Micronutrients: The Key to a Healthy Pregnancy -Sophie W

Many things have changed over the course of this project. In fact, only two things have really remained constant:

1. Me and my partner’s passion for our problem
2. Our problem

These two constants are clearly centered around our problem which is:

An x number of women ages 19-24 around the UT campus and the greater Austin area, are currently not implementing the proper diet they need during pregnancy, or do not have the resources to implement an optimal prenatal diet. They are choosing foods that are either harmful or non-beneficial to their growing fetus.  The impact of not having a proper diet during pregnancy can lead to mild or even severe birth defects, such as spina bifida. A successful solution would be to educate women on the benefits of healthy eating during pregnancy on both their unborn child, as well as themselves. Not only do we want to educate women, we want them to implement the diet they need.  If the proper steps are taken, women can give birth to healthy babies, and keep themselves feeling energized.

We have brainstormed many solutions to this problem.Our original ideas were to possible hold cooking classes or partner with a local grocery store to donate or supply coupons for the ARPC. We have since discovered the difficulty in maintaining and supplying the classes and getting women to take time to completely change their eating habits. This led us to our current solution, which we believe to have the greatest lasting impact. We are currently looking to partner with a local Pharmacy that would be willing to donate vitamins to the Austin Pregnancy Resource Center  where they could be distributed through their growing mentorship program. This solution would allow women the proper nutrition through vital micronutrients, something that many of these women may not be thinking about due to the extra expense. Folic acid, calcium and iodine are a few important vitamins to take during pregnancy because they can help prevent problems such as neural tube defects , a loss of bone density, stunted growth, and miscarriage.  

My partner and I decided to follow this idea relating to micronutrients because they are very effective and don’t require a huge lifestyle change, which we were previously trying to implement. We also had connections with the People’s Pharmacy , a group that we are trying to contact to help us achieve our goal. Currently, we have been researching ways to improve our solution and figuring out what our next steps in our process are going to be so that we can be successful in reaching our goal.