Prenatal Vitamins

The Importance of a High-Quality Prenatal Vitamin

Congratulations, you’re going to be a Mom! Your role as mother doesn’t start when we leave the hospital,  it actually begins before conception. Once you decide it is time to start trying to get pregnant you should immediately begin to prepare your body for pregnancy, and that means taking a high-quality prenatal vitamin. You need to be able to provide your growing baby with the healthiest environment to develop properly. This is the most effective way  to help reduce the risks associated with pregnancy. A number of pregnancy complications can be prevented with good prenatal care, nutrition and a high quality prenatal vitamin.

What Should You Be Looking For?

Forget everything your mother told you about prenatal vitamins! It’s 2010 and your Flinstone vitamins no longer cut it! No matter how good you think you eat,  there is a good chance that your diet is lacking key vitamins and nutrients that are essential to your well-being and the proper development of your baby. Do not underestimate the power of a high quality prenatal vitamin and the risks of taking a low quality multivitamin. A high quality prenatal vitamin used to be defined as one that had the RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance) of Folic acid, Iron, and Calcium. Those are three very important nutrients but researcher have since discovered that women who are either trying to conceive, currently pregnant, or lactating  need more nutritional support that only high quality prenatal vitamins can provide.

4 Qualities of a High-end Prental Vitamin:

1. Absorbability: Liquid vitamins will absorb at a much faster rate but the taste is sure to make you gag! A prenatal vitamin will do you no good if you are unable to keep it down.  Other options involve the dreaded chewable tablets, that are usually a chalky orange flavor- YUCK! The only thing worse than the jumbo-size TUMS is trying to swallow a horse-size tablet. Tablets typically are the slowest to be absorbed and tend to get stuck in your throat, making them useless, unless you are intentionaly trying to gag yourself. Experts and moms both agree that the best form of prenatal vitamins are vegetarian capsules, they absorb quickly, cause no gastric distress and they are easy to swallow.

2. Quality: Quality doesn’t always have to be expensive and it doesn’t necessarily require a prescription either. There are select prenatal vitamins on the market that actually surpass prescription prenatal vitamins when it comes to quality and absorbability.

3. Key Nutrients: When it comes time to shop for prenatal vitamins there are 4 key nutrients you should look for:

• DHA- Supports fetal eye and brain development
• Folate- Protects agains neural tube defects (NTD’s) like spina bifida and anencephaly
• Calcium- Helps build strong bones and teeth and assures circulatory, muscular and nervous systems function properly
• Iron- Supports blood and muscle cells and prevents anemia, pre-term labor and low birth weight

4. High-Quality Nutrients:

• CoQ10- Reduces your risk of developing preeclampsia
• Choline- Boosts cognitive function and improves learning and memory
• Inositol- Helps reduce the risk of neural tube defects
• Probiotics- May prevent spontaneous miscarriages in the 1st Trimester and helps reduce eczema and allergy rates by 50%. Probiotics also help improve both you and your baby’s digestive health.

Did You Know…

• 6 million women get pregnant every year in the United States
• 4,058,000 result in  live births
• 1,995,840 experience pregnancy losses
• 1 in 7, or approximately 875,000 pregnant women experience some form of pregnancy complication
• 1 in 10 pregnancies are lost due to miscarriage
• 1 in 200 pregnancies result in a stillborn baby
• More than 154,000 babies are born with birth defects every year
• Birth defects cause about 20 percent of neonatal deaths (a baby 28 days or younger is considered neonatal)
• Approximately 40,000 babies die before their first birthday (March of Dimes, 2002)
• 467,201 babies are born prematurely
• 307,030 babies are born with low birth weight (under 5 lbs 8 oz.)
• Low birth weight babies are 40 times more likely to die during the first months of life
• An estimated 28%  of the 4 million annual neonatal deaths are due to preterm birth
• The pre-term birth rate in the US has increased 36% in the past 35 years
• Low Birth Weight babies that survive are 2-3 times more likely to suffer from a lifelong handicap or disability
• 20% of pregnant women suffer from depression and 40% will have postpartum depression
• Babies exposed to certain medications used to treat depression may be at greater risk of developing birth defects
• Spina bifida is a Neural Tube Defect (NTD) that affects 2,000 babies born in the United States annually, causing paralysis, spine abnormalities, incontinence and other problems.
• Toxemia, or Preeclampsia is responsible for nearly 76,000 maternal and fetal illnesses and deaths worldwide and is the leading cause of of premature delivery.

