ABSTRACT
Nutrition plays an essential role in the reproductive health of women of childbearing age. Reproductive health generally covers the period beginning in adolescence with the onset of puberty and continuing throughout pregnancy and lactation until menopause. During this fertile period, maternal diet is recognized as one of the foremost factors with a major role in the health of the mother and developing fetus. The importance of proper nutrition during pregnancy, with the increased metabolic demands on the mother attendant on a growing fetus, cannot be stressed enough. A mother requires all essential micronutrients to boost her immune system to help protect her from infections and also to improve the quality of breast milk, during lactation, for the growth and development of her infant. If the intake of essential micronutrients is inadequate during pregnancy, a decit may develop in the fetus, which affects both the fetus and the mother [1].
