Here are the crucial prenatal vitamins essential for new moms
When you’re not pregnant, it’s a good idea to take vitamins to cover for any nutritional gaps in your diet that you might have. When you are pregnant, it’s not just a good idea that you take these vitamins, it’s imperative that you do.
In an ideal world, you should start taking prenatal vitamins about a month before you conceive, and then all the way through your pregnancy, but the important thing is to start as soon as possible because of the crucial development that your baby will have in the first month.
With that in mind, here is a list of crucial vitamins that all moms to be should look for when choosing your prenatal vitamins!
Folic Acid (Folate)
It’s recommended that you have at least 600 micrograms of folic acid per day in your supplement. Folic acid helps protect your baby from neural tube defects like spina bifida, which would leave them permanently disabled. The most important time to take folic acid is during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, but you should take it as part of a supplement for the full term.
Iron
The iron recommendation for women is 14.8mg a day if you’re not pregnant, but this goes up to 30mg a day for when you’re in your third trimester
Iron helps your body make more blood, which helps to move oxygen around your body, and to your baby. If you don’t have enough iron then you could be at risk of developing a condition called iron deficiency anemia, which could cause your baby to be born too small or too early.
Calcium
Calcium is another vital mineral that you should be taking all the way through your pregnancy, but also before and after too. Calcium helps the development of your baby in a lot of ways, from helping to build strong teeth and bones, to helping them develop a normal heart rhythm and normal blood-clotting abilities.
Taking calcium is just as important for you as it is for your baby since if you don’t get enough calcium in your diet, it will be drawn out from your bones which could lead to health problems later in life
Vitamin D
One of the most important vitamins to take during pregnancy, vitamin D is important for not only the healthy bone development of your baby, but also for your own calcium and phosphorus absorption.
There are also links between healthy vitamin D levels and reduced chances of some cancers, neurological disease, heart disease and autoimmune diseases. So, make sure you’re hitting that recommended dosage of 6000IU per day.
Vitamin A
Vitamin A is important in developing your babies skin, eyes and immune system, but too much can have the reverse effect, so you need to be careful when supplementing your diet with vitamin A.
The risk of vitamin A deficiency is at its highest in the third trimester, which is when you need to increase your intake, but it’s when your baby is born that you really need to up the vitamin A supplements. While you’re pregnant you should be aiming for 100 micrograms per day
Vitamin C
The recommended limit of vitamin C for women aged 19 and older is 2000mg, but the recommended amount is only 85mg.
Vitamin C is essential in the body’s production of collagen, a protein that helps to create bones, skin, cartilage and tendons. You probably don’t need to take a vitamin C supplement, as you can probably ingest enough by making good decisions about your diet.
Pyridoxine
You might have heard of pyridoxine called vitamin B6, but regardless of the name it is a vital pregnancy supplement.
Vitamin B6 helps to develop your baby’s brain and nervous system, as well as aiding them in metabolizing carbohydrates and protein.
Early research is also showing that supplementing your diet with it can help to relieve nausea and vomiting in pregnant women, but nobody is quite sure why yet. Either way, make sure that you’re getting your 1.9mg a day!
Vitamin B12
New research is suggesting that vitamin B12 is just as important as folic acid in preventing neural tube defects in your baby, but as many as one out of every twenty adults is vitamin B12 deficient.
Vitamin B12 is essential for producing red blood cells and helping the nervous system function.
Omega-3 Fatty Acids
Omega-3 helps the development of your baby’s eyes and brain. Your brain is made of roughly 60% fats, and 1/3 of those should be made up of omega-3 fatty acids.
Research is also suggesting that omega-3 can reduce the chances of your baby developing asthma, allergies or eczema.
Fish is a great source of omega-3, but since eating too much fish could expose your baby to harmful chemicals like mercury, get on those fish oil tablets!
It may seem like you need to take every vitamin supplement in the world to get all the nutrients that your baby will need, but you’ll be able to get a lot of these in your diet. Try the very best and on discount Prenatal Multi + DHA for complete care of your pregnant body. Also, consult medical professional before you decide what supplements to use to help your baby come into the world happy and healthy!
