Prevent Yeast Infection
During Pregnancy

~Importance of diet, probiotics and more~

Yeast, also known as candida, is a fungus that lives happily in our digestive tracts and in other parts of a healthy body. Yet it stands ready to multiply and go into overdrive when the conditions are favorable. It feeds on sugars and thrives in an acidic, anaerobic (oxygen-lacking) environment.

So the idea in trying to prevent the development of a yeast infection during pregnancy is to create a healthy, balanced environment in the body, one in which yeast organisms are not encouraged to overpopulate.

The following suggestions will promote healthy vaginal flora as well as optimal bacterial balance throughout the body:

• Follow a healthy pregnancy diet: Hopefully you're already avoiding processed and packaged foods while pregnant and choosing whole, natural foods. Lots of raw foods, green vegetables, nuts and seeds and high quality protein are especially important for preventing yeast overgrowth.
• Avoid refined sugars and carbohydrates: Since candida yeast feeds on sugar, it will multiply in the body to match the sugar supplied by your diet. White sugar and flour, in addition to being essentially devoid of nutrients, are major yeast feeders.
• Consume probiotics daily: Probiotics are the beneficial bacteria that populate our bodies, including all of our "tracts": digestive, vaginal, urinary, etc. The human diet used to contain tons of natural food-based probiotic sources, when foods were processed and preserved in the traditional way by culturing and fermenting.

  These methods actually enliven our foods, create more nutrients and also make those nutrients more bio-available. In contrast, modern food processing methods destroy nutrients and leave foods dead and devoid of most everything, including probiotics.

  Some of the best probiotic foods include yogurt, milk kefir, water kefir and raw sauerkraut.

• Consider a probiotic supplement: Probiotics during pregnancy have many benefits besides yeast infection prevention. If you haven't fully transitioned to a more traditional diet and you're not getting multiple food-based probiotic sources every day, then you might benefit from a probiotic supplement.

  Acidophilus supplements, such as this food-based probiotic by New Chapter, will give you all the benefits of probiotics in a convenient capsule form.

• Include coconut oil in your diet: Coconut oil has anti-fungal properties and will also help curb sugar and carb cravings. Consume 2-4 tablespoons daily in pregnancy either right from the spoon, in cooking or blended into smoothies. Nutiva coconut oil is my favorite for taste and cost.
• Cook with garlic, sea salt and herbs: These flavorful additions to foods also have antimicrobial properties. Once again, one of the natural ways our ancestors maintained balanced bodies and enjoyed healthy and tasty foods.

• Wear natural fibers: Use cotton underwear and avoid synthetic fibers and panty hose. Yeast thrive in warm, moist environments, so let the vaginal area breathe by wearing natural fibers during the day and sleeping without underwear at night.

You can see that preventing a yeast infection during pregnancy basically requires following natural diet and lifestyle principles with an added emphasis on probiotics and certain anti-microbial foods.

Read about natural yeast infection remedies

Read about natural remedies for pregnancy problems

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