If you have recently discovered that you are pregnant, congratulations! With planning for a new addition to your family, prenatal vitamins might be the last thing on your mind.

Prenatal vitamins are specially formulated multivitamins that make up for any nutritional deficiencies in the mother’s diet – making sure that you and your baby are getting what you need, even when factors like nausea and indigestion might affect your diet.

What Do Pregnant Women Need?

Pregnant women need iron, folic acid, and calcium. Most supplements contains many other vitamins and nutrients, but these are the most important.

Iron
Helping the mother and baby’s blood carry oxygen, iron is an important part of your prenatal care. A common issue with taking high dosages of iron is the fact that it causes constipation, which is already a problem for many pregnant women.

You should look for a supplement that contains 17 mg of iron. If you find that it is still causing problems, you can talk to your doctor about trying a prenatal vitamin that is gentler on the stomach.

Folic Acid
Perhaps the most important ingredients, folic acid can reduce your risk of having a baby with a serious birth defect of the brain and spinal cord, called the ‘neural tube.’ The most common defect of this kind is spina bifida.

These defects develop in the first 28 days after conception, before many women realize that they are pregnant. Because about half of all pregnancies are unplanned, the Department of Health recommends that you take 400 micrograms of folic acid each day while you are trying to conceive, and should continue taking this dose for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

Calcium
Calcium during pregnancy can prevent a new mother from losing her own bone density, as the fetus uses the mineral for bone growth. The best prenatal vitamins contain about 200-300 mg of calcium.

Problems with Prenatal Vitamins

Pregnancy is a different experience for every woman, and some find that their nausea prevents them from being able to swallow a prenatal vitamin and keep it down. One possible solution is to take the vitamin right before bed.

If that doesn’t seem to quell the nausea, you should talk to your doctor about possibly getting a prescription prenatal vitamin, designed to be gentler on the stomach. This could also be a solution if a high-iron prenatal vitamin is preventing regularity.

Conclusion

If you are smart about picking your prenatal vitamin, you should be able to find something that is kind to your body, beneficial for your baby, and will give you some peace of mind during this exciting, yet stressful time.