Prenatal Vitamin Ingredients: What Are They Full Of?

Healthy Nutrition During Pregnancy

When you are expecting, you are no longer worried about nutrition solely for yourself.  You are eating for two now, and the only nutrients the baby will be able to get are nutrients it gets from you.  Thus it is very important that you maintain healthy nutrition during pregnancy.  What are the prenatal vitamin ingredients that help you maintain the proper balance while you are pregnant with your child?

The Basic Prenatal Vitamin Ingredients

For most prenatal vitamins, and this includes both prescription and over the counter varieties, there are three nutrients that make up the core of prenatal vitamin ingredients: Folic Acid, Iron and Calcium.  While these are all nutrients that we all require all the time, during pregnancy their importance is raised and it can become more difficult to obtain proper levels through diet or even taking traditional multivitamins.

Prenatal Vitamin Ingredients: Folic Acid

Folic acid is perhaps the most important of prenatal vitamin ingredients.  Folic acid is vital to your child's development, particularly in spinal development.  When there is not enough folic acid in the fetus's system during the earliest stages of development, its spine might not develop properly which could lead to serious problems in the child upon birth.

Folic acid also helps the child create DNA building blocks that will assist the child in developing at a normal rate.  It is also important for the mother to produce red blood cells faster to keep her in good health during the time of the pregnancy.

You will also find that the biggest difference between prescription and over the counter prenatal vitamin ingredients is in the amount of folic acid.  Prescription prenatal vitamins contain more folic acid than you will find in over the counter varieties.

Prenatal Vitamin Ingredients: Iron

Iron is very important during pregnancy.  It not only helps with the development of the fetus, but is also required by the mother to keep her from becoming over-fatigued and keep her immune system in tip-top shape.  While we all need iron, iron needs during pregnancy are usually well over twice as much as normally required, which is why larger amounts are included in prenatal vitamin ingredients than you would find in normal multivitamins.

If the mother to be does not have enough iron in her system she could find herself tiring very easily (which can already occur during pregnancy).  It could also keep her immune system from working as well as it should, making her more susceptible to disease and endangering both her and the unborn child.

Prenatal Vitamin Ingredients: Calcium

We all know of the importance of calcium and healthy bones.  Calcium is always important for women, but this is even more so during pregnancy, making it one of the big three prenatal vitamin ingredients.  Not only is it important for the mother to get the calcium that she needs, calcium is also important for the proper development of the baby.