Full GAPS Pregnancy: What I Ate During My Sixth Pregnancy

My sixth pregnancy was the pregnancy I carried on Full GAPS. We had started GAPS as a family in July 2024, and I ate the food I cooked for everyone else. I did not need a separate pregnancy menu. ^[7] Here is what I can share about that experience, alongside the pregnancy food guidance in Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride’s books.

Can You Eat on GAPS While Pregnant?

The pregnancy chapter in Gut and Psychology Syndrome directs someone who is already pregnant to Full GAPS. Fermented foods still need gradual introduction if they are new to you.^[1] The pregnancy preparation guide explains the earlier four-to-five-month preconception route for parents without pronounced GAPS symptoms, and the longer, symptom-led preparation for parents who need the full program.

The official pregnancy FAQ gives a specific exception for severe colitis with severe diarrhea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. In that situation, Campbell-McBride directs the mother to Intro Stage 2, with plenty of animal fats and liver and gradual homemade kefir from the beginning.^[8] Read the pregnancy and breastfeeding starting guide for that exception and the standard Full GAPS route.

The GAPS Pregnancy Diet: Eating for Two

The book doesn’t hand pregnant women a separate food list. It’s still Full GAPS. You cook it at home from fresh ingredients, not restaurant food or anything packaged and processed. A handful of things get emphasized harder during pregnancy specifically.

• Fresh homemade meat stock for soup, stew, or a warm drink. The older pregnancy chapter combines meat and bone stock, but the 2020 book separates them and holds bone broth back for at least the first year on GAPS, longer for some people.^[9] The pregnancy chapter suggests warm meat stock with probiotic yogurt, kefir, or sour cream for morning sickness.^[1]
• More animal fat than usual, because your baby needs it too. Think butter, rendered fat you save from cooking, and good olive oil or coconut oil.^[1]
• Fermented foods, introduced step by step and eaten every day. They support digestion and nutrient absorption, and they supply B vitamins and vitamin K for the baby.^[1]

The 85/15 Rule

GAPS gives pregnancy a specific ratio to aim for.

• About 85 percent of what you eat each day should be savory: meat, fish, eggs, good dairy, vegetables and natural fats.^[3]
• The other 15 percent covers sweet foods: GAPS-style baked goods made with ground nuts and dried fruit, honey and fresh fruit. These stay a small snack between meals, not a meal on their own.^[3]

It’s a simple way to check yourself if pregnancy cravings start pulling you toward more sweet food than savory.

Liver in the GAPS Pregnancy Guidance

Liver, eaten regularly through pregnancy, is named as the primary source of folate on the protocol. It comes with a long list of other nutrients too, and the book credits it with protecting against a range of common pregnancy problems.^[4]

The expanded pregnancy chapter also makes a specific allowance for moderate amounts of home-cooked potatoes, sourdough bread, or whole grains when digestion is normal, eaten with plenty of natural fat.^[4] That conditional pregnancy passage is separate from the ordinary Full GAPS food list. It does not turn potatoes or grain breads into everyday Full GAPS recipes.

Cutting Toxic Exposure During Pregnancy

The book treats reducing avoidable chemical exposure as part of pregnancy preparation.^[4] It names the following categories to reduce or avoid where practical:

• Artificial chemicals in personal care products, makeup, perfume and hair dye.^[4]
• Household cleaners, carpet pesticides, dry cleaning and industrial chemicals.^[4]
• House renovations and new furniture. Both flood a home with chemical off-gassing, which is why pregnancy is named as a bad time for either.^[4]
• Toxin-heavy places: hair salons, public swimming pools, shopping malls, hospitals, and anywhere that smells strongly of chemicals.^[4]
• The book advises limiting avoidable dental exposure and avoiding amalgam when a filling is necessary.^[4] Do not delay urgent or routine prenatal dental care.
• The book advises limiting avoidable medication and medical tests.^[4] Prescribed medication and recommended prenatal testing should be reviewed with the prescriber or obstetric clinician rather than stopped or skipped independently.

In Gut and Physiology Syndrome, Campbell-McBride discusses animal research on prenatal metal exposure as part of her concern about products applied to the skin.^[5] The pregnancy exposure guide keeps the personal-care, household, renovation, and appointment categories together.

