How to Speed Up Digestion During Pregnancy?

Pregnant women have to face many digestive issues like constipation, nausea, or heartburn. Here, many remedies are waiting for you about how to speed up digestion during pregnancy.

Speedy digestion is the one-stop solution to bless pregnant women’s healthy and happy stomachs. Don’t worry. It is simple, but you need only gulp up all info regarding how to speed up digestion during pregnancy in the article so that you can offer a little help to your love-lady or special one to keep the digestion issues in check.

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What are the Reasons for Digestive Issues During Pregnancy?

Pregnancy hormones are the main reason for digestive issues. The hormone progesterone is the root cause of the body’s smooth muscle relaxation, slowing down the digestion process in the stomach and small and large intestines. It can also affect the gallbladder and enhances the chances of gallstone formation too.

Moreover, the relaxed tone and slow digestive system create many pregnancy discomforts, such as heartburn, laziness, morning sickness, and constipation. However, the issues can tackle using some tips and tricks. Further in the post, you will get to know about them.

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What are the Ways to Speed Up Digestion During Pregnancy?

Here I have mentioned some tips that will help you to combat digestion issues. Read the instructions carefully to enjoy your pregnancy with another level of happiness.

Adjust Meal Portions

Until now, I am sure you are following a three extensive meal day routine, but it is time to break it. Have small portions instead a significant portion at a time. That will help you to speed up digestion during pregnancy. You can have frequent but try to keep the meal size small.

Keep Moving

Stay active throughout the entire pregnancy. Plan your walking routine that will help you to speed up digestion during pregnancy and resolve constipation and heartburn issues. 20-30 minutes walk is enough for you to keep your health in check.

After a meal, don’t sit or lay down on the bed but walk as much as you are comfortable. The movement of your body soothes your digestion process and makes your stomach happy and healthy.

Choose Fibre-Rich Foods

When pregnant women are not feeling well, they start to eat refined carbs such as pasta, cracker, white bread, and oily food. That is okay if you have a limited portion of these foods often. Regular foods can create issues like constipation and heartburn as they are low in dietary fibre. Choosing fibre-rich foods also helps speed up digestion during pregnancy, such as brown rice, oats, fresh fruits, whole grain pasta, and sweet potato.

Ginger Tea

It is also an excellent option to speed up digestion during pregnancy. Other than it, if you are facing nausea, then you can have ginger tea to make yourself comfortable. You need to grate ginger in hot water and add lemon and honey to it. Your ginger tea will get ready.

Choose Root Vegetables Over Leafy Greens

If you are one of those who is facing nausea and food aversions, then immediately replace leafy green vegetables with root vegetables as they are rich in insoluble fibre that is a great source to speed up digestion during pregnancy.

Have Food Slowly

Chew food slowly helps you to digest food efficiently; thus, the necessary nutrients will also reach your baby. Digestion issues do not begin in the stomach but in your mouth. Proper chewing ensures the digestive enzymes are released into the saliva and begin to break down your food into small pieces before it reaches your stomach so that the food gets digested easily. It is the easiest way to speed up digestion during pregnancy.

Follow the Eating Schedule

You should follow the eating schedule that may train your digestion system to work properly to digest the food well. So, fix your routine to have your breakfast, lunch, and dinner. If you feel hungry between meals, you can have light snacks or fruits. You should also have water between meals, which will help speed up your digestion.

Say No To Smoking And Drinking

Quit smoking and drinking from the moment you get the positive pregnancy test, as the habits can lead to many digestion issues, infections, and ulcers. The habits are also not good as they can interrupt the mental and physical growth of the fetus too.

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What to Drink for Better Digestion During Pregnancy?

Drinking efficient water is the best way to speed up digestion during pregnancy. Water is also an excellent way to relieve constipation. Women should hit 10 cups of fluids in a day. You can also include coconut water, a naturally sweet drink that assists you in smooth digestion.

Coconut water is also good for your skin, so immediately add this magical drink to your diet chart. You can go for fruit juice and soft drinks sometimes but make sure don’t choose drinks that are fully loaded with sugar that can lead you to put on extra weight. Be alert. Having healthy drinks is good for you and your baby.

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What are the Good Foods that are Helpful in Digestion? 

List of the tummy-friendly good food that helps to speed up digestion during pregnancy:

Homemade Curd

Homemade curd is the best option to speed up digestion during pregnancy. The other thing is that it is so yummy and can take it in different forms as salty lassi, sweet lassi, etc. Curd is easy to make, so have fresh curd daily to avoid digestive issues. Yogurt is full of Probiotics and helpful in preventing infection during pregnancy.

Fibre-Rich Foods

Bowel and constipation are the common digestion issues many pregnant women face. The fibre-rich foods like fruits, vegetables, and legumes are a good source to speed up digestion during pregnancy.

Foods Containing Ginger

Having ginger during pregnancy is safe and helpful in digestion. A small piece of ginger is enough for you.

Vegetables

They are fibre-rich, which is why they support your digestive system. Try to have vegetables like potatoes, carrots, and beans.