Reducing the Risks

A high quality prenatal vitamin containing the recommended daily allowance of the following vitamins and nutrients will greatly reduce the risks associated with pregnancy. Will it eliminate these risks? Not completely, but it will help ensure you have a safe and healthy pregnancy.

• Taking 400 micrograms of folic acid before pregnancy, and 600+ mcg throughout your pregnancy helps prevent neural tube defects (NTDs).
• Folic acid has been shown to reduce NTDs by up to 70%.
• Inositol is another nutrient that is proven to help reduce the risk of NTDs
• Co-Q10, Calcium, Probiotics and Vitamin D Supplementation reduces the risk of preeclampsia. Co-Q10 alone reduces the risk by more than 10%
• Pregnant women taking DHA are at less risk of postpartum depression
• DHA is crucial for brain, retinal, cognitive and motor skill development.
• Probiotics reduce the frequency of gestational diabetes by 20%
• Iron supplementation has been shown to improve birth weight and reduce the risk of having a low birth weight baby.
• Biotin reduces the risk of birth defects
• Zinc plays an important role in cell growth and replication and reduces the risk of miscarriage and toxemia.
• A high quality prenatal vitamin may boost a babys birth weight reducing the risk of chronic diseases, diabetes, heart disease, infant mortality, and poor growth and cognitive development.
• A high quality prenatal vitamin containing Selenium and Iron reduces the risk of developing asthma, allergies, and eczema in early childhood.
• Vitamin B, C, and E enhance maternal nutritional status and immunity during pregnancy.

Take caution when shopping for prenatal vitamins, over the counter vitamins are not regulated by the FDA and generally don’t contain the ingredients they claim to. Only buy high-quality prenatal vitamins from trusted manufacturers. You want to make sure you are getting a prenatal vitamin that contain the correct amount of essential vitamins and nutrients. Avoid all prenatal vitamins containing artificial colors, sweeteners and preservatives, hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils. We suggest finding a prenatal vitamin that is filled with natural vitamins and nutrients that promote a strong, healthy and smart baby!

Steer clear of prenatal vitamins that are high in Vitamin A, even if it is in the form of beta carotene. Some vitamin A is necessary for the normal development of a baby, but doses that exceed 10,000 IU may cause fetal poisoning, birth defects and may induce calcium loss, which contributes to osteoperosis. A pregnant woman who takes more than 10,000 IU of vitamin A per  day doubles her risk of giving birth to a child with birth defects.

The American Journal of Epidemiology reported a 10-year analysis of more than 77,000 men and women and revealed that long term use of high-dose beta carotene supplements (not natural beta carotene found in fruits and vegetables) heightens the risk of lung cancer, especially in smokers.  High-dose beta carotene supplements interfere with the absorption of antioxidants, like cartenoids, that help prevent cancer. You are better off getting beta carotene from food like carrots, oranges and broccoli.

Women who take low-quality prenatals may be deficient in many key vitamins and minerals. When you are vitamin deficient so is your baby and that may lead to preventable birth defects and even death. The best gift you can give your baby is a healthy start in life, and this can be achieved if you are diligently taking a high quality prenatal vitamin.

Do Not Neglect Your Diet!

It is easy to toss nutrition out the window when you are pregnant, especially when the thought of food makes you want to hurl. It’s important to know that prenatal vitamins are not a replacement for a healthy, well balanced diet. The combination of eating right and taking a high quality prenatal vitamin will go a long way in supporting the health and well-being of you and your developing baby.