Should I Take Prenatal Vitamins When Trying to Conceive?

When I got pregnant, my doctor advised me to take a prenatal vitamin.

It turned out to be a good thing because I was deficient in iron, vitamin B12, and vitamin D, despite a pretty healthy diet and lifestyle.

But even so, my newborn baby was still anemic and needed to take a supplement. So in the hindsight, I wished I had taken prenatal vitamins when I was trying to conceive.

4 Benefits of Prenatal Vitamins

There are four main reasons why you should take a prenatal vitamin before you get pregnant:

1. Prenatal vitamins can help bridge any nutritional gap you may have from your diet.

It’s not so easy to have completely healthy and balanced meals these days. Consumption of processed foods, the preference of certain types of foods over others, dieting, and chronic conditions can all contribute to nutritional deficiency.

And sometimes even when you think you’re eating healthy (being a vegan, a raw food fanatic, or a whole-food person), you may still not get all the nutrients your body needs from what you eat.

Prenatal vitamins can serve as an insurance policy to cover any nutritional gap you may have from your diet. And when you’re healthy, you’re more likely to produce high quality eggs – and conceive a healthy baby.

2. Prenatal vitamins may help Increase your chances of getting pregnant.

Nutritional deficiency not only stands in the way of your feeling and being at your best, but can also contribute to infertility.

For example, vitamin D deficiency has been linked to infertility.

And a deficiency of iodine (an important nutrient that supports thyroid function) can be a cause of miscarriage and birth defects.

On the other hand, certain nutrients promote fertility. For example, zinc can boost healthy sperm production in men and encourage healthy cell division, which is critical in the early stages of conception and fetal development.

So it’s not a surprise that one recent study in the UK showed that women taking a prenatal vitamin were more likely to both get pregnant and stay pregnant.

3. Prenatal vitamins can help protect your baby from the moment when he or she is conceived.

One of the most important nutrients contained in prenatal vitamins is folic acid. Studies show that it can protect babies from certain serious birth defects such as spina bifida, a life-threatening spinal malformation. That’s one of the main reasons why women take prenatals after they get pregnant.

But you may not know that you’re pregnant until you’ve missed one or two of your periods, which can be 4-8 weeks after your baby is conceived. Taking a prenatal while trying to conceive can help bridge this gap and protect your baby, starting from the very moment when he or she is conceived.

4. Prenatal vitamins are designed with the baby in mind.

If you’ve already been taking multivitamins, you may be thinking that you’re well covered. But a regular multivitamin is not designed with a developing fetus in mind.

If it contains too many fat-soluble vitamins (vitamin A, D, E, and K) and certain minerals, toxicity can build up in the body and cause harm to an unborn baby.

On the contrary, prenatal vitamins are specifically formulated to keep both mommy and the fetus healthy. According to WebMD, a good prenatal should contain the following:

• 400 micrograms (mcg) of folic acid
• 400 IU of vitamin D
• 200 to 300 milligrams (mg) of calcium
• 70 mg of vitamin C
• 3 mg of thiamine (B1)
• 2 mg of riboflavin (B2)
• 20 mg of niacin (B3)
• 6 mcg of vitamin B12
• 10 mg of vitamin E
• 15 mg of zinc
• 17 mg of iron
• 150 micrograms of iodine

So if you’re trying to conceive, consider taking a high quality prenatal vitamin (starting at least 6 months in advance of trying to get pregnant). I recommend Garden of Life RAW Vitamin Code Prenatal Multivitamin.

I hope you find this post helpful. If so, please share it with your friends who are trying to conceive. Thank you!

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