Hi all ;-)



As some of you know, my husband and I are planning on starting to try for a family soon. In anticipation of that, I'd like to start taking a pre-natal vitamin. I bought a vegetarian one from GNC, it has 100% of several important vitamins, and has a few herbs in it, which made me a little nervous (I know some herbs are bad for pregnancy.) Anyone have any recommendations?



Thanks!

make sure you get enough foliate iirc.



And be carefull not to get an overdose of vitamin A, as that can cause birth defects.



*disclaimer : not a professional in this area, and suggest you reference it with a doctor

well, there is the possibility of not using any prenatal vitamins as well. changing your diet to pregnancy diets and utilizing the teas and other information in the herbalism book that i mentioned in the other stream should provide enough nutrition.



but, many women whom i know prefer vitamins. this one has a good reputation from women whom i know: Rainbow Light Complete Prenatal. there's a liquid one too, but i can't remember the name of it. it may be the same company. it is pretty expensive.



or, since the most important nutrient in prenatal vitamins is the folic acid, you could increase your intake of this through food or simply take a folic acid only supplement.

also, here's an article from mercola.com about sugar and birth defects--so a good reason to go whole foods while pregnant! if you need help with that, let me know.



also, this article is about cod liver oil and brain development in babies and children, but it's not necessarily specific to CLO. if you 'stick with' the article a bit--mercola's part--he talks about other kinds of oil such as coconut, olive, and butter (organic, raw, pasture-raised) as good alternatives to CLO. the article addresses the ideas behind using these fats in pregnancy and for lactation diets for infant health and vitality. obviously, CLO isn't vegetarian, but there are other recommendations implanted in the article that are.



yes, it was obvious. LOL! the issue with many american women's diets that can lead to problems in this area is an omega three imbalance. therefore, pregnant mothers need to take Flax Seed Oil!



i knew there was one i was missing in that list. LOL

i know it seems like 'slutting' but i also wanted to provide you with a number of links for well regarded vegetarian pregnancy diet books.



i already posted this one: The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook: Whole Foods To Nourish Pregnant And Breastfeeding Women - And Their Families;





but i also wanted to point out this one as well: Your Vegetarian Pregnancy : A Month-by-Month Guide to Health and Nutrition.



both of these are great cookbooks. here also is an article written by the author of the first one i listed:



Super Foods for Vegetarian Pregnancy and Lactation

What kind of herbs? Sounds like tiny amounts which wouldn't harm.

herbalism circles, dried herbs in capsules are considered basicly impotent.

you may want to watch out for crampbark, as i've been told that can cause premature labor.. raspberry leaf is good (as my aunt's midwife told her to drink it), but bitter..



get enough folic acid!

Anyone have any brands they recommend? After buying this bottle I realized it said that the serving for this is 4 pills a day!!!! And they aren't small pills either. I'd like a once or twice daily.



1vegan, I had heard about the Vitamin A palmitate issue, which is why I switched away from my regular vegan-multi in the first place. It had plenty of folic acid, but 80% of its vitamin A came from Palmitate, whereas beta carotene is the "ok" version. And as I have been eating recently, I notice how MANY foods are fortified with vitamin A palmitate, from my trans-fat-free-margarine, to my organic soymilk!!!! I'll have to switch to an unfortified version.



edit: Zoebird I see you mentioned a brand, and that it was expensive. I'll still check it out though.

yeah, and it's something like 6-8 pills a day, i think.

Are you specifically supposed to take that over time? Why is it so different from other vitamins??? So weird :P



I checked out that vitamin online, Zoebird, I was surprised to see it contained Vitamin A palmitate and Beta Carotene in a 1:1 ratio. I think maybe my 4 pills a day isn't too bad after all - is it ok to take 2 in the morning and 2 at night? The bottle I purchased didn't detail instructions on when to take it.



Hmm.... seems there is another one at GNC that I didn't see in the store:



http://www.gnc.com/product/index.jsp...entPage=search



Serving size is 2 tablets. Expensive, but not as bad as the others, and vitamin A is completely with Beta carotene (and not 100% of daily value, either). Seems pretty good, and seems vegetarian... I wonder if I should take one with or without iron?

i think because it's food based--and so you need more of them to get the full nutrient spectrum.



personally, i'd rather spend my money on food.

Bringing up the vitamin thread again..... just to see if any of you have specific brands you might recommend.....