She clung to this black and white photograph of the twins swimming in her womb. It was a 12 year wait before they were introduced and she’s quite fond of the memory. Gulf News reader Shamila H knew she wanted to have babies, but she suffered from polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), which reportedly does not cause infertility but interferes with ovulation, making it difficult.
One of the things that can help someone with PCOS is losing weight. US-based WebMD explains, “When you have PCOS, losing just 10% of your body weight can bring your period back to normal.”
The 40-year-old clinical psychologist based in Saudi Arabia says: “I had a very irregular cycle over six months, sometimes even a year. If I don’t take medicine, I won’t have my cycle. Doctors, they tell you to lose weight. But they don’t tell you how to lose weight. You know, it was the struggle. I have tried various diets. I even went on the blood type diet… nothing worked. Sometimes I would lose a little weight and then gain it back. Nothing was consistent. »
Shamila H
Image Credit: Supplied
“I also tried the ketogenic diet – I was just doing random things on the internet, no carbs, which helped me lose weight. But I hadn’t done nutritional keto until 2020 when I got pregnant,” she recalls.
The ketogenic diet is a diet that focuses on low-carb, high-fat, and high-protein intake, forcing your body to generate ketones, which then use fat for energy instead of carbs.
Useful, useless
Nutritionist Farah Hillou of the Chiron Clinic explains that there are two sides to the keto coin: “Some reported benefits of the ketogenic diet include improved insulin sensitivity, reduced triglycerides, better energy levels , less hunger and fat loss. However, it is not recommended for people with diabetes who take insulin or people with gallbladder problems that may impact fat digestion. Additionally, there is a lack of evidence to suggest the health effects of a long-term keto diet. Considering the fact that toxins are stored in fat cells, it would be wise to support detoxification in the liver to help eliminate these toxins as weight and fat are lost.
It was June 2020 when Shamila came across her keto coach, who helped her transition to a “nutritional keto” lifestyle, focusing on whole foods and healthy fats, avoiding anything processed.
“When I was doing keto, before, I had in vitro fertilization (IVF). It failed. It was just unexplained and it just failed,” she says. This time it worked! I started my keto journey on June 1 and started IVF in July, and by the end of August I was pregnant,” she says.
As someone with a high-risk pregnancy – Shamila was over 35, suffered from PCOS and performed IVF – she was under constant surveillance. “I was taking progesterone shots, progesterone shots throughout my pregnancy. So it made my body gain a lot of water,” she says.
Manage keto and cravings
The ketogenic diet is nothing if not restrictive and pregnancy is known to trigger that sudden craving for a food or drink. “That was one of the things that scared and worried me,” Shamila admits, adding, “But to tell you the truth, Shirley D’souza, my Keto Trainer, was my support. When I told her that I wanted such and such a thing, she would tell me: ‘you know, your body lacks that.’ If I wanted chocolate, for example, she would tell me: ‘your body lacks magnesium’, so do So it was like that.”
What was on the menu?
Shamila recalls what she ate during her pregnancy months: “It was very nutritious. So I had a lot of seeds: pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds. I had a lot of red meat in terms of organ meats like kidney and liver. Of course, well cooked. Everything was pasteurized; my eggs were pasteurized. And there were lots of greens – spinach, I used to have lots of juice, avocados. I took my fish, just well cooked.
“But I had aversions. I love steaks, but I couldn’t even smell the home cooked meat.
Shamila said she would come out of their house while her husband prepared a dinner – rich in meats –. “He would cook my food, then I would come back once it was done,” she recalls.
She adds that despite the keto formula, due to other factors, she gained a lot of weight during her pregnancy – “I was 75kg at the start and when I was in the last trimester I had reached 100kg, you know, with the weight of babies and the weight of water and everything,” she says.
Four weeks after their birth, Shamila had lost 15 kg.
A doctor speaks
Dr. Vidyasaraswathi Uluvana, Specialist in Obstetrics and Gynecology, Aster Clinic, Al Nahda, warns against keto diet, saying, “Pregnancy on keto is simply not safe because in keto diet, ketones are used instead of glucose as an energy source, which is not good for growing babies.Glucose from carbohydrates is the primary source of energy for baby’s growth and development.Instead of eliminating carbohydrates, a healthier approach is to avoid carbohydrates from junk food such as candies, chips, cookies, cakes, sweets, etc. Pregnant women are advised to consume complex carbohydrates such as sweet potatoes, squash and fruits such as apples, berries, etc. .
“In addition, another important factor to remember in early pregnancy is the drastic reduction in weight which can adversely affect the development of babies and can cause certain abnormalities in babies, so it is advisable to reach an optimal weight before starting. in pregnancy.”
Meanwhile, a Yale University article on managing gestational diabetes — a condition in which you develop high blood sugar during pregnancy — offers a more balanced approach. “You need to find a balance between eating enough carbs to get the energy and glucose you need, and limiting the carbs you eat to control your blood sugar. The best way to do this is to spread them out throughout your day,” he suggests.
Ditch keto
Keto, Shamila says, really helped her with her pregnancy and her mental health, but she still gave it up after giving birth. This is because of the demands of the early days of motherhood. “Delivery was a bit difficult and sudden,” she says. “I just went for a check-up. I just went to check on their heartbeats. And the doctor said to me, ‘You’re three centimeters dilated, and I’m sorry, just for the weight of the little twin ‘.I have to put you, you know, on a c-section now.
“I lost a lot of blood during my delivery. And I had to have a blood transfusion and all that. I was 35 weeks, six days long. I even suffered from tachycardia, as my blood iron level was low.
After giving birth when Shamila came home, she sheepishly admits: “For 12 years I tried to get pregnant. I didn’t know how to take care of a baby. And I ended up with two babies. Twin A weighed 2.9 kg at birth and twin B weighed 1.9 kg. Twin B had low sugar, his cortisol was high and he was crying… it was hectic.
“Things were just out of control for me and my husband. And so we just didn’t have time to cook. No time to plan. We were just ordering from outside,” she laughs, already planning a return to keto in a few months. For now though, the world is focused on its babies – who have gone from 2D presentations on a highly anticipated sonogram to colorful, 3D animated pops of joy.
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