Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Prenatal Vitamins - Make Sure You and Your Baby Are Healthy During Pregnancy

One thing all expecting mothers want is to provide the best nutrition for themselves and their unborn babies. This can sometimes be a most difficult task when you factor in all the conditions that make eating sometimes difficult for expecting women. Things like morning sickness, the loss of appetite or even cravings for only particular types of foods.

With this in mind it's a good idea if you as an expecting mother take a prenatal vitamin as early as possible. It's still undecided if there are any benefits to taking it during the conception planning stages but there are some who recommend it. You might be asking why it would be important to take prenatal vitamins so early, even before the baby is born. There is an easy answer to this question. Prenatal vitamins are specially formulated to make sure that both the mother and child receive the nutritional requirements the both of them need. Taking them early on even before pregnancy can ensure that those vitamins and minerals are available right from the start.

You might now be asking why not just take a regular multi vitamin. The reason is that prenatal vitamins contain different quantities of the vitamins we need to accommodate those things that unborn babies and expecting mothers really need like extra folic acid. Higher levels of calcium are also necessary so when looking for a prenatal vitamin make sure you have one that gives you between 1.2 and 1.5 grams a day or 1200 to 1500 milligrams.

Another major deficiency that appears often in pregnant women is lack of iron. Lack of iron means that there can be a lack of important oxygen flow between both mother and baby because of this it's vitally important to make sure you are taking in enough iron.

It's also important to keep in mind that prenatal vitamins are only to be used as dietary supplements and is not a replacement for a properly balanced diet. If you want the vitamins and minerals in your prenatal vitamin to be absorbed properly you'll need the other nutrients found in food. Eating healthy and taking a prenatal supplement work together to make sure you and your baby stay health and have the building blocks necessary to promote good health.

Often times with all the hustle, the waiting, the emotional ups and downs, the cravings, lose of appetite, morning sickness a woman doesn't want to have to content with remembered to take pills once or twice a day. You might feel like it really isn't that important. It is however, that important. Because of all the cravings, morning sickness, loss of appetite you could be deficient in a number of vital areas when it comes to vitamins and minerals. Making sure you take a prenatal vitamin every morning or twice a day as recommended by your primary care or OB-GYN is one of the important steps you need to take in order to ensure you have a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby

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