If you're pregnant and taking prenatal vitamins, you may have noticed that the vitamins increase your likelihood of experiencing stomach discomfort or upset. Unfortunately, pregnancy itself can cause a host of gastric and intestinal symptoms, and pregnancy vitamins merely exacerbate these complaints. There are a few things that you can do to try to relieve discomfort.
Stomach Upset
During pregnancy, hormones cause your digestive tract to slow down significantly. The benefit of this, explain Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazel in their book "What To Expect When You're Expecting," is that it helps you extract all the nutrients from your food. Unfortunately, however, a slow digestive tract can lead to a number of uncomfortable symptoms, including stomach ache, heartburn, gas, indigestion and nausea. Most pregnant women experience some form of stomach discomfort during pregnancy.
Prenatal Vitamins
Many obstetricians recommend that their pregnant patients use prenatal vitamins during pregnancy. The vitamins have much in common with regular women's daily multivitamins, except that they contain high levels of a few particular vitamins and minerals. Of particular relevance, prenatal vitamins contain 50% more iron than normal multivitamins for non-pregnant women, explain Drs. Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz in their book "You: Having A Baby."
Iron
The iron in prenatal vitamins tends to further slow a pregnant woman's digestive tract. This can cause nausea, upset stomach, and many symptoms of stomach discomfort that are quite similar to those associated with pregnancy itself. Particularly if you find that you experience increased stomach discomfort in the hours directly after taking your prenatal vitamin, many of your symptoms are likely due to the iron in the vitamin, note Drs. Roizen and Oz.
Prevention/Solution
There are a few things you can do to try to avoid prenatal vitamin-related stomach discomfort. You might ask your obstetrician whether you can break your pill in half and take half in the morning, half in the evening -- sometimes decreasing the quantity of iron in the stomach all at once helps. You can also try soothing ginger candy or tea -- ginger relieves nausea and stomach upset from a variety of causes, note Murkoff and Mazel.
Warning
Even if you find that nothing really eases your symptoms, don't stop taking your prenatal vitamin without talking to your obstetrician first. The pill contains many essential vitamins and minerals that both you and your baby need to stay healthy during pregnancy. Without sufficient iron, you can become anemic, warn Drs. Roizen and Oz. Without sufficient folic acid, another crucial prenatal ingredient, your baby doesn't have the fuel it needs to produce the brain and spinal cord.
References
- "What to Expect When You're Expecting;" Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazel; 2008
- "You: Having A Baby;" Michael Roizen, M.D. and Mehmet Oz, M.D.; 2009
Member Comments