If you're actively trying to conceive, it may be worthwhile to consider starting prenatal vitamins during the pre-conception period. This is because the pills contain a mixture of vitamins and minerals that help support a healthy pregnancy, and you can benefit from having plenty of these nutrients in your body when you become pregnant.
Prenatal Vitamins
Prenatal vitamins contain a mixture of micronutrients -- vitamins and minerals -- in the amounts that you need to support a healthy pregnancy. During pregnancy, you need some vitamins and minerals in the same amounts you required before you became pregnant. Other nutrients, however, become particularly important -- and you need them in larger quantities. This is especially true of folic acid and iron.
Benefits Prior to Conception
Of all the vitamins and minerals in prenatal supplement pills, perhaps the most important during the pre-conception period is folic acid. Early in embryonic development -- around five or six weeks of gestation -- a structure called the neural tube is forming. This goes on to become the brain and spinal cord, and proper formation requires plenty of folic acid. Taking prenatal vitamins before you conceive helps ensure you have adequate amounts of the vitamin in your body.
Pre-conception Drawbacks
While you'll need the extra iron in prenatal vitamins -- 27 mg, as compared to 18 mg in most daily multivitamins -- for your second and third trimesters of pregnancy, you don't need that much iron before you get pregnant or during your first trimester. The large quantity of iron can actually make your digestive tract slow down, leading to nausea and constipation. This is one of the major drawbacks of taking prenatal vitamins before you conceive.
Safety
If you're concerned as to whether it's safe to take prenatal vitamins before you conceive, you needn't worry. Dietician Katherine Zeratsky notes on MayoClinic.com that as long as you're healthy, you're not likely to have a problem with the extra iron -- or anything else -- in prenatal vitamins.
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
- MayoClinic.com; Prenatal Vitamins: OK for Women Who Aren't Pregnant?; Katherine Zeratsky; August 2009
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