Best Prenatal Vitamins: 5 Prenatal Supplements for a Healthy Pregnancy
When you’re thinking of or planning on having a baby, you want to make sure that you’re doing all that you possibly can to support your child’s growth and maintain your own healthy pregnancy and wellness.
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Ritual
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Pure Essence
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Thorne
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Most of us don’t get nearly enough nutrients from our diets when we’re not pregnant. Nutritional needs increase and become more complicated when you are.
This is why it’s so important to up your intake of crucial vitamins and minerals. Prenatal vitamins that will enhance your health and give you a good foundation for conception, pregnancy, and beyond.
We’ve taken a close look at what’s offered out there in terms of prenatal supplements and found five of the very best ones on the market.
Summary of the Best Prenatal Vitamins
- Overall Best Prenatal Vitamins: Ritual Essential for Women Prenatal Vitamin
- Great Prenatal Vitamin for Morning Sickness: Pure Essence Labs Mother to Be
- Optimal Prenatal Multivitamin for Maintaining Energy and Nutritional Support: Thorne Basic Prenatal
- Great Prenatal Vitamin for Nursing: Pure Formulas PreNatal Nutrients
- Top Organic Prenatal Vitamin: Garden of Life mykind Organics Multi Gummies
Benefits of Prenatal Vitamins
The best prenatal vitamins can provide a bunch of benefits that will help you have a healthy pregnancy, like:
Reduce risk of birth complications
It’s incredibly important to take certain vitamins and minerals in order to reduce the risk of having birth complications with your child. Three of the top ones that you want to look for in your prenatal supplements are folic acid, thiamine, and omega 3-DHA.
Improve nutritional intake
Many people don’t get enough vitamins and minerals through what they eat and drink. Prenatal vitamins are custom designed to provide a well-rounded variety of these key nutrients that you need for optimal function, fertility, and your baby’s development.
Prevent nausea
While pregnant, especially in the first trimester, you may experience a great deal of nausea and nausea-related symptoms. If you start taking prenatal vitamins with ingredients that will help you curb that nausea, you may experience less vomiting.
Support fetal growth and functioning
Growing babies require a constant intake of nutrients transported from their parent. Some things you should find in your prenatal vitamins include vitamin B6, vitamin D, niacin, and riboflavin.
Support your immune system
Many infections and illnesses can impact your overall health and that of your baby. Pregnancy is exhausting enough without being sick on top of that, so why not boost your immune system in a convenient way with a prenatal multivitamin? Iron and vitamin C are especially great at boosting your immune response.
Promote nutrient transport
Essential nutrients have to flow smoothly between mom and baby, and this is sometimes a challenge. A prenatal supplement can assist with this process so that your child will get the maximum amount of nutrients possible for healthy development.
Before pregnancy benefits
Even before you become pregnant, dietary supplements offer you some advantages. For one, you’ll be in better health and have a good foundation to build on when you do become pregnant. You also will improve your reproductive health in general with the best prenatal vitamins, which can only be a plus for anyone who plans on trying to conceive in the near future.
Best Prenatal Vitamins
1. Overall Best Prenatal Vitamins: Ritual Essential for Women Prenatal Vitamin
Why We Love Them
Essential for Women Prenatal Vitamin from Ritual features 12 nutrients in just one pill. These nutrients are in their purest form, and they are infused either with citrus or mint to help combat that nausea and feel as comfortable as possible taking them. They are delayed-release tablets that make it to the small intestine for absorption into your body, which is one of the best possible places for absorption.
Why Customers Love Them
Customers love how pure and high quality these prenatal vitamins are. They tend to be gentle, especially when taken with food, and many people believe these are some of the best prenatal vitamins because they have a great taste to them.
About the Company
Ritual was founded by Katerina Schneider after she realized she wanted to stop using products with ingredients that are questionable. The company sources from the most pure ingredients to promote better nutrition and overall health for pregnancy and beyond. They offer full transparency of their sourcing, testing, and creation practices. Ritual offers free shipping and a money back guarantee if you’re not satisfied with your vitamins.
Pros
- Easy to take
- Vegan
- Third-party tested
Cons
- Some important nutrients are missing
Specs
- Type: Capsules
- Dosage: Two capsules per day
- Nutrients: Folate, Choline, Vitamin B12, Biotin, Omega-3 DHA, Iron, Vitamin D, Boron, Iodine, Magnesium, Vitamin E, Vitamin K2
- Flavor: Citrus, Mint
2. Great Prenatal Vitamin for Morning Sickness: Pure Essence Labs Mother to Be
Why We Love Them
We love Pure Essence Labs Mother to Be prenatal vitamins for the complete formula that comes from phytonutrients which are derived from plants, something that most people don’t tend to get enough of in their diets. This prenatal multi is a whole food natural vitamin formulated with ginger. Ginger is really helpful when it comes to combating morning sickness that many people experience in pregnancy.
