While we have long known the importance of a healthy diet during pregnancy, we are learning increasingly that your diet even before you conceive can make a difference in the health of your baby. Before you conceive, talk with your obstetrician about the kinds and amounts of foods you should eat, and how a B-complex vitamin supplement might benefit you.
Types
Vitamin B1 (thiamin or thiamine), vitamin B3 (niacin) and vitamin B12 (cobalamin) are needed for development of your baby's organs, brain and nervous system. Vitamin B2 (riboflavin) helps your baby grow. Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid) helps your baby grow and may help you avoid anemia. Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) may help you conceive, prevent early miscarriage and tame nausea as well as helping your baby avoid certain birth defects. Vitamin B9 (folic acid or folate) helps prevent certain birth defects.
Folic Acid
At least one month before you become pregnant (preferably three), you should consume 400mcg of folic acid daily, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Consume enough folic acid, and the CDC says you decrease the risk of your unborn baby having certain birth defects that affect the spine and brain by 50 to 70 percent. Because so many pregnancies are unplanned, it is a good idea for all women of childbearing age to make sure they get enough folic acid every day.
Nausea
They call it "morning sickness," but any pregnant women will quickly tell you that during pregnancy, nausea doesn't play by the rules. If ginger tea and saltine crackers aren't helping, talk with your doctor about taking supplemental vitamin B6. According to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), research supports that taking supplemental vitamin B6, with or without doxylamine, is not only safe, but so effective at reducing nausea and vomiting that it should be considered the first step in anti-nausea treatment.
Conception and Miscarriage
In a clinical study published in 2007, researchers Ronnenberg et al. found that women who were deficient in vitamin B6 were less likely to conceive and more likely to have an early miscarriage when they did conceive. The study, published in the "American Journal of Epidemiology," was based on observations of more than 300 Chinese women for more than 1 year.
Congenital Heart Defects
In mothers-to-be with certain genetic predispositions, a deficiency of vitamin B12 at conception and during early pregnancy may increase the chance that the baby will suffer from a congenital heart defect, according to research published in 2008 in the journal "Molecular Genetics and Metabolism." Researchers Verkleij-Hagoort et al. studied more than 400 children and their mothers to reach their conclusions. Your obstetrician can advise you about genetic counseling as well as prenatal vitamins.
Supplementation Safety
B-complex vitamins are essential to your health, and to your baby's health. You can get enough of most of the B-complex vitamins from your diet except vitamins B6, folic acid and B12. However, it can be dangerous to consume excessive amounts of vitamins; excessive vitamin B3 during the first trimester, for example, may cause birth defects. Talk with your doctor about the right prenatal vitamin for you both before conception, during pregnancy and during lactation.
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