Maintaining a healthy diet during pregnancy is among the best ways a mother can care for her unborn child. According to MayoClinic.com, even the best diets may not provide all the essential nutrients mother and baby need. Prenatal vitamins are formulated to meet the nutritional needs of women during pregnancy. They often contain greater amounts of the necessary vitamins and minerals for childbearing women and can help fill in nutritional gaps, reducing the risks of serious abnormalities. Women should talk to their doctors about the benefits of prenatal vitamins.
Strong Teeth and Bones
Most women over the age of 19 don't get the recommended daily amount of calcium -- 1,000 milligrams, according to KidsHealth. During pregnancy, women require even more calcium to accommodate their growing babies. Calcium not only promotes strong teeth and bones, it also helps the circulatory muscular and nervous systems run normally. Aside from filling up on foods rich in calcium, such as low fat dairy, dark green vegetables and calcium-fortified products, women can take prenatal vitamins, which provide a additional calcium.
Prevents Anemia
Iron, a mineral that transports oxygen from the lungs to the cells, is required for oxygen storage within the muscles. Iron deficiency is the most common form of nutritional deficiency, and is most prevalent in pregnant women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. During pregnancy, women need approximately 30 milligrams of iron daily. To avoid iron deficiencies, which may affect the behavior and development of babies, women can take a prenatal vitamin and eat iron-rich foods such as red meats, dark green leafy vegetables and enriched grains.
Reduces Risks of Defects
Greater amounts of folic acid, a type of B vitamin, are recommended for childbearing women, approximately 400 micrograms. Folic acid is essential to a properly developed neural tube -- the structure that develops in a baby's spine and brain. Because the neural tube is formed early in pregnancy, women who take prenatal vitamins that provide adequate amounts of folic acid a month prior to and during the first few months of their pregnancy may decrease the risks of neural tube defects by up to 70 percent, according to KidsHealth.
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