Fruits

They are a whole pack of the necessary nutrients that are helpful to speed up digestion during pregnancy, such as vitamins, proteins, vitamin C, and potassium. Apple, orange, and banana are the best food to boost digestion during pregnancy.

Whole Food Grains

Brown rice and quinoa are the best food items to speed up digestion during pregnancy. The most important thing is that the body slowly breaks down the whole grain, which keeps track on your blood sugar level.

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Foods that Women Should Avoid During Pregnancy?

Heartburn, constipation, and indigestion during pregnancy are common. I also mentioned above in the post by doing some adjustments to your diet plan, and you can fight against digestion issues.

Here I have mentioned some foods you should avoid to speed up digestion during pregnancy.

Fried And Spicy Food

Women may crave spicy and fried food during pregnancy, but the seasoning of the spicy food leads you to face many digestion issues like heartburn, acidity, gas, nausea, etc. The garlic, onion, and chilly and hot sauces may cause indigestion.

So, you should avoid spicy foods to improve your digestion. Moreover, if you are highly craving spicy foods so, then notice your body’s reactions to the food to decide whether you should eat them or not. In that case, you can also discuss with your doctor about taking spicy foods to avoid digestion issues later.

Sugar Alcohol Drinks

It is highly recommended not to take alcoholic drinks during pregnancy. The drinks may create major digestion issues but also hurt your baby. Alcohol drink may even lead to miscarriage, so you should completely avoid them for you and your baby’s well-being.

Refine Carbohydrates Like White Bread and Pasta

The bread, pasta, and other maida-based food will take longer to digest than healthy food. However, we all know the digestion process already slows down during pregnancy. Having refined carbohydrates surely make your digestion poor. Moreover, there are no healthy nutrients in these foods. So, why choose them immediately and switch to healthier food options?

High Saturated Fat as Cheese and Cream

It is a little tough for the pregnant woman’s body to digest foods that are high in saturated cheese and cream so try to cut down on them from your diet plan.

Coffee And Tea 

Taking excessive coffee and tea may cause digestive issues like acidity and gas. So, it is always advisable to limit coffee and tea during pregnancy. You can use fruit juice, decaffeinated coffee, and tea to reduce regular caffeine consumption.

Acidic Foods

Have you ever heard that citrus fruits and tomatoes contain vitamins and minerals? If yes, it is true, but they may cause heartburn and indigestion. Citrus fruits such as orange, limes, and lemons may increase the production of acid that lead you to face digestion issues like gas, acidity, etc.

Even tomato-based sauces and ketchup cause digestion issues due to high acidity levels. So, to get the maximum benefits of citrus and tomatoes, eat them within the limit; otherwise, you have to face digestion complications.

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How Can Exercise Help to Improve the Digestion System?

Regular exercises will help you to speed up digestion during pregnancy. You can also join an exercise club and yoga classes to enjoy your workout session. It would help if you started your exercise routine with light exercise and walking.

Whenever you have a meal after it, do a walk for at least 15 minutes. It will improve your digestion and also enhances sleep quality. Exercise also enhances your mood. Thus, you don’t move to fried food that is not good for digestion. You should consult your doctor before adding challenging exercises to your routine.

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Sleeping Habits to Speed Up Digestion During Pregnancy

Sleeping habits can also help you to improve your digestion throughout the pregnancy. Here are the best sleeping habits you should adopt to relieve digestion discomfort.

• Try to take dinner on time so that your digestive system gets enough time to digest food properly. Moreover, don’t eat anything 3 to 4 hours before bedtime which can lead to digestion issues.
• Keep your head a little bit up. That helps to prevent stomach acid from coming upwards while you are sleeping.
• Before sleeping, make yourself calm by meditating for some time which will help you to sleep well. Moreover, you will not feel digestion issues throughout the night.

Always remember that digestion issues can make you restless, but they can’t harm your baby. Even a slow digestion process ensures that your baby is getting the nutrients from the food you are taking. If you are facing too many issues, then consult your doctor immediately. That can help you to speed up digestion during pregnancy by medications.

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Conclusion

Normally, the food takes 4 to 6 hours for digestion. The digestion time can vary according to the person’s age, but in pregnancy, the women’s digestion slows down, leading them to digestive discomfort. Adding healthy food, such as vegetables, fruits, yogurt, etc., can help speed up digestion during pregnancy. Yoga and exercise are the plus points to improving your digestion system. If you are good at your diet but facing so many digestion issues, you should contact your midwife or healthcare provider. They may prescribe you medication to deal with digestion issues.

However, the tips I have mentioned will also help speed up digestion during pregnancy. Always remember that staying healthy during pregnancy is essential and that depends on diet choices. Always wear loose and comfortable clothes to make yourself calm and relaxed. Try to be stress-free and positive during the entire pregnancy, which can also help you to opt for a healthy pregnancy diet and lifestyle.

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FAQs: Speed Up Digestion During Pregnancy

When we talk about slow digestion in pregnancy, many questions are there associated with it. So here I am answering some of the commonest questions regarding speeding up digestion during pregnancy.