Why Customers Love Them
They are a gentle blend of ingredients for greater comfort and don't tend to cause the same type of side effects some other prenatal vitamins do, such as constipation and nausea. That’s why customers believe this is the best prenatal vitamin for morning sickness.
About the Company
Pure Essence Labs began in the mid 1990s, when founder Jerry Cochern was looking for a natural cure for cancer and discovered the health benefits that come from herbs from eastern disciplines. Pure Essence Labs takes health extremely seriously, and they strive to meet the highest standards when it comes to all ingredients, tests, and processes that they use. The multivitamin blends have phytochemicals for extra support to the other ingredients so you have more relief from symptoms and can increase the benefits you get from the supplement.
Pros
- Pure and natural ingredients
- Triple-tested to ensure that they don’t have heavy metals or toxins
- Gentle formula
Cons
- Some people may not like the smell
Specs
- Type: Tablets
- Dosage: Three tablets per day
- Nutrients: Iron, Folic Acid, Vitamin D3, Spirulina, Chlorella, Ginger
- Flavor: No flavor specified
3. Optimal Prenatal Multivitamin for Maintaining Energy and Nutritional Support: Thorne Basic Prenatal
Why We Love Them
Thorne Basic Prenatal is a gentle prenatal multi that doesn’t contain any coatings or other questionable additives. All of the ingredients were researched and selected with care to come up with the perfect blend for parents during pregnancy and beyond, and for the developing baby’s growth and overall health.
Why Customers Love Them
Customers love that this daily prenatal vitamin has bioavailable ingredients. They also say it has a decent taste and it doesn't bring about any nausea. Many people say that Thorne Basic Prenatal is the best prenatal vitamin because it offers a complete balance of nutrients that you don't often get with other dietary supplements.
About the Company
Thorne offers health testing along with prenatal supplements and other products they offer. You can rest assured that they perform quality testing and adhere to strict standards of excellence when crafting this pregnancy multivitamin. The company believes in practices that align with personalized and scientific wellness benefits.
Pros
- Supports energy and overall feminine health
- Egg-free, nut-free, gluten-free, and free of high fructose corn syrup
- Low risk of constipation
Cons
- May have too much iron for some people
Specs
- Type: Capsules
- Dosage: Three capsules per day
- Nutrients: Iron, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, Vitamin K, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12, Folate, Copper, Zinc, Calcium, Boron, Biotin, Magnesium, Iodine, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Selenium, Chromium, Manganese
- Flavor: No flavor specified
4. Great Prenatal Vitamin for Nursing: Pure Encapsulations Prenatal Nutrients
Why We Love Them
We love Pure Encapsulations Prenatal Vitamins because of how well-suited it is to pregnant and nursing people. The company performs a great deal of quality control testing on each batch of dietary supplements to determine the proper identity, safety, and that the nutrients are the most bioavailable to suit your needs (like folic acid, for example).
This prenatal vitamin was crafted not only to meet the needs of pregnant people, but also those who are lactating.
Why Customers Love Them
This is a prenatal vitamin that many doctors have recommended to pregnant people for its key nutrients. They love that it provides a pure form of nutrients that most prenatal vitamins don't really offer. Customers overall enjoy the taste and how it makes them feel good and helps their hair grow healthier.
About the Company
The Pure Encapsulations Purely for You line has over 400 products across 16 categories. You can get support from the team of registered dieticians and take a quiz to determine your personalized supplement needs. They use pure ingredients to support your pregnancy and beyond.
Pros
- Contains pure form key nutrients
- Improves mood and energy levels
- Minimal side effects
Cons
- May be difficult for some people to swallow
Specs
- Type: Capsules
- Dosage: Two capsules per day
- Nutrients: Folic Acid, Biotin, Lycopene, Thiamin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12, Riboflavin, Iron, Calcium, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, Vitamin K
- Flavor: No flavor specified
5. Top Organic Prenatal Multivitamin: Garden of Life mykind Organics Prenatal Multi Gummies
Why We Love Them
Garden of Life mykind Organics Prenatal Multi Gummies are a great choice if you’re looking for something that is non-GMO and certified USDA organic.
These gummy vitamins are made from nine whole fruits and with no synthetic vitamins in the formula or artificial flavors or colors, you can feel good making a choice to take these before you become pregnant or during your pregnancy for greater health and support of your baby’s development and growth.
If you are vegetarian or vegan, you can rest assured that these gummy vitamins are safe for you to take as they have no animal products. There’s also no processed syrups and sugars, so you can supplement your diet without worrying about adding something that will impact your diet in a negative way.
Why Customers Love Them
Customers rave about the taste and the fact that they don't experience morning or all-day sickness with these gummy vitamins. They give a boost of energy and help with keeping hair and nails healthy.
