Pregnancy

Prenatal Supplements

  • NOTE: The FDA recently tested prenatal, women’s, & children’s vitamins and found that almost all of them contain lead, sometimes at alarming levels.  Don’t take a prenatal without checking the FDA report to see how much lead is in it.
  • Prenatal Multivitamins:
    • Nature’s Sunshine Nature’s Prenatal: I didn’t know about this vitamin while I was pregnant.  It looks very similar to the one I took, but it is even lower in lead content, so next time around I’ll probably take this one.
    • Pregnancy Plus multivitamin: This is the brand I took, which fortunately was one of the lowest (but not the lowest) when it comes to lead.  It has the right kind of Vitamin A (Beta-Carotene is always safe, but high amounts of pre-formed Vitamin A can cause birth defects); Vitamin K, which is good for your bones; the right amounts of everything you need for pregnancy, with no mega-doses; no herbal supplements (which might not be safe in pregnancy); no artificial colors or flavors. You can get it online from CVS.
  • Nordic Naturals Prenatal DHA: DHA is important for fetal & infant brain development, so it’s good to supplement during pregnancy & breastfeeding. This is the brand my OB recommended. They are carefully purified & tested for contaminants, and don’t taste like anything — no fish burps. Their non-prenatal DHA supplement is identical but with strawberry flavoring; the prenatal ones are unflavored so they won’t bother you during morning sickness.
  • Calcium: You need 1200mg a day and if you don’t get what the baby needs, your stores will come out of your bones for the baby. Calcium can inhibit the absorption of other vitamins so it’s good to take your prenatal in the morning/day and then take calcium before bed. That way you can also decide how much to supplement depending on how much dairy you had that day. (I’ve found I can avoid the need to take calcium supplements by carrying around organic string cheese as between-meal snacks — each serving has 7g protein & 20% RDA of calcium, so 2 or 3 servings a day helps a lot toward getting my calcium & the 75-100g of protein I need.)  Yogurt & cottage cheese are good sources too.
  • For more nutrition info, see website links on my Books & Websites page.

Medications (and alternatives) during pregnancy

  • This is a very helpful article on what the risks are for different medications: Pregnancy and OTC Cough, Cold, and Analgesic Preparations
  • Things that are safe and effective for a cold/flu:
    • Simply Saline preservative-free nasal spray, for congestion (there is a version for babies too).
    • Gargling with warm salt water.
    • Drinking hot water with honey and lemon (honey is OK during pregnancy, but not for infants) or broths. Be careful with teas: some herbal ingredients are dangerous during pregnancy.
    • Drinking lots of water. If you are trying to avoid artificial things, Knudsen Recharge is a Gatorade-like drink made from juice. But it’s a sports drink, with lots of sugar. If you want a Pedialyte alternative for diarrhea and vomiting (for baby or for you), there is a product called Baby’s Only Essentials that is nutritionally identical to Pedialyte but all-natural. I have never seen it in a store but you can order online and keep it on-hand. I haven’t tried it so I can’t vouch for the taste.
    • Using a humidifier.
    • Sucking on hard candies. I found organic ones made with lemon oil that were soothing (menthol cough drops may not be safe). The ones I found were by a brand called College Farm, & Whole Foods carries them.
  • Things that are safe for headaches: If you need to take a painkiller, it should only be Tylenol. Other things I read about and tried were shoulder/neck massages, temple massages, ice packs on the back of the neck, stretching, and resting in a dark, quiet room. They all helped some, as did figuring out what arrangement of pillows I needed to sleep comfortably on my side as my pregnancy progressed (after 4 months you’re not supposed to sleep on your back). Prenatal yoga has great shoulder, neck, & back stretches.
  • Things that help for morning sickness: There is a lot of advice out there, so I won’t write much. Keeping food in your stomach at all times is key; I would eat a piece of dry whole-wheat toast in bed before I got up, and keep snacking all day. I also found smoothies made with plain yogurt, a banana, and frozen strawberries really soothing in the morning. For about a month I could only really tolerate ice-cold water (I kept a carafe in the fridge) or sparkling water; it’s really important to stay hydrated, and apparently dehydration can make nausea worse, so try to find a beverage that works for you. I found Preggie Pop Drops (available at maternity stores) indispensable when I was hit with a wave of nausea out in the world, but they’re really acidic and burned my tongue if I ate too many in a row. Lime popsicles helped some too. In the 1st trimester your nutrition isn’t that important, and the only vitamin you really must have is folic acid, so if your prenatal vitamin makes you queasy, get an 800mcg folate supplement and just take that until you can start taking the prenatal again.