If you're like most pregnant women, your doctor has probably advised you to use prenatal vitamins during your pregnancy. It can be hard to remember to take your prenatal every day, particularly if you're not used to taking a daily vitamin or pill. Depending on the circumstances, inconsistency with prenatal vitamin use may or may not affect your pregnancy.
Prenatal Vitamins
A prenatal vitamin shares much in common with a regular daily multivitamin. It includes the key vitamins and minerals that you need to support body and cell function. The major difference between prenatals and regular multivitamins, however, is that prenatals include much higher quantities of certain key vitamins and minerals. Regular multivitamins for women include 18 mg of iron. Prenatals typically contain around 27 mg, explain Drs. Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz in their book "You: Having A Baby." Prenatals also contain large quantities of folic acid.
Purpose of Prenatals
A prenatal vitamin serves as insurance--it can be hard to get all the vitamins and minerals you and your developing baby need to support a healthy pregnancy from food alone. This is particularly true if you experience morning sickness or food aversions, which commonly occur in early pregnancy, explain Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazel in their book "What To Expect When You're Expecting."
Prenatal Use
Ideally, you should take your prenatal vitamin daily. While fat-soluble vitamins like A, D, E and K accumulate in your system, water-soluble vitamins, including vitamin C and the B-vitamins, do not. As such, you need to consume them regularly. Folic acid, for instance, is a B-vitamin that your baby uses to produce the neural tube, which eventually becomes the brain and spinal cord, explain Drs. Roizen and Oz.
Inconsistency
Occasionally forgetting to take a prenatal vitamin isn't likely to negatively impact either you or the baby. Remember, women had been having healthy babies long before prenatals were invented or recommended. Still, the less consistently you take your vitamin, the more likely you are to experience vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Drs. Roizen and Oz note that one critical deficiency that often arises in late pregnancy is anemia in the pregnant mother, which results from lack of iron.
Prevention/Solution
You may wish to try taking your prenatal vitamin at the same time each day. For instance, if you put your pills next to your toothbrush or on your nightstand, you'll see them when you go to bed or rise each morning, which can help prevent you from forgetting. If you do forget to take the pills, however, do not try to make up for it by taking a double dose the next day--some vitamins are toxic in large quantities, explain Murkoff and Mazel.
References
- "You: Having A Baby"; Michael Roizen, M.D. and Mehmet Oz, M.D.; 2009
- "What to Expect When You're Expecting"; Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazel; 2008
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