5 Nutrition Mistakes First-Time Pregnant Women Often Make (and how a nutrition coach can help)
By Nicole Roggow, Certified Pregnancy Nutrition Coach | Published: September 22, 2025
After providing personalized nutrition coaching to hundreds of pregnant women, I can predict the five mistakes nearly every first-time mom will make. And, it has nothing to do with their choices - optimal nutrition surrounding pregnancy is often contradictory, overwhelming, and can be quite detached from the reality of what women go through during this season.
This is exactly why personalized nutrition coaching works better than generic meal plans or handing out lists of “best practice” foods — working on a personal level with someone and meeting them where they are at can address these common pitfalls before they mentally derail a client or leave them feeling defeated.
Mistake #1: Trying to Eat “Perfectly” from Day One
The minute that pregnancy test shows two lines, most women panic about their diet. They often fear the weight gain that is inevitable and at the same time want to show up in the absolute best way possible for their growing baby. This can result in endless google searches about “cans” and “cants” and also trying to research and understand what the “best” and “worst” foods are to be eating during pregnancy.
Why this backfires: Your body is already dealing with massive hormonal changes. Adding food stress on top of that is a recipe for feeling overwhelmed and inevitably "failing" your impossible standards. By trying to approach nutrition as a list of “good” and “bad”, we are not taking into account how our body is going to feel and react to certain foods and the ever-changing journey we are about to go through during pregnancy.
What personalized nutrition coaching teaches instead: We want to focus on small changes that feel approachable and work WITH our body’s cravings, aversions, and inconsistent appetite. Finding ways to sneak protein in, ensure we are still getting a good amount of vitamins and nutrient from food, and using food to HELP manage our symptoms. Small, sustainable changes will stick!
Mistake #2: Believing Every "Forbidden Food" List You Read
Raw fish, deli meat, soft cheese, coffee, artificial sweeteners, unwashed vegetables, certain herbs, fish with mercury... The list of "dangerous" pregnancy foods grows longer every year and I see so many women questioning everything they put into their body. I've even had it go so far as having a client who was afraid to eat anything that wasn't on their doctor's “reccomended” list.
Why this backfires: When you're terrified of certain foods and are constantly stressed that you will “mess up” a pregnancy by eating (or not eating) something not on a recommended list, you often end up overthinking your nutrition and eating a very limited diet that might actually be less nutritious than if you ate normally with a few reasonable precautions.
What a good pregnancy nutrition coach would recommend instead: Focus on the big risks (raw meat and fish, unpasteurized dairy, alcohol) and ease up on everything else. One turkey sandwich isn't going to hurt your baby and simply heating it up first will remove the risk of food bourne illness. Simple adjustments and considerations, not life changing adjustments.
Mistake #3: Fighting Your Body's Cravings and Aversions
Your body suddenly can't stand the smell of chicken, but you keep forcing yourself to eat it because "you need protein" and “I used to love this”. You're craving ice cream every night, but you resist because it's "not healthy” and “there’s a lot of sugar”. While there may be some validity to your concerns or your mindsets, we have to understand this is a NEW season that we have never navigated or experienced before and that needs to come with some mindset shifts and changes in approach to our nutrition.
Why these mindsets backfire: Your body is giving you information. Fighting it usually leads to more stress and often worse nutrition overall when you finally give in and binge on what you've been restricting or resisting (this applies outside of pregnancy as well!.
What personalized nutrition coaching teaches: Work AROUND your cravings and aversions, not AGAINST them. Want ice cream? Have some, and maybe add some nuts for fiber or choose a yogurt-based brand with more protein. Can't stand grilled chicken? That’s actually expected! Find other protein sources that sound appealing, or try chicken in different ways (hidden in soup or a pasta dish, cold chicken salad, and see if that helps!).
Mistake #4: Comparing This Pregnancy to Someone Else’s (or even to a previous pregnancy!)
Your sister never had morning sickness and ate a ton of salads throughout her pregnancy. Your coworker talked about (what sounded like) a flawless meal-prep weekly and never seemed to miss a beat. The girl you follow on Instagram is 20-weeks pregnant and showing these perfectly balanced plates for every single meal filled with a ton of different meats and vegetables.
