So one of my cow-orkers is knocked up and she’s taking vitamins packaged as “prenatal,” which I beleiev are by prescription. I looked at the label and it looks to me like they’re just a regular old multi-vitamin, and not a very complete one at that (they don’t supply RDA of some vitamins, many minerals are entirely absent). Now we’re wondering, what distinguishes “prenatal” vitamins from run-of-the-mill one a day vitamins available at much lower prices? Is this a racket on the part of the vitamin industry to jack up preggos?
Prenatal vitamins have more of certain vitamins and minerals that plain ole regular multivitamins don’t. The folic acid is increased in prenatals, for example.
I imagine calcium is as well, but don’t quote me.
Most have higher levels of folic acid, iron, zinc, and sometimes calcium. There are some that also contain higher levels of vitamin B6 as an anti-nausea agent.
Didn’t know that about the B-6 but it makes sense. Not only are pregnant women nauseous anyway, but sometimes the prenatal vitamins themselves cause nausea.
My recommendation is to take a good, well-balanced multi-vitamin with minerals and supplement folic acid to 1mg.
The cost of this combo would be approx $10/100 days as opposed to $30-$40/100 days that some prescription prenatals cost.
Also, all women should supplement calcium. (Tums or generic equivalent works as well as anything).
Any vitamin + mineral combination has a potential for causing nausea. Taking the vitamin after dinner/before I went to bed worked best for me.
Have to nitpick. Tums doesn’t work as well, I was taught, than regular calcium supplements because you need an acidic environment to absorb calcium. That is why it is recommended you take your calcium with a tall cool glass of OJ.
I recently went to the doctors and told her I’d be starting to try to get pregnant soon and asked if I needed any particular supplements. She just recommended multi-vitamins with a good amount of folic acid in them. I asked if I would need prescription vitamins, and she said that they were basically the same.
The important difference between pre-natal and regular vitamins is that prenatal vits don’t have vitamin a (though they may have betacarotene, a safe form of vitamin a). Straight vitamin a can harm the developing foetus, so ordinary multivitamins are best avoided.
Yes, though vitamin A from food sources is safe, supplemental vitamin A is too easy to OD on for the fetus.
I miss my prenatal vitamins. While taking them, my hair, nails, and skin never looked better. I can’t seem to duplicate the effect with over the counter multi vitamins.
And it wasn’t the pregnancy - I started taking the vitamins three months before conceiving, and saw the change very quickly.
Looking at my bottle of OTC prenatal vitamins…
Mine does have vitamins A, C, D, E, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, B6, Folate, and B12, in mostly appropriate amounts. It’s also got calcium (a smallish amount), iron, and zinc.
I may have to switch once I start nursing, although my diet’s pretty good.
Robin
MsRobyn - you’ll probably find the vitamin a in your pills is betacarotene, a naturally-occuring form of vitamin a.
According to thissite:
Which I’ve also read many times elsewhere.
You can get prenatal vitamins OTC that are dirt cheap, so not everyone is out to tip off pregnant people byu making them think it’s a “special formula.”
I don’t know how they differ from presciption vitamins, excep that (a) they might fall under insurance coverage and (b) some people might take them more regularly because a prescription makes them seem like “serious medicine.” I used the OTC kind, and started to take them four months before I got pregnant. I think I got a prescription for some extra folate once I got knocked up, but that was it. My doc was fine with the OTC kind as long as they had enough of the right stuff.
I also continued to take them while nursing, Robyn.
Robyn, I continued taking the vitamins while nursing, at the advice of my doctor.
Because I have a really good prescription drug plan ($5 for 3 refills) it was WAY cheaper to buy prescription rather than OTC. I understand that not everyone is as fortunate, but it happened to work that way for me.
I took Wal-Mart prenatals the entire time I was pregnant.
Zombie alert - 8 year old thread.
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