What to Look for in a Prenatal Vitamin

Not all Prenatal Vitamins are created equally.

Prenatal vitamins are an essential part of pregnancy care and their use has been shown to reduce the chances of neural tube defects of your growing fetus by 2/3rd’s.

All prenatal vitamins contain folic acid, the most essential nutrient for preventing fetal abnormalities, and typically contain iron, to support the placenta and developing fetus, as well as nutrients like calcium, iodine, and vitamin D to further support development.

Making sure you choose a prenatal vitamin with high quality ingredients is important but not all prenatal vitamins on the market are created with high quality in mind.

No matter how healthy your diet can be (which can be challenging especially in the first trimester of pregnancy), prenatal vitamins act as a backup ensuring your body and growing baby are supplied with exactly the amount of nutrients needed.

 Here are some things to consider when choosing the right prenatal for you.

 Tips on How to Choose a Prenatal Vitamin

Ensure your prenatal contains the active form of essential vitamins

 When a vitamin is in its active form it ensures maximum absorption. While some individuals can easily convert the inactive forms of vitamins the active form within their bodies, many individuals can’t and it’s hard to determine which category you fall in! To make sure you get the most out of your prenatal vitamin, its best to look for those that contain the active forms of these specific vitamins:

Folic Acid – active form 5-MTHF (L-methylfolate)

B12 – active form Methylcobalamin

B6 – active form pyrodoxil-5-phosphate

B2 – active form riboflavin-5-phosphate

Stay clear of additives and fillers

When frequently consumed, additives can sometimes pose a harmful risk to your developing fetus. Additives to avoid include: BHT and dyes like FD&C Red #40 Aluminum Lake, FD&C Blue #1 Aluminum Lake.

Purity and Heavy Metal Testing

Several professional brands ensure their supplements, including their prenatal vitamin, are tested and validated for potency, purity, and the absence of heavy metals. Something that might seem surprising to you, but in a 2018 study testing twenty-six brands of commonly used prenatal vitamins, all samples were shown to contain lead (some even exceeding the levels of lead toxicity, as well as other heavy metals such as arsenic and thallium). The presence of heavy metals can be dangerous to your growing fetus and when choosing a prenatal vitamin, make sure the company is a trusted source that performs heavy metal screening of their products. Check the companies website or when in doubt, contact their customer service for support!

Choose one with a non-constipating iron

 A common source of iron in a multivitamin is ferrous sulphate which is not only poorly absorbed by your body but can also be poorly tolerated in most and lead to constipation, stomach pain, and nausea (all of which you don’t want added onto your plate). Look for a prenatal that has iron in the form of glycinate (sometimes seen as bisglycinate). Glycinate/Bisglycinate is the most bioavailable form of iron and has shown to have significantly fewer G.I. disturbances.