Introduction
Pregnancy is a critical period, during which maternal nutrition and lifestyle greatly in uence the health of mother and child. Maternal nutrition at conception and during pregnancy in uences the growth and potential development of the fetus and contributes to the maturity of a healthy baby.
There is growing evidence that maternal nutrition can alter the epigenetic state of the fetal genome (structural changes – DNA methylation and histone modi cations – that occur to the DNA without changing the DNA sequence, and can result in altered gene expression) [1], therefore alterations in nutrition during crucial periods of fetal development may result in developmental adaptations that permanently change the structure, physiology, and metabolism of the offspring, thereby predisposing individuals to metabolic, endocrine, and cardiovascular diseases in adult life. This phenomenon, known as “fetal programming,” has led to the recent theory of “fetal origins of adult disease” [2, 3].
Pregnancy provides a unique opportunity to in uence the long term health of the infant and mother.