I'm 36 and have been taking prenatal vitamins for the past several months in preparation for trying to have another baby. Now, when I had my son 4 years ago, there didn't seem to be as many "kinds" of prenatal vitamins as there is now. Any pregnant mom's get some recommendations from their OB's on which Vitamins to take (for example, with DHA, with IRON, w/o extra IRON). Just curious. I do have a call into my OB's nurse, but since it's not urgent - it may be a few days before she calls back (since I'm not pregnant right now).
I took a standard target multi with all 3 pregnancies and a separate DHA supplement. By the third pregnancy, there was a target brand DHA supplement, which is at least $2 less than Lipil. My OB recommended just a standard multivitamin and said specific prenatal ones weren't necessary.
I like and trust New Chapter Perfect Prenatal and Garden of Life Prenatal.
Both are whole food vitamins.
Garden of Life has an "omega 3 for moms" too...those made me ill. ;)
I also recommend (and take) Metagenics Wellness Essentials for Pregnancy.
My doctor suggested Target brand prenatal vitamins because they are easier to digest and I take them at night and it goes down fine and I don't get sick. I was also found to have low iron so I take an iron supplement as well. You do have to keep an eye on the constipation with the extra iron but I drink a lot of water so I've been okay.
I bought some as soon as I took a positive test this time around and I thought I was doing well to make sure I was getting the correct dose of folic acid- which was the main concern with my youngest (3 yrs). When I went for my first OB appt, she told me to make sure I was taking ones with DHA. Mine didn't have it, so I bought separate DHA supplements so I wouldn't be out the $$ from the non-DHA prenatals. It seems to change with each pregnancy!
extra iron could make you extra constipated.
I get my prenatal vitamins from ShopKo (the ShopKo brand ones)...they don't have any artificial colors in them. (lots of them do...ugh!)
definitely one with DHA - you should ask your dr to write you a prescription strength ones if you are pretty close to being pregnant........Good Luck!
A nutritionist was a guest speaker one week at the Bradley birthing class we took. She actually recommended against the 'multi-vit', one-a-day type prenatal. They may have everything in them, but the stuff that 'glues' everything together (sorry, my layperson understanding!) actually hinders it from breaking down properly in your system, so it's not like you get the full benefit anyway.
She recommended the following prenatal: You take a packet everyday, and each packet contains about 6-8 separate pills, including the all important DHA.
http://www.nutritionjungle.com/metagenics-wellness-essent...
That's just one link I found, I didn't buy from this online store, you could do a bit of research for costs/shipping costs (if any).
Metagenics Wellness Essentials for Pregnancy
I LOVED them, felt great being on them.
They were more expensive than the prenatal 'one a day' that my midwife prescribed, BUT that prenatal didn't have DHA, so I was going to have to supplement anyway. By the time I bought DHA supplements it was going to work out to about a 10 dollar difference, so I just went ahead and started ordering the Metagenics.
Your doctor can give you a prescription even before you are pregnant, but you are going to want to take one with DHA. My doctor said that they are almost all the same, just some come with the DHA in it, and others do not and you have to take the DHA separate. I am on a generic that costs me $10 for a 3 month supply, but I have to buy the DHA separate, which the Wal-mart generic is $7 a month and the Enfamil is $11 a month, both over the counter. At first I was on some name brand pills that included everything in one pill, but it was $65 a month. Since they all work the same, I went with the cheaper pills.
