Pregnancy can be an exciting and wonderful time, but there are also some definite problems to deal with during this time. One of the most common problems during pregnancy is nausea. This is often referred to as “morning sickness,” although it often affects women throughout the day.
Morning sickness can be made even worse by the fact that many women react negatively to the prenatal vitamins prescribed during pregnancy to ensure that both the mother and baby get the appropriate nutrition. What many doctors do not tell you when they are stressing the importance of these vitamins is that they can often cause nausea. Just what you need when you are already run down and nauseous from the morning sickness. Most of the time women simply suffer through it so that they can give their baby the best start possible. While this is commendable, it is not always necessary. There are other ways to get the nutrients that you and your growing baby need.
When I was pregnant with my daughter I had horrible nausea all day long and into the night. It continued well past the first trimester when I was told that morning sickness should stop. One day I forgot to take my prenatal vitamin and I was shocked to find that I felt healthy as a horse for the first time in months. I thought it could be a coincidence, but when I experimented over the next few days I found that if I did not take the vitamin I felt great and if I did take it I felt horrible. The vitamin was definitely the cause. I called my doctor and he suggested that I try a different brand of vitamin. When I asked the pharmacist for a suggestion, however, I was told that most prenatals contain the same ingredients and would all cause the same reaction. The pharmacist said that the nausea was caused by the high levels of folic acid and iron in prenatal vitamins. I was very surprised by his next suggestion. He suggested that I try taking children’s vitamins instead. Most children’s vitamins have information on them for adult doses as well, which is usually twice the amount recommended for kids. I double checked this advice with my doctor and he agreed that it was a good solution. I started taking two flintstones vitamins every day and although I felt pretty silly, I no longer felt sick at all!
The main difference between regular daily vitamins and prenatal vitamins is in the amounts of calcium, iron and folic acid. These are the three most important things for a pregnant woman to keep herself and her baby in good health. Calcium helps to keep the mother’s bone strength up since much of her calcium intake is now going to the baby to help form it’s own bones. Iron helps blood flow, which is very important during pregnancy when your body must work extra hard to pump as much as 50% more blood each day to maintain the health of the baby. Folic Acid is very important for the baby’s development as it has been shown to help prevent conditions such as spina bifida, a serious birth defect where the spine is not fully closed. While the children’s vitamins do contain these elements, they are not at the same quantity as the prenatal vitamins.
The good news is that all three of these nutrients are easily incorporated into your daily diet even without the addition of vitamin supplements. Calcium is obviously readily available in dairy products, as well as nuts, leafy greens and some fish. Iron is available by eating meats as well as fortified grains, such as breads and cereals. Folic Acid is also very common and is found in leafy greens as well as beeing added to orange juice, cereals and other fortified foods. This means that if you have a bowl of cereal with milk and a glass of orange juice in the morning for breakfast you have already added significant amounts of these necessary nutrients to your body even before you take any vitamins at all.
Once I started paying attention to which foods I was eating and taking only the children’s dose of the vitamins instead of the prenatal vitamins I immediately felt healthier. I was also finally able to start putting on weight, which I had not been able to do up to that point in my pregnancy because it was so difficult to force myself to eat when I was feeling nauseous. My doctor put it very simply, “all the vitamins in the world aren’t going to help you or your baby if you can’t eat and keep anything down.” I strongly suggest this alternative to any pregnant women who are having difficulty with their prenatal vitamins. It is very important to get the right balance of nutrients during pregnancy, but you shouldn’t feel that the prenatal vitamin is your only option.
