Why is a high-quality natural prenatal vitamin so essential? Medical research has repeatedly shown that adequate nutrition is essential to you and your baby's health, can prevent a host of pregnancy complications (such as toxemia), and will dramatically reduce the chance of malformations in your baby such as neural tube defects.

Approximately 90 percent of women take nutritional supplements. The quality of the vitamins you take makes a tremendous difference to you and your baby's well-being. Be sure to check labels carefully. Many over-the-counter prenatal vitamins lack the readily absorbable nutrients your body needs. You prenatal vitamin should be as natural and as easily absorbable as possible of you may not absorb all the nutrients you and your baby require - even if the required nutrients are listed on the bottle.

Throughout childbearing - from planning your pregnancy to the postpartum period - your requirements for a top quality prenatal vitamin should include all of the following:

* Consult your health care practitioner before using more than 18 mg. iron.

As odd as this may seem, some physicians recommend vitamins that don't contain adequate nutrients. This is because few physicians have adequate training in nutrition. So be sure to check the label yourself. If you have any doubt at all, don't hesitate to consult a health care practitioner who specialized in prenatal nutrition as do some midwives (like my daughter) and health adviser (like myself).  

The nutrients in your prenatal vitamin also must be in the right combination or they may do more harm than good. For example, when a health professional advises taking 1,000 mg. of calcium daily, he/she should also tell you to increase your magnesium since calcium and magnesium should be a 2:1 balance. The health professional should also advise you to take zinc and copper as increased calcium can inhibit the absorption of these important trace minerals. Minerals such as calcium must be boned with organic substances in order to be readily absorbed. For example, calcium carbonate and calcium citrate are more readily absorbed than most other forms of calcium supplements.

Most health care professional recommend iron supplementation. Yet organic forms of iron supplements such as ferrous sulfate may cause constipation. Iron fumarate or iron peptonate are far superior.

These are just a few examples. The point is: your prenatal vitamin must have all the necessary nutrients in the right balance to be effective.  Don't trust a vitamin simply because it says "prenatal" on the label. Check the ingredients.  From my 20 years experience in the health field, I find most natural vitamins companies which are the founders of health products such as: Twinlab, Nature's Plus, Nature's Way, and Nature's Life specialized in keeping up on all the new research in vitamins and mineral and the right combinations.

References

Alpers, D.A., M.D, Clouse, R.E., M.D. & Stenson, W.F., M.D., Manual of Nutritional Therapeutics, Little, Brown & Company, Boston, MA; 1984

Czeizel, Andrew E., M.D., D.Sc. and Istvan Dudas, M.D., Prevention of the First Occurrence of Neural Tube Defects by Periconceptional Vitamin Supplementation. The New England Journal of Medicine, 327:1832-5; 1992  

Heaney, Robert, P., M.D., et al, Absorbability of Calcium Sources: The Limited Role of Solubility. Calcified Tissue International, 46:300-304; 1990

Milunsky, Aubrey, MBBCh, DSc, FRCP, DCH, et al. Multivitamin/Folic Acid Supplementation in Early Pregnancy Reduces the Prevalence of Neural Tube Defects. Journal of the American Medical Association, 262(20):2847-52:1989.

Mowrey, Daniel, B., Ph.D., The Scientific Validation of Herbal Medicine, Keats Publishing Company, New Canaan, CT, 1986.

Olson, James A., Ph.D., editor, Present Knowledge in Nutrition, International Life Sciences Institution-Nutrition Foundation, Washington, D.C.; 1990

Recommended Dietary Allowances, Tenth Revised Edition, FNB/NAS, 1989.   

 

Books

Mind Over Labor and Breastfeeding Your Baby by Carl Jones