In order to give yourself the best chance of maintaining your wellness and wellbeing, and that of your unborn child, throughout pregnancy, there are certain vitamins, minerals and supplements that you should take.
Eating a varied diet is the best way to achieve this, but there are also some supplements that you are unable to get from food that you must take extra doses off to ensure you stay healthy.
Health professionals now recommend that you take at least 10 micrograms of vitamin D every day for the duration of your pregnancy, and longer if you breastfeed. They also recommend that you should take 400 micrograms of folic acid every day, and should start this before you become pregnant and continue until you are around 12 weeks pregnant, or even longer if you prefer.
On the other hand, you should avoid vitamin A or anything that contains vitamin A as too much of this can do damage to your baby. .
Supplements of vitamin D and folic acid can be obtained from most pharmacies and supermarkets and your GP may be able to prescribe them in some circumstances. If you decide to take a multivitamin to cover all bases, make sure that it is a pregnancy-specific one, as many standard multivitamin pills contain too much vitamin A and not enough folic acid.
Folic acid is particularly important as it can help guard against certain types of birth defects known as ‘neural tube defects’ which cause problems such as spina bifida. Taking this supplement can help to guard against these even before birth, and you should also aim to eat lots of foods that contain folate, such as brown rice, some breakfast cereals, bread and vegetables. If you have not been taking folic acid but are already pregnant, you should start as soon as possible.
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