While many women take prenatal vitamins without any difficulty whatsoever, for some women, the vitamins can cause digestive upset. If you've found that your prenatal irritates your stomach, causes gas and bloating or causes you discomfort, you may wish to discuss some other alternatives with your obstetrician -- there are several alternatives you can try.
Prenatal Vitamins
Prenatal vitamins contain a variety of vitamins and minerals. They're similar in composition to daily multivitamins, but have particularly high levels of certain key ingredients. If you're having trouble with your prenatals, it's most likely the high levels of iron that are causing you difficulty, explain Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazel in their book "What To Expect When You're Expecting." Iron can slow and irritate the already sensitive digestive tract of a pregnant woman.
Options
While you'll need to talk to your obstetrician before you make a decision or change your prenatal vitamin, there are a few things you can try if your vitamins cause you trouble. Some women benefit from breaking their vitamin into two parts, and consuming them at different times of day. This ensures you're getting the full dose of your vitamin, but it doesn't overwhelm your system with all the iron at once. Alternately, you can try changing brands -- some brands seem to cause more trouble than others, and it varies by individual.
Other Alternatives
If you've tried several different prenatals and you're still having trouble, your obstetrician may allow you to take a regular multivitamin rather than a prenatal. Regular vitamins contain much less iron -- while it varies by brand, they have no more than 18 g of iron, compared to the 27 g in a prenatal. Your obstetrician will likely monitor your blood carefully if you're not on a prenatal to ensure that you don't become anemic, which results from iron deficiency.
Important Considerations
If you opt to use a regular multivitamin instead of a dedicated prenatal to reduce gastric symptoms, you should take supplemental folic acid, so that you're still getting 800 to 1000 mcg of folic acid each day, explain Drs. Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz in their book "You: Having A Baby." Your developing baby uses folic acid to form the neural tube, which eventually becomes the brain and spinal cord. Daily multivitamins don't have enough folic acid to support a healthy pregnancy.
References
- "What to Expect When You're Expecting"; Heidi Murkoff, et al.; 2008
- "You: Having A Baby"; Michael Roizen, M.D., et al.; 2009
