When you're pregnant, your body is working hard to support a growing baby while still performing all the functions necessary to support your own health. Because of this, you now need even more nutrients than you needed before you became pregnant. Since it's difficult to get all the nutrition you need from food alone while pregnant, experts at MayoClinic.com suggest you purchase prenatal vitamins and take them daily.
Support Baby's Brain and Spinal Development
A key ingredient in prenatal vitamins is folic acid, also known as folate. This vital nutrient helps prevent neural tube defects that cause severe abnormalities to your baby's developing brain and spinal cord. BabyCenter reports that taking 400 mcg of folic acid daily at least one month before becoming pregnant and 600 mcg of folic acid daily during pregnancy may reduce the risk of your baby suffering from neural tube defects by as much as 70 percent. Most prenatal vitamins contain between 600 mcg and 1000 mcg of folic acid, says BabyCenter.
Maintain Healthy Iron Supply
Iron is another important ingredient in prenatal vitamins. Iron helps your body make the red blood cells it needs. If you don't get enough iron while pregnant, you may suffer from anemia -- a lack of healthy red blood cells -- which impairs your body's ability to create healthy blood and muscle cells for both you and your baby. Your body needs to make more blood while you're pregnant than it did before pregnancy, because your growing baby requires a large blood supply. This means it's easy for the supply of iron that your blood stores to become depleted during pregnancy. BabyCenter recommends that pregnant women take at least 27 mg of iron per day. Most prenatal vitamins contain between 27 and 60 mg of iron.
Promote Fetal Growth and Birth Weight
Taking prenatal vitamins helps promote your unborn baby's healthy growth, increasing his or her chances of being born at a normal weight. The National Women's Health Information Center reports that babies born to mothers who haven't taken prenatal vitamins or received any other prenatal care are three times more likely to be underweight and five times more likely to die than babies born to mothers who did take prenatal vitamins and received other prenatal care, such as regular doctor visits.
Member Comments