The importance of pregnancy vitamins
What are pregnancy vitamins?
When pregnant, it is sometimes difficult for you to get needed nutrients and vitamins in your body, pregnancy vitamins help to restore any missing nutrients making your body healthier. Pregnancy vitamins provide you with folic acid to prevent abnormalities in the baby’s brain and spinal cord. It is recommended by doctors that you take folic acid three months before you give birth to ensure there are no neural tube defects. Pregnancy vitamins also help increase your iron levels which is important in the development of the placenta and fetus. Iron is especially important in helping your body to make blood which helps give the fetus oxygen to survive and grow. It is also a powerful vitamin which prevents anemia where the blood has few healthy red blood cells.
Which are the most effective pregnancy vitamins?
It is easy for you to access pregnancy vitamins in any pharmacy but your doctor may prescribe you a specific type or brand that you need to take. As well as folic acid and iron you should take pregnancy vitamins that contain calcium or vitamin D which help strengthen the baby’s bones and teeth. However, depending on your circumstances your doctor may prescribe you higher doses of certain vitamins. In some cases a child may be born with a neural tube defect and so the mothers have to be prescribed a higher amount of folic acid before any other pregnancies. You should never take extra prenatal vitamins unless you are recommended to be a professional doctor as this can sometimes be harmful to your body and more importantly your baby. Omega 3 fatty acids are also an important vitamin for a baby’s development. This vitamin is usually found in many types of fish, so if fish isn’t a big part of your diet your doctor may recommend you taking omega 3 fatty acid supplements rather than pregnancy vitamins as they help your baby’s brain to develop efficiently.
What are the side effects of pregnancy vitamins?
One of the only side effects of iron in pregnancy vitamins is that it can cause constipation but this can easily be prevented. To avoid this side effect you should ensure you drink plenty of water every day, have more fiber foods in your diet and try to include more physical activity in your daily life to build up your fitness as long as your doctors approve and recommend of this as a lot of physical activity may be quite dangerous if your heavily pregnant.
When to start taking pregnancy vitamins?
It would be ideal to start taking pregnancy vitamins before you conceive but it is understandable if you do not as you are not yet a mother. It would also be a good idea for women of a reproductive age to take pregnancy vitamins as regularly as possible. It is more important to take pregnancy vitamins at the start of your pregnancy as the baby’s brain and spinal cord develop in the first month of pregnancy.
