Kia ora,
My name is Emma Weenink and I’m currently the Chief Executive Officer at Hemp Connect, although about to go on maternity leave in a few weeks for the first time.
Like so many people, pregnancy hasn’t been the smoothest ride, with vomiting still a regular occurrence at Week 31, as well as the classic indigestion symptoms and general discomfort. I must admit though, I am so incredibly excited to meet our new bubba in April.
My husband and I spent almost three years trying to conceive... running a start up business with many nights spent apart from each other as well as my love for netball coaching often consuming the winter months certainly made things logistically difficult. It wasn’t until we were both working at Hemp Connect and able to focus a bit more on our eating and general lifestyle that we were so thrilled to finally see those two lines on the pregnancy test, with a bit of help from modern medicine as well!
Working for a hemp company has meant that our kitchen has constantly been filled with all sorts of hemp products – anything from protein powder and oil to soaps and creams, and even wall panels and insulation materials. The main constant that has always been in our pantry though are hemp hearts. It has always been something that has just been so easy to add into any meal, and I had always known that it was generally pretty healthy for me, and good for the business too!
It wasn’t really until I started my pregnancy journey that I started to fully appreciate the benefits of hemp for my health (and my baby’s health!) and really got into a daily routine with hemp hearts.
Conception and Trimester 1
One of the first things that people tell you to start taking when you’re trying to conceive is folic acid. This is said to reduce the chances of any neural tube defects such as spina bifida in your baby foetus. Folic acid is derived from folate, which naturally occurs in hemp seeds in quite high quantities. I was told to take folic acid by taking Elevit tablets as they also included a wider variety of other essential nutrients for conception and early pregnancy. These included:
- Iron (60mg) which supports our immune system, energy levels and helps to transport oxygen in our blood
- Magnesium (100mg) which plays an important role in the healthy structure of bones and teeth
- Selenium (50mcg) which is crucial for the development of your baby’s brain and nervous system
- Vitamin D (200IU) which promotes immune function and cell growth and development
- Iodine (220mcg) which is essential for cognitive development in children
- B Group Vitamins.
So, I started to go through the list and work out whether they were present in hemp hearts, and if so, how much would I need to take.
Amazingly, my research revealed that hemp hearts had almost all of them.
Every single one except for vitamin D and Iodine. I was very impressed that we could be getting most of these nutrients from a natural plant-based product and just mind blown that everyone else wasn’t taking hemp during conception either.
When I did the maths, I worked out that I would have needed to have 2 cups of hemp hearts per day to get the exact same quantities of those nutrients in the Elevit pills, as well as finding another source of iodine and vitamin D. So I continued to take Elevit, but certainly enjoyed my hemp smoothies a lot more!
Trimester 2 & 3:
In the later trimesters, I became addicted to my morning hemp smoothies and ended up increasing my serving to half a cup of hemp hearts along with a frozen banana, orange juice, frozen strawberries and some oats. I used a pregnancy app to keep track of how many weeks I had left, which often told me what sort of foods and nutrients I needed to keep the baby developing nicely.
When I got my glucose test done (to test for gestational diabetes), they also measured my iron levels. For some reason, I got really put off eating red meat amidst my continued nausea, so I was intrigued to see how my iron levels were. Your recommended daily intake is 27mg of iron in the third trimester which is really important for preventing and combatting anaemia. In addition to this, the body can’t actually absorb iron without the presence of Vitamin C. Fortunately, those smoothies that I was having also had orange juice in them (because I loved the sweetness) so my bloodwork came back great! Lots of iron and vitamin C in my system, which I fully credited to those yummy smoothies. I also passed the test for gestational diabetes, which I credited to the high levels of magnesium in the hemp hearts too. There is more than 100% of your daily dose of magnesium in a ¼ cup of hemp hearts. Magnesium contributes to normal growth and development of children when consumed as part of a healthy and varied diet
Surprisingly, I haven’t got sick of having those daily smoothies. I’ve mixed it up a bit when mangos were on special, and when raspberries were in hot supply, but I truly have become addicted to them. Sometimes I’ll be lying in bed at 9pm and end up getting up to make another one as I can actually feel my body wanting more. Seems a bit nuts as I used to lie there craving neopolitan ice cream...
What's next?
Well, the immediate thing on my mind is getting through the next nine weeks, which feels like an absolute life time away. I’m so excited for the next phase and to see what happens next. In terms of hemp though, I was watching a documentary on Netflix recently… it’s called Babies. One of the doctors in the docuseries did quite a lot of research and worked out that the world’s children population is incredibly deficient in zinc, and if this was solved, the entire world’s IQ would increase by 10 points! Surprise surprise, one serving of hemp hearts contain 49% of your daily recommended dose of zinc. So rest assured, these hemp smoothies are only just the beginning of my child’s daily intake of hemp 😝
I still am a bit embarrassed that I was already leading a company that was producing the wonderful product and I didn’t already know all of this. But hey, I do now and if it has taught me anything, there is still a whole lot more to learn about this awesome plant and I’m pretty stoked to be part of the journey!
The detail
|
Nutrient |
¼ cup hearts |
½ cup hearts (a.k.a in my Smoothie!) |
Recommended during pregnancy* |
|
Folate |
94µg |
188µg |
400µg |
|
Iron |
7.8mg |
15.5mg |
27mg |
|
Magnesium |
406mg |
812mg |
350mg |
|
Selenium |
22.5µg |
45µg |
70-80µg |
|
Vitamin B3 |
6.25mg |
12.5mg |
13mg |
|
Vitamin B1 |
1mg |
2mg |
1.4mg |
|
Omega 3 fatty acids |
5.3g |
10.7g |
0.65g |
|
Zinc |
5.9mg |
11.8mg |
10mg |
*Please note this is from my research only, always consult your midwife/healthcare professional!
Thanks for joining me on this journey, and I can't wait to share our new arrival with you all and my journey post-partum.
Until next time,
Emma.