Prenatal Vitamins

The stick turned blue! Which means you are pregnant, and a trip to the doctor has confirmed the fact that you are soon going to be a mommy and have your own bundle of joy. The doctor has asked you to take care, be happy and have prenatal vitamins. This is when you start asking questions:

What are prenatal vitamins?
Pregnant women have been advised to take prenatal vitamins for their own health and the health and development of the unborn child. These are multivitamins specially created for absorption during pregnancy when the chances of nutritional deficiencies are high. Women should remember that prenatal vitamins are supplements and not substitutes to a normal and healthy diet. Though these prenatal vitamins are considered to be multivitamins, the focus is on folic acid, iron and calcium content.

Why are these prenatal vitamins so essential?
So we already established the fact that prenatal vitamins are multivitamins but with high levels of folic acid, iron and calcium. This brings us to the role and importance of folic acid, iron and calcium.

Folic Acid – this is extremely important as it can prevent birth defects in the baby especially defects of the brain and spinal cord. Such a birth defect of the brain or spinal cord is commonly called neural tube or spina bifida. This is a condition where the spine is not close leaving exposed nerves to get damaged, which can lead to paralysis, incontinence and mental retardation. Neural tube birth defects start after 4 weeks of conception and this period is even before most women realizing they are pregnant. To prevent neural tube defects it has been suggested that women take 400 micrograms of folic acid each day from the time they become sexually active. And once pregnancy is determined up to 4000mg of folic acid should be take in the first trimester.

Calcium – the fetus absorbs calcium from the mother for its own bone growth, this can lead to severe complications and osteoporosis in the mother, this can be prevented by ingesting calcium.

Iron – we all know iron is important in transporting oxygen in the body. While women are pregnant they need extra iron for themselves and the baby.

What should prenatal vitamins contain?
No two brands of prenatal vitamins are going to be the same. But what is important is that they have certain vitamins and minerals in certain quantities.
These are:

• 5000 IU of Vitamin A.
• 1000 mcg or 1mg of Folic Acid.
• 400 IU of Vitamin D.
• 300mg of Calcium.
• 70mg of Vitamin C.
• 1.5mg of Thiamine or Vitamin B1.
• 1.6mg of Riboflaxin or Vitamin B2.
• 2.6mg of Pyridoxine or Vitamin B6.
• 17mg of Niacinamide or Vitamin B3.
• 2.2mcg of Vitamin B12.
• 10mg of Vitamin E.
• 15mg of Zinc.
• 30mg of Iron.

What are the side effects of Prenatal Vitamins?

Most prenatal vitamins do not have any sort of side effects. But some women may experience nausea when they first start taking them, but this will stop after a while. But if these do not stop soon you need to consult with you doctor to either change the prescription or to determine the problem.