Meanwhile, you feel like your once intentional and calculated meal prep and nutritional intake is absolutely impossible now. You are pregnant just like them, why are you unable to do what you used to or what they are able to?!
Why this backfires: Every pregnancy is different - even in the same person. Every woman's experience with nausea, aversions, and energy levels varies dramatically and can show up at different times. Comparing yourself to others (or a previous pregnancy of yours) sets you up for unnecessary and unproductive guilt.
What a pregnancy nutrition coach emphasizes: Focus on your own journey and where you are RIGHT NOW, today. Your pregnancy doesn't need to look like anyone else's to be healthy and successful and we want to take that “guilty energy” and transform it into productive energy to figure out where and how we can get more nutrients into our day. This is the foundation of truly personalized nutrition coaching.
Mistake #5: Thinking You've "Ruined Everything" with One Bad Day or Week (The All-or-Nothing Trap)
Maybe you had intense nausea for a week and lived on bland carbs alone. Or maybe you’re in a phase where it feels like all you can think about are fast-food french fries. You have never experienced ongoing nausea or cravings like this before and are now convinced you're
damaging baby's development and are not executing the “healthy pregnancy” you had intentions of when you saw those two little lines.
Why this backfires: This all-or-nothing thinking creates a cycle of guilt and stress that's actually worse for you and your baby than whatever you ate (or didn't eat). Pregnancy is a long 40-weeks and there is plenty of time to make some changes and adjustments that honor your nausea, aversions, and cravings. Everyday is a new day!
What personalized nutrition coaching teaches instead: Pregnancy offers 40 weeks of opportunity to improve and progress your nutrition. A few days or even weeks of imperfect eating won't derail a healthy pregnancy and typically after Week 12-14, we see nausea subside and nutrition habits are able to be more typical again. Remember your baby is remarkably resilient and moving forward with a BEST EFFORT approach will get you very far.
The Real Mistake Behind All These Mistakes:
Trying to Navigate this Alone and Not Understanding THE VALUE of Nutrition Coaching During Pregnancy
Here's what I've learned after years of providing personalized nutrition coaching to pregnant women: the biggest mistake isn't what you eat, it's believing that perfect nutrition is required in order to work with a coach. As I often tell my pregnant clients: if you showed up and were able to do everything perfectly, you wouldn’t need me. No pregnant client walks through 40 perfect weeks nutritionally because nutrition can be incredibly CHALLENGING during pregnancy with all the body is navigating.
This is exactly why personalized nutrition coaching during pregnancy is so so valuable. It helps ease your mind, take the second guessing out of the equation, and helps to guide you week by week with specific behaviors and focuses based on where you are NOW and how your body is feeling TODAY - not what a textbook considers “ideal”.
WHAT WE DO (in a nutshell)
Start Where You Are
A good pregnancy nutrition coach looks at what you're actually eating right now, not what you think (or a textbook says) you should be eating. We build from there.
Set Realistic Goals
Instead of "execute all of this perfectly," personalized nutrition coaching focuses on achievable changes: "add one serving of protein to your day choosing from these three approachable options" or "lets focus on increasing your water intake this week since that has been struggling, here are some tips."
Practice Self-Compassion
A pregnancy nutrition coach helps you talk to yourself the way you'd talk to your best friend going through the same thing. Would you criticize her for eating “too many” carbs during bouts of nausea? Likely no, so we aren’t going to do it to yourself.
Focus on the Big Picture
A nutrition coach will put emphasis on the fact that your baby needs you healthy and unstressed more than they need you eating specific foods every day. We put a big focus on small habits and small wins throughout the week (even absent of specific food intake) that will all contribute to a healthy pregnancy.
The truth is: the women I work with who have the best pregnancies aren't the ones who eat perfectly. They're the ones who eat consistently, are in tune with their bodies, and replaced stressed/overwhelmed energy with positive/productive energy.
They're the ones who eat the sandwich when they want the sandwich, take their vitamins when they remember, and trust that doing their best is enough. Because it is. And that's what nutrition coaching during pregnancy is really about — helping you understand that your best is always enough and being there to guide you into your best self EACH WEEK.
If hearing this makes you feel like personalized nutrition coaching during your pregnancy would be beneficial, let us help you through this incredible season today! Get pregnancy nutrition coaching that focuses on progress, not perfection.*
