Sunday, June 21, 2009

Pregnant Woman and Prenatal Vitamins

Are you already pregnant or planning to have a baby soon? Read up on prenatal vitamins and promote your good health and the health of your baby.

Stick turned into blue! Congratulations on being pregnant. You are soon going to have a baby and become a mother. You should consider planning a trip to your doctor. Your doctor will advise you to take special care, stay happy and take prenatal vitamins. This is when you will have questions that you will want to be answered.

What do you mean by prenatal vitamins?

A pregnant woman is usually advised to take prenatal vitamins to help maintain her good health and for the better development of the baby. These days you can find specially formulated prenatal multivitamins just for pregnant women. These are easily absorbed during the pregnancy period when chances of nutritional deficiencies are high in pregnant women. The prenatal vitamins are a form of supplements and are not a substitute for a healthy and well balanced diet. Although the prenatal vitamins are considered to be multivitamins, they mainly focus on calcium content, iron and folic acid.


Need for prenatal vitamins

As stated already the prenatal vitamins are multivitamins that have higher levels of iron, calcium and folic acid. Therefore, this brings us to the important role of iron, calcium and folic acid.

Folic acid

It is very important as it could help prevent any birth defects in baby, mainly defects related to spinal cord and the brain. Such defects are mostly known as spina bifida or neural tube. It’s a condition where, the spine wouldn’t be close, thus leaving an exposed nerve which can get damaged. The damage could further lead to incontinence, mental retardation or paralysis. The defect of spina bifida would occur after four weeks of conception. It could also occur even before a woman realizes that she is pregnant. In order to prevent the condition of spina bifida from happening, pregnant women are advised to take prenatal vitamins that contain about 400 mcg of folic acid.

Calcium


The fetus will absorb calcium from the mother for the growth of bone. This could further lead to severe complications. It could also cause the condition of osteoporosis in future. This could be easily prevented from occurring by ingesting sufficient amounts of calcium.


Iron


Iron is an important component for transporting oxygen in the body. The chances are that a few pregnant women may require extra amounts of iron for the baby as well as themselves.


Therefore, you need to take the best prenatal vitamin and ensure your good health and health of your baby as well.

No comments:

Post a Comment