Prenatal vitamins contains a variety of vitamins and minerals to help your baby get the nutrients essential for healthy development. During pregnancy, a woman’s daily needs for certain nutrients, such as folic acid (folate), calcium, and iron will increase. Vitamins and minerals such as iron, calcium, and folic acid are essential for proper growth, development, and healthy adult living.
To help increase your chances of creating a healthy and nutritious environment in which your baby can thrive, it’s important that you establish a balanced diet and exercise routine before you become pregnant. If you choose to supplement your diet with prenatal vitamins, be sure to track the daily amount you take and inform your healthcare provider.
Choosing Your Prenatal Vitamins
As a society we are led to believe that taking prenatal vitamins during pregnancy will provide all the nutrients needed for a happy and healthy birth outcome. Although most prenatal vitamins provide calcium, vitamin A, vitamin B1 (thiamine), vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid), vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), vitamin B7 (biotin), vitamin B9 (folic acid) or folate , vitamin B12 (cobalamin), vitamin C, vitamin E and vitamin D, there are three critical nutrients that your prenatal may be deficient in, or completely missing. In other words, there is no such thing as a “perfect” prenatal vitamin that can meet all your prenatal needs.
Vitamin D Supports a Healthy Pregnancy
It’s common knowledge that vitamin D benefits our bone, brain, cardiovascular, immune, metabolic, and respiratory health, but did you know that vitamin D is also critical for maintaining a healthy pregnancy? Emerging research strongly links vitamin D to a reduced risk of pregnancy complications including preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, preterm birth, and C-section delivery. Unfortunately, research also indicates that an estimated 33% of pregnant women in the US do not get enough vitamin D.
Most prenatal vitamins contain vitamin D within a range of 400 IU (10 mcg) to 1,000 IU (25 mcg). These values may not be sufficient. In a study examining the vitamin D levels of women who consumed a prenatal supplement with 600 IU/day and two glasses of vitamin D fortified milk, researchers found that 76% of mothers and 81 % of newborns are vitamin D deficient (levels <20). of/mL). This raises the question - how much vitamin D do you need to increase your levels? In a study comparing doses of 400, 2000 and 4000 IU/day in pregnant women from early pregnancy (12 – 16 weeks) delivery, the researchers found that 4000 IU was the most effective in safely increasing blood levels of vitamin D. Does this mean that every pregnant woman needs 4000 IU of vitamin D? Not exact. The best thing to do is get your vitamin D levels checked and talk to your doctor about what dose is right for you.
Choline Benefits in Pregnancy and More
Choline doesn’t get a lot of attention, but it’s a nutrient with many impressive, long-term benefits, making it a indispensable part of prenatal vitamins. For example, Higher maternal choline intakes have been shown to reduce the risk of neural tube defects (independent of folate intake) while also improving cognition and lowering circulating cortisol levels. This is significant because lowering a baby’s cortisol production can, over the course of their life, reduce their risk of certain stress-related disorders. In terms of cognitive improvement, research has found that children who received extra choline in utero showed higher attention span, memory, and problem solving at age seven.
For the mother, the benefits of increasing choline intake are associated with a reduced risk of certain complications during pregnancy and an increase in placental and liver function during pregnancy. The benefits of choline during pregnancy make it a nutrient you’ll want to make sure is on the supplement facts panel of your prenatal vitamin.
Although the recommended Adequate Intake (AI) of choline for pregnant women is 450 mg/d, studies show that only 10% of pregnant women in the US actually meet the AI. Partly to blame for this is that many prenatal vitamins lack adequate choline support. A recent study examining the top 25 prenatal vitamins found that none contained the daily recommended intake of choline for a pregnant woman, and more than half had none at all. To help remedy this, make sure you consume enough choline through your diet, and supplement as needed.
If you aim to get your choline from food first, one of the highest sources of choline is eggs. The egg yolk is where the choline lives (about 147 mg per egg yolk), so you won’t get your choline from an egg white omelet.
See the chart below for more sources of choline and their amounts. You will notice that Animal sources contain the greatest amount of cholineso vegans and vegetarians have a greater risk of developing choline deficiency. Therefore, it is very important that vegans and some vegetarians supplement with choline during pregnancy.
| Food Source | Choline (mg) |
| Beef liver, fried 3 oz | 356 |
| The yolk, large | 147 |
| Beef, 3 oz. lean top round braised | 117 |
| Ground beef, 3 oz. cooked | 85 |
| Pork tenderloin, 3 oz. cooked | 83 |
| Salmon, 3 oz. | 77 |
| Cod, baked 3oz | 71 |
| Chicken breast, 3oz. | 65 |
| Shiitake mushrooms, 1/2 cup cooked | 58 |
| Soybeans, 1/4 cup cooked | 53 |
| Broccoli, 1 cup cooked | 51 |
| Kidney beans, 1/2 cup canned | 45 |
| Quinoa, 1 cup cooked | 43 |
| Garbanzo beans, 1/2 cup cooked | 35 |
DHA and Healthy Fetal Development
DHA, an omega-3 fatty acid, is one of the building blocks of fetal development. During pregnancy the fetus gets DHA through the mother, and it is imperative that the mother has sufficient DHA stores to support both her and her growing baby’s needs. If the mother already has a low DHA status, making the fetus dependent on her for DHA may put her at increased risk for DHA deficiency, and importantly, put her baby at risk of losing some of the main benefit of the nutrient. To learn more about the many benefits of DHA during pregnancy see “Why Do I Need DHA During Pregnancy?”.
Pregnant women need at least 300 mg of DHA a day. Since many prenatal vitamins do not contain DHA, this means that pregnant women need to get their daily minimum through fatty fish or fish oil. Since pregnant women are advised to limit consumption of low-mercury fish to 2-3 times per week, including a fish oil supplement containing at least 300 mg/d can help support your DHA requirement if your prenatal is deficient. However, your individual needs may not be met by 300 mg/d, so it’s important to talk to your doctor and get tested. You can determine your needs with a simple blood test to find out what dosage is best for you.
The American Pregnancy Association recommends Safe Catch because they test every fish for mercury. Check out our delicious recipes made with Safe Catch tuna, salmon and more!
Talk to Your Health Care Provider
Always let your health care provider know what prenatal vitamins you are taking. Consider bringing your supplement bottles to your first prenatal visit. Prenatal vitamins can be a useful way of including important nutrients in your daily diet. Vitamins and minerals are important to your baby’s healthy development, as well as your own physical health.
Be sure to talk to your health care provider about nutrition before you become pregnant if you are planning to become pregnant in the near future, or as soon as you find out you are pregnant.
Recommended by the American Pregnancy Association Nordic Naturals’ selection of liquid supplements including:
- Vitamin D3
- Omega-3D
- Ultimate Omega
- Children’s DHA Xtra
- Arctic-D Cod Liver Oil
Article contributed by Kate Turner, MA, RD, CPT is the Nutrition Specialist at Nordic Naturals.
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