When Rachel was pregnant with her first baby, not one person asked her what she was eating, even though she was a dietitian herself. That experience is a big part of why she does this work today.

This is part 2 of our Meet the Pregnancy RD Team series, and today you get to know Rachel Kofsky, MA, RD, CSP, CLC, LDN, CDN. We start with the hot seat (iced cortados, chicken parm, and the time she lived down the block from her future husband in Florence without ever meeting him), then get into how her years in pediatric nutrition and eating disorder care shape the way she supports moms through fertility, pregnancy, and postpartum. She shares the snack plate her clients love, why your comfort level matters when it comes to pregnancy food fears, and why a normal hemoglobin doesn’t tell the whole iron story.

If you’ve ever wondered what it would actually feel like to sit down with Rachel for a session, this one is for you.

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Booking with any healthcare provider can feel like a gamble. You fill out the forms, you show up, and you hope the person across from you gets it.

We want you to know your dietitian before you ever sit down for a first session. That’s why we made this series. Each episode is a real conversation with someone on our team, so you can get a feel for their vibe and what working with them is like.

Rachel is a prenatal dietitian for body image, family feeding, fertility, and everything in between. She’s also a mom of two, a girl and a boy, who knows exactly how precious a walk, a podcast, and a pedicure with the extra foot massage can be.

Rachel’s Hot Seat Answers

Every team episode starts with a few rapid-fire questions. Rachel’s answers tell you a lot.

• Coffee or tea: coffee, and lately an iced cortado. Less milk than a latte, and she’s hooked.
• Sweet or savory: savory, always. Hers is a chicken parm and bolognese house, and she’ll go back for seconds of dinner before she saves room for dessert.
• Favorite pregnancy meal: a bacon, egg, and cheese on sourdough or a bagel. She could have eaten it three meals a day through pregnancy and postpartum.
• Fun fact: she studied abroad in Florence her junior year. Her future husband lived down the block, and they never crossed paths until after graduation.
• Weekends: getting outside as a family. A day trip to New Hope, PA, a nice lunch, a glass of wine, and ice cream for her toddler.

Why Rachel Became a Prenatal Dietitian

Rachel has been a dietitian for 14 years (at the time of writing this). She found our practice a couple of years after her first baby, and her own pregnancy is what pulled her toward this work.

Not one person asked her what she was eating.

She kept thinking about the moms who don’t have a nutrition degree to fall back on. How are they supposed to know how to take care of themselves and their baby if nobody is asking how they’re doing?

Now, a few years in, she calls prenatal nutrition one of the most rewarding parts of her career. The clients are motivated. They care so much about what they’re putting into their bodies and how to set themselves up well. And she didn’t fully appreciate that side of nutrition until she became a mom herself.

Pediatric Nutrition and the Whole Family’s Table

Rachel started her career with kids. She did her dietetic training in pediatrics, worked in children’s hospitals, and is still affiliated with one after 10 years. She holds the CSP credential, a board certification in pediatric nutrition.

Becoming a parent changed how she sees that work. Feeding a family isn’t one person’s job anymore. There are grandparents, nannies, daycares, multiple parents, and sometimes multiple households in the mix.

So when you sit down with Rachel, she wants to know your real life. What time do you have to wake up to get everyone out the door? Who’s cooking on a Tuesday? What are you stressed about this week?

In her words, it’s not as simple as “eat this food group this many times a day.” It’s about getting to know you, and that’s why clients feel comfortable with her.

A Prenatal Dietitian for Body Image and the Hard Days

Before joining our team, Rachel worked with adolescents on body image at the children’s hospital and spent time at an eating disorder practice in Manhattan. That background is a big part of why so many clients look for a prenatal dietitian for body image support.

She talks with clients about the shift that can happen so fast. Maybe you put real energy into feeling good for your wedding day. Then you’re pregnant, your body doesn’t feel like yours, and none of your pants fit. Holding onto those jeans can be a hard space to live in.

Rachel asks clients how they feel about those changes, which most people never get asked. She told me she often feels like a food therapist, or a body therapist. That attention to how you feel is what helps clients do well with the nutrition side.

She also supports moms going through fertility treatment, where medications can change how your body feels day to day. She’s someone you can be honest with about all of it.

What Clients Know Rachel For

One client Rachel has worked with for years has a habit on hard days. She asks herself, “What would Rachel tell me to do?” and makes her choice from there. She describes Rachel’s voice in her head as non-judgmental, like a cheerleader who already knows she can do it.

You can see the same thing in Rachel’s Google reviews. One client who worked with her through eating disorder recovery and infertility wrote that Rachel has “an incredible ability to meet you exactly where you are while gently helping you move forward,” and that she never felt judged.

Rachel puts it simply. People think dietitians just talk about food, and we can do so much more for you.

If you’ve been looking for a dietitian who asks how you’re actually doing, Rachel and the rest of our team accept most major insurance plans. Book your first session here.

The Snack Plate Rachel Can’t Stop Recommending

Ask Rachel for her favorite pregnancy snack and you’ll get a snack plate. Stay-at-home moms and working moms both love it.

• Olives
• Cheese
• A cracker you like
• A fruit
• A veggie

There’s almost nothing to prep, it covers your food groups, and it feels like a treat instead of a chore. Clients tell her it’s something they can actually show up for.

Her packaged pick is the yellow RXBAR, the Nut Butter & Oat bar with honey. She loves them, her clients love them, and the new snack bites at Costco are a hit in her house too.

Pregnancy Food Fears: Your Comfort Level Counts

The list of foods you “can’t” eat while pregnant stresses a lot of moms out. Soft cheeses, runny eggs, fish. Rachel hears the worry from friends and clients all the time.

Her starting point is comfort. If a food is going to keep you up at night, skip it. That’s okay.

She also points out that much of this guidance varies by country, and that in her view the science doesn’t back up every caution we hand out here. So if you love your eggs a little runny, she’d rather help you eat them comfortably than have you miss what they bring. One large egg has about 147 mg of choline, a nutrient that matters a lot for baby’s brain.

Talk it through with your provider, decide what feels right for you, and let the nutrients be part of the conversation, not only the fear.

As I said on the episode, it’s often the “safe” foods, like bagged lettuce, that end up in the recall news.

Your Iron Story Is More Than Hemoglobin

The second myth Rachel would love to retire: if your hemoglobin is normal, your iron is fine.

Hemoglobin and hematocrit can look okay while your iron stores are running low, and new guidelines from the American Society of Hematology now use ferritin, a measure of those stores, to diagnose iron deficiency in pregnancy. Those stores matter for how you feel, for baby’s brain development, and for how depleted or replenished you are going into postpartum.

So ask your provider about a full iron panel, including ferritin, not only hemoglobin. Then a dietitian can help you look at whether your food is covering what you need, and what else to bring up at your next appointment.

What Rachel Loves About This Work

For Rachel, nothing beats working with a client who has been aching to get pregnant, and then she does.

The world feels heavy right now. Helping people grow their families and feel good while they do it is her happy space.

Food stresses so many people out. She wants it to make your life easier, not harder.

Final Thoughts: Finding Your Dietitian Match

Every dietitian on our team brings something different. Rachel brings pediatric expertise, eating disorder and body image experience, a mom’s perspective, and a lot of brand recommendations (she’s my go-to for new finds).

If you’ve been looking for a prenatal dietitian for body image support, or any part of her story felt like yours, she might be your match. And if you’re not sure who to book with, that’s okay. We’ll help you find the right fit.

Not sure where to start with your pregnancy nutrition?

Take the free Pregnancy Nutrition Quiz and in about 3 minutes you’ll see what’s going well and where to start.