Go read the Disclaimer again. I am not a doctor. This is not medical advice. Seriously.
While you are pregnant or breastfeeding, you will be strongly encouraged to take prenatal vitamins or other supplements, and you may be told your baby needs them as well.
The idea behind supplementation is that the human body in general, and a pregnant woman's body and her developing or breast feeding baby in particular, require certain minimum amounts of non-caloric nutrients daily to thrive. We get one of these nutrients from the sun (Vitamin D, although it is also available in deep water fish oils including, but not limited to, cod liver oil). We manufacture other nutrients and the rest we get from food. Vitamin and mineral supplementation is intended to add to these sources. Many peole believe that more-is-better when it comes to these nutrients and therefore believe supplementation without regard to the underlying diet is a form of insurance policy: unlikely to do harm, may save us from our own bad habits, and relatively inexpensive in the larger scheme of life and/or health care. Also implicit in supplementation is the idea that we know what quantities of these vitamins and minerals are available in various foods and that those (or other quantities) can be replicated in pills, powders, liquids or other largely non-calorid forms and they will be absorbed as if they came from something more readily recognized as food.
Some of those ideas are flawed. Some vitamins and minerals are toxic in too large quantities. While most vitamin schedules are daily, many vitamins and minerals can be stored by the body for use later and in food are ingested at erratic intervals normally. Safe minima and maxima are dependent on individual metabolism and what else is happening to and within that person's body, and we do not necessarily have the research to inform us with certainty what those minima and maxima are. Furthermore, some formulations do not absorb well at all, which leads to vitamin regimens that involve taking in larger and larger amounts so as to bring the amount absorbed up to the amount that would be absorbed from a healthy diet, without regard to the damage being done getting rid of what is not absorbed. Anyone who has ever taken iron pills know how bad this can be. In general, there is little evidence to believe that vitamin and mineral formulas behave in the body like food.
While pressure is often exerted on a pregnant or breastfeeding woman to take supplements, or to give supplements to her baby, whether by her circle of acquaintance or her health care provider, and while that pressure generally takes the form of an argument for safety, it is worth remembering that again, pregnant and breastfeeding women are adults who have the right to make their own decisions for themselves and their children. It has never been shown that advising pregnant or breastfeeding women to taking vitamin or mineral supplementation in any form benefits all pregnant or breastfeeding women (not even for folic acid), nor has it been shown that advising such supplementation is safe. Support her, instead, in choosing the foods she desires, when she desires them.
Dark leafy greens are a good source of folic acid, iron and calcium.
A breakfast that includes iron, calcium and lecithin and still tastes pretty good
Copyright 2006 by Rebecca Allen.
Created January 24, 2006 Updated August 27, 2008