About the Company
Garden of Life believes in using whole food ingredients that are clean, easily traceable, and have been clinically studied. They believe in empowering customers to make the healthiest decisions possible for their pregnancy and overall health. They partner with various organizations and are the first vitamin and supplement brand to become Certified Carbonfree by CarbonFund.org.
Pros
- No processed sugars
- Easy to take gummy vitamins
- Vegan
Cons
- Must be taken with food
Specs
- Type: Gummies
- Dosage: Four gummies per day
- Nutrients: Vitamin A, Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, Vitamin K, Biotin, Folate, Chromium, Niacin, Manganese, Zinc
- Flavor: Berry
How We Picked the Best Prenatal Vitamins
We chose the above five prenatal vitamins for a number of reasons:
Brand transparency
First, we looked into what the company had to say and whether they had third-party testing certifications, such as USDA organic certification.
Positive customer reviews
Next, we searched for reviews from people who bought and took the prenatal vitamins to see what they liked so much about each of them. It was tricky to come up with only five supplements for pregnancy to help our readers.
This is why it was so important that we take a critical approach and talk about multivitamins that differ from one another, yet all have one thing in common — they largely were a hit with pregnant and nursing people from all backgrounds.
Ingredients
The ingredient quality was another crucial consideration for this list. We wanted to find those supplements that provide you with a balanced group of key nutrients from vitamins and minerals and include those that are necessary during pregnancy, such as folate, iron, Vitamin D, Omega-3 DHA, and zinc.
Price
Of course, we wanted to include vitamins that are reasonably-priced. However, it’s not always possible to discredit what otherwise looks amazing in favor of less expensive options. There are multivitamins at different price points and we hope that there is something for everyone, no matter your budget.
What to Consider Before Buying a Prenatal Vitamin
There are various things you should have in mind when you go to pick out the prenatal multivitamin you plan to use.
Dietary Needs
One of the most crucial things to consider is whether or not you already have a deficiency with certain vitamins and minerals. If you know what you need more of in order to have well-balanced nutrition, seek a prenatal multivitamin that contains those particular essential nutrients and other ingredients.
For instance, if you are even a little anemic, it would be in your best interest to find a prenatal supplement that contains a higher amount of iron compared to other ones on the market.
Budget
Figure out what you can afford to buy on a regular basis, as you should plan on taking this multivitamin throughout the entirety of your pregnancy. Make sure you consider how many packages of the vitamins you’ll need to buy over this time period. It might be a good idea to purchase larger bottles, as often there are discounts when you buy more at a time.
Morning Sickness Triggers
Many prenatal vitamin tablets contain fish oil, which can be off-putting for some people when not pregnant. This can become worse when your senses are heightened during pregnancy, leaving you disgusted, nauseous, have worse morning sickness, and sometimes unwilling to continue taking them. See what supplements you can find that don’t have this ingredient, even if it means you won’t have the benefit that can come along with fish oil.
You can’t use these as a replacement for a meal. While you’re pregnant, it’s even more important to eat a variety of healthy foods that will provide you with balanced nutrition. The prenatal vitamins only serve as an addition to this, since it may not be possible to derive all of your nutritional needs from foods that are readily available to you.
Key Nutrients in Prenatal Vitamins
Here are some essential nutrients often found in prenatal vitamins:
Folic Acid
Folic acid is a man-made form of folate, which is a B vitamin that’s naturally found within some foods. Folic acid is necessary when it comes to forming healthy cells, particularly red blood cells. This is one that is especially important for pregnant people to take. A lot of our favorite prenatal vitamins contain folic acid.
Iron
Iron is a mineral that is naturally found in many types of food. If someone doesn’t eat meat or get their iron from sources that aren’t so high in this mineral, they can develop anemia. Since iron supports development of the placenta and fetus, and makes blood in order to supply oxygen to the fetus, it’s crucial to have adequate iron in your body when you’re pregnant.
Omega-3 Fatty Acids
Omega-3 fatty acids are a kind of fat that are found in various fish. They are useful when it comes to brain development of babies. If you don’t eat fish at the time of becoming pregnant and have no plans to do so, it can be beneficial to take a supplement that contains omega-3 fatty acids.
DHA is one of the most important to get while pregnant since it is a key building block for fetal development. When a parent has a low DHA status, they should get a prenatal supplement that contains this.
Don’t count on all prenatal vitamins to contain enough of this crucial nutrient, since many of them don’t have a high amount (or any!) DHA. Pregnant people should get a minimum of 300 mg per day. Talk to your doctor to determine if this is an ideal thing for your health regimen.
Calcium
Calcium is found in dairy such as milk, yogurt, and cheese. You need calcium in order to maintain strong teeth and bones, and your baby needs it for much the same reasons. This mineral supports healthy functioning within the circulatory, nervous, and muscular systems. It’s best to get 1,000 mg per day when you’re pregnant.