Stress, Sleep, and Mindset

The book treats your emotional state during pregnancy as part of the protocol, not separate from it. Positive feelings are described as producing a positive biochemistry in your body, while negative feelings are described as producing hormones and chemicals that can affect the baby.^[6]

The practical advice that follows is specific: put the baby at the top of your priority list and let that be the filter for what you take on. Don’t overload yourself, since pregnancy is already a full-time job on its own. You can’t control every situation that comes at you, but you can control how you react to it. Stay calm where you can. Spend time with people who make you feel good, and limit time with people who leave you feeling small or guilty.^[6]

The rest of the list is just as practical:

• A soft, comfortable bed and real sleep.^[6]
• A daily rest or nap, especially in the last months.^[6]
• A daily walk outdoors at an easy pace.^[6]
• Laughing at least once a day.^[6]

What I Actually Ate: My Sixth Pregnancy on Full GAPS

I ate whatever I cooked for the family during my sixth pregnancy. Our everyday kitchen routine includes a pot of meat stock in the morning, and soup is one of our regular meals.^[7] If you are planning your own food, begin with meals you can keep making rather than adding a whole second menu to your day. The pregnancy foods guide brings the book’s food priorities together.

Compared with my earlier pregnancies, my moods were steadier. I also had fewer pica symptoms, including eating ice and craving powdered laundry detergent. Those were differences I noticed in my own pregnancy.^[7]

I gained more weight in that pregnancy than in my earlier pregnancies. Within three months after birth, I had lost all of it and more. I describe that as part of my own experience, without turning it into a weight target for someone else.^[7] My fourth-trimester account explains what I ate after birth and how that differed from the postpartum period after our fifth.

Our youngest was born almost eight pounds, two and a half weeks early, and healthy.^[7]

My advice is to prepare when you can. Having food routines and practical help in place gives you something useful to carry into pregnancy and the weeks after birth.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I Have to Start with the GAPS Introduction Diet If I Find Out I’m Pregnant?

No. The book’s guidance for someone who is already pregnant is to start Full GAPS directly, not to work up through the Introduction Diet first. It’s still worth reading the Introduction Diet chapter for how to bring in fermented foods step by step if you haven’t had them regularly before.^[1]

What Does the GAPS Book Say About Fasting During Pregnancy?

The 2020 liquid-fasting chapter places pregnant and nursing women among those who should not fast longer than one day at a time, with at least a month between fasting episodes. It separately describes early-pregnancy nausea with no appetite as a situation in which its liquid fast can help. Once nausea subsides and appetite returns, it directs a move to Full GAPS. The same paragraph also gives a separate acute ulcerative-colitis or Crohn’s exception when solid food cannot be handled.^[2] Those are the chapter’s limits and exceptions, not a recommendation to schedule pregnancy fasts.

What Percentage of My Meals Should Be Savory Versus Sweet During Pregnancy?

About 85 percent savory: meat, fish, eggs, dairy, vegetables and fat. The other 15 percent covers sweet foods, kept to small snacks between meals rather than meals of their own.^[3]

Do I Need a Different Diet for Each Trimester on GAPS?

No. The book adds a few pregnancy-specific priorities on top of Full GAPS: liver for folate, cutting toxic exposure, and protecting your sleep and stress levels.^[4] The food list itself doesn’t change by trimester.

Where Can I Read About the Postpartum Period After a GAPS Pregnancy?

My GAPS fourth-trimester story compares what I ate after our fifth and sixth births, along with the book’s rest and nursing guidance.

My Full GAPS Pregnancy: Week-by-Week Meals and Routines course brings pregnancy food planning and household routines together. You can find it in the WFLI shop catalog.

References

1. Campbell-McBride, N. Gut and Psychology Syndrome, expanded second edition, Part Four, “Having a New Baby in the GAPS Family,” preconception and pregnancy chapter. Text checked against the expanded second German edition (2015).
2. Campbell-McBride, N. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), “GAPS Liquid Fasting,” cautions for pregnant and nursing women and the early-nausea and acute-inflammatory-bowel-disease exceptions.
3. Campbell-McBride, N. Gut and Psychology Syndrome, expanded second edition, Part Four, “Having a New Baby in the GAPS Family,” preconception and pregnancy chapter. Text checked against the expanded second German edition (2015).
4. Campbell-McBride, N. Gut and Psychology Syndrome, expanded second edition, Part Four, “Having a New Baby in the GAPS Family,” preconception and pregnancy chapter. Text checked against the expanded second German edition (2015).
5. Campbell-McBride, N. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), detoxification chapter, personal-care products and toxic-metal exposure discussion.
6. Campbell-McBride, N. Gut and Psychology Syndrome, expanded second edition, Part Four, “Having a New Baby in the GAPS Family,” preconception and pregnancy chapter. Text checked against the expanded second German edition (2015).
7. Garnica, E. WFLI family account, September 2026, pregnancy and postpartum experience and everyday kitchen routines.
8. Campbell-McBride, N. GAPS FAQs, “Pregnancy,” Q12, conception during Intro and the severe-colitis pregnancy exception.
9. Campbell-McBride, N. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), “Meat Stock and Soups,” meat stock versus bone broth timing.

Start with the pregnancy preparation guide if you need to choose your starting route. Then use the food guidance above to plan complete meals you can obtain and cook.