ABSTRACT: The birth of a newborn is a moment of tremendous joy for the mother, and every mother has the complete right to experience it. In India, pregnancy is considered a normal physiological phenomenon, and often hospital check-ups are only done when a medical issue is being faced by the women. This behaviour can sometimes be dangerous for both the mother and baby. Pregnancy-related complications are sharply increasing in developing countries like India. Poor maternal nutritional status of women before and during pregnancy due to their own childhood undernutrition, low level of BMI at conception, inadequate gestational weight gain due to poor dietary choices has serious implications on the mother and the baby. As in all cultures, certain beliefs and practices exist during this period of pregnancy and in rural areas of India, this is even more common. Most food practices and traditions of India have stemmed from deeply rooted traditions and customs. This often leads to hindrance in the consumption of healthy foods which can help in the prevention of chronic diseases during this stage and as well as at a later period of life. This mini-review reveals the important traditional healthy foods across various regions of Indian which can be beneficial during the gestational period and also focuses on pregnancy beliefs among women. Relevant papers were identified from Google Scholar, PubMed, and ScienceDirect by using various combinations of terms related to recommended foods in pregnancy.

Keywords— pregnancy, traditional foods, maternal health, nutritional factors, Indian Health foods, Indian women, food practices.

| DOI: 10.17148/IARJSET.2021.8861