If you are trying to conceive a child, are pregnant or are breastfeeding your baby, you should be taking prenatal vitamins. You may feel that swallowing a prenatal vitamin, which tend to be large, is the last thing you want to do every day. Many women feel the same way, especially during pregnancy, when your stomach is sensitive and you aren't feeling your best. During these times, it is actually more important that you remember to take your vitamin to help you create and sustain a developing baby.
When They Are Necessary
You should take prenatal vitamins if you are pregnant, trying to get pregnant or breastfeeding because your body has different needs during these times. When you are trying to conceive a child, taking a prenatal can help you build a foundation of nutrients for a healthy pregnancy and may reduce your bouts with nausea and vomiting during the first trimester of pregnancy. Throughout pregnancy, prenatal vitamins provide you and your baby the vitamins and minerals necessary for growth, development and health. You definitely need the extra support of prenatal vitamins if you smoke, are a vegetarian or vegan, are having multiple babies, have food intolerances, blood disorders or chronic diseases, or if you've had gastric bypass surgery. While breastfeeding, taking prenatals ensures that you get the vitamins and minerals your body needs to produce breast milk and remain healthy. Eating a balanced diet to get these nutrients can be difficult when taking care of a new baby.
Vitamins and Minerals
Your body and your baby need more vitamins and minerals than you can most likely get from your diet. Prenatal vitamins contain very specific nutrients that your body and baby require. Folic acid in prenatal vitamins is in a different form than folic acid obtained from food and helps prevent defects such as anencephaly, cleft lip, cleft palate, some heart defects and spina bifida. The iron in prenatal vitamins helps prevent anemia and preterm delivery. Postpartum, iron helps restore the large amounts of blood you have lost. The vitamin A in prenatal vitamins should come from beta carotene, since the vitamin A from animal products can cause birth defects. Most prenatal vitamins account for this by limiting the amount of vitamin A they contain, as well as making sure that some or all of the vitamin A is from a more-tolerable and less-dangerous source, beta carotene. Other beneficial vitamins and minerals in prenatal vitamins are vitamin B6, which may help prevent morning sickness; zinc and manganese, which may increase fertility; and iodine to help your baby's thyroid develop properly.
Types
There are hundreds of prenatal vitamins on the market. You should consider what's most important to you -- whether it's cost, digestibility or vitamins that are easy to swallow. There are vitamins made out of whole foods that won't upset your stomach and don't have to be taken with meals. There are also vitamins that are very affordable, usually store brand, if the investment is more than you were expecting. You can purchase liquid prenatal vitamins if swallowing pills is a problem. There are also chewable prenatal vitamins, usually made available by prescription from your doctor.
Additional Supplements
Even if you take a prenatal, your doctor may decide you need additional supplementation. For example, some prenatal vitamins contain very small amounts of calcium, even though it's recommended you get 1,000 mg each day. If you don't ingest enough calcium in your diet, you may need to add a calcium supplement to your vitamin regimen. While most prenatal vitamins contain 30 to 40 mg iron, you may require an additional iron supplement if you are anemic or develop anemia during your pregnancy. You may want to add essential fatty acids and vitamin D to your supplements as well, since prenatal vitamins don't contain them and they can be very beneficial for your health and your baby's development. Talk with your doctor about these additional supplements.
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