Prenatal Vitamins

[xamystarzx]

I am not currently pregnant but hope to be in the next year or so. With my last pregnancy I started taking my prenatals before I got pregnant so I would be used to them, and would have my reserve of folic acid built up. The specific vitamin I took last time gave me a number of side effects, nausea, sleep problems, etc

Comments

[indigodreamer]

I can't answer your nutritional questions (hopefully someone else can), but I will say that I'm also very sensitive to multi-vitamins (and was even moreso when pregnant), but I responded really well to Stuart prenatals. It took me several tries to find them, but my doctor recommended them as one that some people are more able to tolerate.

Target has a generic version that's only a few dollars a bottle (Target doesn't sell the brand, but the Up&Up brand is the generic of Stuart).

[sourbaroness]

i just took a folic acid supplement (400 micrograms/tablet)for the last 5 months (i'm 15w today). and a once a week calcium/magnesium supplement if i wasn't meeting my dairy/calcium requirement through food.

my midwife has said (in my notes from her) i can stop taking the folic acid now that i am out of my first trimester. i will talk to her about it again in two weeks - i will continue taking it at least until then.

[arylkin]

I had good luck with Twinlab's prenatal vitamin. You might want to check out fitday.com- it has a neat thing where you can add in the foods you eat and it measures the specific vitamins from the foods you eat.

Why I think prenatals are so important is that often women are sick during pregnancy (I have horrible morning sickness for months) so at least I knew I was at least getting some vitamins from the prenatal, even if I could hardly stomach anything other than a few crackers. Many women are also low in iron during pregnancy- Floradix is a great iron supplement to try.

[ewigweibliche]

I would avoid prenatals then, just adding a folic acid supplement and sticking with your vit c and b. If you're eating a well-balanced diet, you shouldn't have too many gaps to fill.

[curbbrat]

This. Women managed to make babies for over 250K years without prenatals, if you are eating well and making sure to consume good sources of folic acid you should be fine. I think it's funny how the government insists vitamins aren't necessarily any good, 'cause there's no real research, but then insist women must take prenatals to have a healthy baby. Hmmmm.

[wolfden]

I just took folic acid. Prenatals made me super sick (and I already had hyperemesis) so they just had me stop them.

[xamystarzx]

Even with hyperemesis they didn't want you to take them? Did they have you on an IV or anything, because that seems like proof enough that they aren't all that necessary!