Choline
Choline is one of the nutrients that you don’t hear as much about. A good source of choline is eggs, beef live, and ground beef. Some vegetables do contain choline, but this is a smaller amount so you’ll want to look for something to supplement if you are a vegetarian or vegan.
It’s said that higher amounts of choline have been shown to improve cognition, lower levels of circulating cortisol, and reduce the risk of neural tube defects. It also is linked to a reduced risk of specific complications in pregnancy as well as an increase in liver and placenta function during pregnancy.
The recommended amount for daily intake is 450 mg. Since a lot of prenatal vitamins are lacking in choline, it’s important to look into this and ask for recommendations if you’re having difficulty with finding a prenatal supplement with adequate choline.
Vitamin D
Vitamin D is found in fatty fish like salmon, but there are many things that have been fortified with vitamin D, such as orange juice and milk. Vitamin D works in conjunction with calcium and they help to build baby’s teeth and bones. According to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, it’s best to get 1,000 to 2,000 international units of vitamin D per day.
If your prenatal vitamin doesn’t contain enough vitamin D, you may need to take an additional supplement. But always be sure to consult with your doctor first, so you know if you’re getting a safe and healthy amount of vitamin D.
Protein
Protein is found within poultry, eggs, lean meat, and seafood. If you’re a vegan, there are many options to get that boost of protein in your diet that include nuts, beans, seeds, and soy products. It’s important to get enough protein while pregnant as this helps your baby’s growth. The recommended amount you should have in your diet is 71 grams per day.
FAQs
When should you start taking prenatal vitamins?
It’s actually best if you can begin taking these vitamins prior to becoming pregnant. When you’re on your journey to conceive, you’ll have to do everything you can to maintain your nutritional needs and overall health. If you’re not already taking multivitamins for prenatal health, start on them as soon as possible after you learn that you’re pregnant.
Are there side effects to taking prenatal vitamins?
Yes, there are side effects involved when taking prenatal vitamins. Before you begin taking your prenatal vitamins, you’ll need to establish a routine to combat any potential side effects that may come up. This includes constipation, heartburn, excessive gas, and difficulty dealing with the taste of them (especially at first).
You also might experience some muscle weakness as a result of being on these supplements, as well as notice teeth staining, hair loss, blurred vision, and back and joint pain. Some of these issues you already experience during pregnancy, but the fact that you’re taking a supplement featuring specific things can make them worse.
As long as you know what to expect, you can prepare and the side effects should be minimal if they occur at all. Oftentimes, it’s best to take these when you don’t have an empty stomach, make sure that you’re drinking plenty of water, and that you take them at certain times of the day.
Can I take prenatal vitamins if I’m not pregnant?
Yes, you absolutely can be on these vitamins if you’re not currently pregnant. In fact, they are ideal to take if you’d like to become pregnant in the near future or even if you’d like to maintain your health and improve your chances at becoming pregnant and having a healthy pregnancy.
What happens if I take too many prenatal vitamins?
Just like with nearly anything else in the medical world and in general, there really can be too much of a good thing. It can be harmful to you if you ingest too many of these vitamins.
Too much of certain minerals and vitamins can cause problems for your and your baby. If you take too much vitamin D, A, E, and K you could even overdose. Be sure to discuss your plan to take prenatal supplements in case they have recommendations on what ingredients to avoid and they can offer some input on what ones would best suit your needs.
What happens if I miss taking a vitamin one day?
If this is a vitamin that you take twice a day, you can pick right back up and take it that night. If this is a once daily vitamin, it’s fine if you wait until the next day when you notice hours later you forgot to take your prenatal vitamin. There shouldn’t be any consequences when you don’t take it for a day or two.
Are all prenatal vitamins the same?
No, there definitely are different components and ingredients when it comes to each type of multivitamin for prenatal use. Some of them have been approved by the Federal Drug Administration.
There are differences when it comes to concentrations of nutrients that are within each vitamin. You can talk to your gynecologist/obstetrician if you’d like recommendations or their professional opinion on a particular prenatal vitamin that you’re interested in taking.
What’s the difference between a prenatal vitamin and a regular multivitamin?
It can seem as though there isn’t any true difference between prenatal vitamins and multivitamins. However, anything you get that has “prenatal” in the name is sure to have extra of some nutrients that are necessary while trying to conceive and during pregnancy. This includes folic acid and iron. They are specially formulated for those who are planning on having a baby or already are pregnant.
Conclusion
The multivitamin you plan to take every day while trying to conceive, pregnant, and beyond is something that shouldn’t be a hasty decision. Take your time and do research to determine what’s the best to meet your unique nutritional needs and what will work with your lifestyle and any difficulties you’ve been having. Hopefully, this list is a good starting point for making this choice.
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