Today’s post is as much for anyone reading this as it is for me. I am notoriously awful about drinking enough water and I always have been. I love my coffee. I’ll have tea from time to time. I’ve definitely cut back on the energy drinks since I got pregnant with my first. And I will almost always try whatever fad “healthy” drink is going around. All because I get bored with plain, old water.
I of course know that I should be hydrating with water and I know intuitively that while I was pregnant and now as a postpartum, nursing mother, I should be especially aware of this. But I still struggle. One thing my primary provider said to me recently though helped me to turn a corner and to really think about the value of water.
Most people know that water makes up a majority of the body, give or take 50% of your body weight. So, clearly its important. But when my doctor started talking about the importance of water in muscle recovery, he started speaking my language. Again, most of this is not going to be new to anyone, but these reminders sometimes help. He reminded me that water does make up the core of our cells and we need water to generate muscle and help flush out toxins from muscles (aka, recover faster). On top of that, so many vitamins are water-soluable and we will function so much better with adequate water. Some of these vitamins include B12 and B6 which play such a role in energy.
Even more so then your average adult, a pregnant or breastfeeding mother needs even more water. One rule of thumb is to drink about as many milliliters in water as you eat in calories, which means during pregnancy that would mean increasing water intake about 300-500mls per day, or 10-16 ounces. About 2 additional glasses then pre-pregnancy. This will help support your baby’s needs as well as your increased fluid demands from a surge in blood volume.
When nursing, one of the tips out there is to drink when thirsty. But we all know that we normally shouldn’t follow that, as when thirsty, we are already going into a state of dehydration. You can also think of it in terms of water in should equal water out. We can’t always measure all water out as we lose water through breathing and evaporation, but in the case of nursing, you can either know (if pumping) or estimate how much baby would drink. For most infants, it’s probably about 22-28 ounces a day, which would be 3 additional glasses of water per day for breastfeeding mothers.
You can add lemon to your water, you can add electrolytes, you can drink uncaffienated tea. Just fo what you can to drink your water.