think are most important and will go for three:
1. Protein. Protein is needed for growth and the baby cannot make new organs and structures without being able to make proteins for itself. The proteins we get from meat (great sources) and plant material (still good, but we have to eat a wider range) provide amino acids which are the building blocks of protein for the baby.
2. Iron. This is a mineral and is needed to make blood cells and also to produce important proteins. Babies whose mothers don’t have enough iron in their diet are born small and that makes them more at risk of being born prematurely, dying soon after birth and growing up to have heart disease. Their mums are also more likely to die during childbirth.
3. Folic acid. This is really important as without enough in the diet babies can develop a birth defect called spina bifida. This leaves them disabled as their spinal cord is not protected by bone.