Your body changes significantly during pregnancy, particularly in the early months. As a result, you may experience a number of uncomfortable physical symptoms. Furthermore, prenatal vitamins can exacerbate some of these symptoms, particularly constipation, thereby increasing pregnancy-related discomfort. Thankfully, there are a few things you can do to mitigate vitamin-related constipation.
Constipation and Pregnancy
During pregnancy, even if you're not taking prenatal vitamins, you're likely to experience constipation to one degree or another. This, explain Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazel in their book "What To Expect When You're Expecting," is because hormones that you produce early in pregnancy slow down your digestive tract, helping you to extract more nutrition from your food. Your slow-moving gut, however, eliminates waste more slowly than usual, leading to backups, bloating and irregularity.
Prenatal Vitamins
In addition to normal pregnancy-related constipation, many pregnant women experience exacerbated symptoms due to prenatal vitamin use. Prenatal vitamins, which help ensure that you and your developing baby are both getting the nutrients you need to thrive, contain large quantities of iron. The iron irritates and further slows the digestive tract, leading to a host of symptoms including nausea, bloating, gas and constipation, explain Drs. Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz in their book "You: Having A Baby."
Preventative Measures
There are a few things you can do to try to mitigate the effects of iron on your digestive tract. Drinking plenty of water helps keep your gut moving a little more efficiently, and also lubricates the intestine. Also, eating a diet that incorporates plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables as well as whole grains--foods that contain plenty of fiber--can help, since fiber also improves gut function and regularity.
Other Options
If you continue to struggle with constipation, don't stop taking your prenatal vitamin without talking to your obstetrician; the vitamin is important to your pregnancy health. Your doctor may recommend switching brands of vitamins; some women find that some brands bother them less than others. Alternately, your doctor may prescribe a prenatal that contains slow-release iron, which is less likely to cause symptoms. If all else fails, you can discuss the option of breaking your vitamin in half and taking the two parts at different times of day, thereby avoiding the consumption of a large quantity of iron all at once.
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
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