Practical strategies to incorporate maternal nutrition into neonatology practice to impact infant outcomes

Maternal diet is an important clinical adjunct to care for optimal infant outcome. Clinicians should have a heightened awareness to the importance of the first 1000 days from conception to 2 years for key critical nutrients. The Registered Dietitian can be a key partner to ensure mothers are assessed nutritionally for food insecurity and dietary adequacy in pregnancy and lactation. A clinical review of the PubMed literature was done to establish recent guidelines for pregnancy and lactation- highlighting key dietary patterns, calories and nutrients that have been associated with pregnancy, human milk composition, and impacting fetal, neonatal, and lifelong health outcomes. Critical nutrients such as calories, Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), choline, folate, Vitamin B1,B2, B12, D, minerals, trace elements, and fiber were found to play key roles in optimizing pregnancy and lactation and resultant infant growth, development, and the microbiome. The perinatal provider should incorporate key maternal nutrient recommendations into dietary guidelines to ensure a healthy trajectory for the mother-infant dyad.