Vitamin Supplementation Before & During Pregnancy?

[calpurnia7]

Hello Ladies,

I’m currently on a pretty comprehensive daily supplement regime, and am wondering what’s generally recommended to continue taking before pregnancy and during pregnancy.  Next month my husband and I are going to start TTC’ing, and I’d like to start off on the right foot with my nutrients.  Any feedback or resource links would be really helpful!

I currently take:

Spirulina

Flax seed oil

Alive! Plant based multi vitamins (with iron, I’m a vegetarian)

Calcium-Magnesium

A daily greens powder that I mix into water (Amazing Grass)

What I don’t know:

Do you take your multi and the prenantal?  That sounds like way too much, but I’ve noticed that prenatals don’t have a lot of nutrients I’m used to getting from my multi.

Should I keep taking calcium?

What about probiotics, are they ok?

[Laurucha]

I am not an expert on vitamins or anything, but I haven't noticed any significant differences between women's multivitamins and prenatal vitamins. The only thing my Ob/Gyn recommended was a folic acid supplement. It probably makes more sense to focus on optimizing your diet than to worry much about vitamins and supplements. I am reading Making Babies, and this is what they recommend:

Multivitamin

• Vitamin A: 5,000-8,000 IU
• Vitamin B1: 0.8 mg
• Vitamin B2: 1.1 mg
• Vitamin B5: 3-7 mg
• Vitamin B6: 25-50 mg
• Folic acid: 800-1,000 mcg
• Vitamin B12: 100 mcg
• Vitamin C: 200-500 mg (Too much can dry up cervical fluid.)
• Vitamin D: 1,000 IU
• Vitamin E: 100 IU (Get the natural form, d-alpha-tocopherol.)
• Calcium: 300-600 mg
• Copper: 2 mg (Be sure to take with zinc.)
• Iron: 10-15 mg
• Magnesium: 250-400 mg
• Manganese: 1-2 mg
• Selenium: 50-100 mcg
• Zinc: 15-25 mg (Higher doses interfere with copper absorption.)

Supplements

• Essential fatty acids: 1,000-5,000 mg
• Coenzyme Q10: 30-100 mg
• L-arginine: 500 mg
• N-acetyl cysteine (NAC): 600 mcg
• Glutathione: From NAC or whey protein
• Royal jelly
• Chlorophyll
• Para-aminobenzoic acid: 300-400 mg

[calpurnia7]

Thanks, Laurucha!  Did the recommend the best source for your EFA's, for example, would algae be acceptable instead of fish oil?

[Laurucha]

They emphasize it's important to get the right balance of omega-3 and omega-6. They don't mention algae or any vegetarian sources of omega-3.

By the way, I have read that you should buy whole flax seeds and add them to your food rather than taking flax seed oil, which is missing some of the nutrients and goes bad quickly.

[Sol_y_Paz]

As far as vitamins I take a folic acid on top of prenatals.

[calpurnia7]

Originally Posted by Laurucha 

By the way, I have read that you should buy whole flax seeds and add them to your food rather than taking flax seed oil, which is missing some of the nutrients and goes bad quickly.

Thanks for the info!  I'm doing ground flax and chia seeds in my cereal, or I shake both up in my daily greens drink.