Prenatal are significantly important for pregnant women or planning to conceive to fulfill the nutritional gap that is very common in all. However, have you been consuming prenatal vitamins without knowing their purpose?
Do you also have the question, Can You Take Prenatal Vitamins Without Being Pregnant? Please read the article for prenatal vitamins’ uses, benefits, and shortcomings. The article will help you learn about whether you should take prenatal vitamins if you are not pregnant.
Prenatal vitamins are the best way to fulfill the nutritional gap, even with a healthy diet. It is only possible to have some of the required nutrition from your diet regularly. Men and women need added supplements, but pregnancy is a different ball game!
Can You Take Prenatal Vitamins Without Being Pregnant?
As pregnant women or trying to conceive, women must not have two nutritional gaps in their body! Iron and Folic acid because they help in the healthy development and growth of the fetus effectively. So, can you take prenatal vitamins without being pregnant? Read on to find out.
Folic acid helps prevent any neural tube defects that might develop as serious abnormalities in the spinal cord and the fetus’s brain. Iron, on the other hand, helps in the development of the fetus and the placenta helping both mother and child to maintain a healthy count of red blood cells.
It is, therefore, important that women must start with a prenatal vitamin three months before they are pregnant. It should be an important part of your medication when trying to conceive. If you question, do prenatal vitamins make you gain weight? There is also a chance of gaining weight!
What Are Prenatal Vitamins?
Prenatal vitamins include minerals and vitamins that are necessary for pregnant women and are taken in supplement form. These vitamins should always be taken based on a doctor’s prescription based on your body’s requirements and the stage of your pregnancy.
When choosing a prenatal vitamin, you must consider the ingredients, reviews, nutritional content, vetting, and testing. These steps help in evaluating the impact of the medication on the pregnancy. You have to maintain the dietary demands of the body along with adding ingredients that are high quality.
You must select a prenatal vitamin free of preservatives and artificial additives, along with a positive review in the market.
Best Prenatal Vitamins
There are some of the best prenatal vitamins you can choose from for maintaining a healthy diet when pregnant or trying to conceive. These vitamins will help you fulfill the diet gap and provide you with a fulfilling dose of minerals and vitamins.
Ritual Prenatal Multivitamin Capsules
The medication is in capsule form with 2 doses of it per day. It is certified for potency and purity. It is made traceable and helps maintain women’s and children’s pregnancies. There are 12 ingredients in total to help women during their pregnancy.
MegaFood Baby & Me 2 Prenatal Multivitamin
The prenatal vitamin is in the form of a tablet with a dose of 2 pills a day. It has been a non-GMo project verified, along with being gluten-free. It has also been tested for 125+ pesticides and herbicides. The medication is plant-based, with organic ingredients used to design it so that it is digestible.
This medication can be taken on an empty stomach. It contains key ingredients such as choline, D3(1), vitamins B6, B12, folate, and iron.
FullWell Prenatal Multivitamin
This prenatal vitamin is a capsule, and pregnant women need to take 8 capsules a day. Third parties have tested the medication for potency, non-GMO, and purity. The product has been designed by fertility and dietitian expert Ayla Barmmer and is considered one of the most comprehensive in the market.
What Are The Uses Of Prenatal Vitamins?
Women must start taking the medication at least 3 months before they want to become pregnant or when conceiving. The folate helps strengthen the fetus’s spinal cord along with iron maintaining the placenta and the proper increase in the count of red blood cells.
The medication is effective for the health of both mother and the child. You must drink lots of water and include fiber in your diet so that mostly all nutrients can be fulfilled. The benefits of prenatal vitamins are discussed further.
Benefits
- The medication helps prevent any serious abnormalities in the fetus’s brain and spinal cord. It is with the folic acid that is present in the prenatal vitamins.
- Another advantage of the medication is that it contributes to the development of the fetus and the placenta, maintaining a steady growth in the red blood cells in both mother and baby.
- Iron also helps in the supply of oxygen to the fetus from the body of the mother.
Side Effects
- There can be certain side effects of prenatal vitamins, especially if pregnant, because, at that point, the body becomes sensitive to smell and taste.
- There might be bouts of morning sickness.
- There is also a chance of constipation, especially due to the large amount of iron in the prenatal vitamins.
How Prenatal Vitamins Are Different From Traditional Multivitamins?
When you are planning to consume multivitamins, do not start taking prenatal vitamins! There are some significant differences between the two so here I am sharing with you the differences. Of course there is no specific formulation when it comes to prenatal vitamins however, there are specific vitamins and nutrients!
Calcium is something which is significantly important for adult women and pregnant women. All women need 1000 milligrams (mg) of calcium daily therefore, Mayo Clinic claims that prenatal vitamins have calcium about 200 to 300 mg.
Of course the calcium requirement is significant but it doesn’t mean every woman has sufficient calcium. Women must have sufficient calcium because it strengthens their bones and helps in the overall density. Folic Acid is another element that is inside prenatal vitamins as it helps in reducing neural tube defects!
Folic Acid helps with spina bifida and according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, pregnant women require 600 micrograms (mcg) on a regular basis. Even though it is quite difficult to consume only folic acid, it is necessary as a supplement with other food items.
Inside folic acid, there are leafy green vegetables, asparagus, broccoli and beans.so basically if you consume cereal, pasta, break and other items, you will get folate acid. We cannot forget about iron which is also necessary because it creates new red blood cells.
During pregnancy, iron is a necessity for women, especially pregnant women. Mayo Clinic claims that there are 27 mg of iron everyday for pregnant women, where 8 mg more as requirements as compared to women who are not pregnant!
What Can Happen If Prenatal Vitamins Are Taken Without Being Pregnant?
Prenatal vitamins are specifically developed by keeping pregnant women in mind. Haven’t you heard the popular saying that when you are pregnant, you eat for two? There are many more nutritional requirements for a pregnant woman and different aspects of the pregnancy. It includes lactation.
Therefore, it is safe for women who are not pregnant not to take prenatal vitamins. There can be side effects of taking prenatal vitamins when not pregnant. For example, prenatal vitamins contain a certain amount of folic acid, which is quite effective for pregnancy.
It helps in the development of the spinal cord of the fetus. However, this can be damaging for a non-pregnant woman! Women who are not expecting will have an adverse side effect with too much folic acid because it masks the deficiency of vitamin B-12.
The prenatal vitamins also have a certain amount of iron, which benefits both the mother and the baby. Unfortunately, excessive iron can cause nausea, diarrhea, and constipation in non-pregnant women. Excessive amounts of vitamin A from the synthetic vitamins in the body lead to toxicity in the liver.
Hence, if you are not pregnant, you can develop health issues. There are further concerns regarding allergies that you might get in the form of rashes and swellings. There are hardly any benefits of prenatal vitamins while not pregnant! Therefore, all women who are not pregnant and not planning to conceive should not take prenatal vitamins.
Conclusion
Please read the article to learn whether can you take prenatal vitamins without being pregnant and why it is not advisable! After reading this article, I am sure you realize that you do not need to take prenatal dietary supplements if you are not trying to get pregnant or you are not pregnant.
At times, you might have gone through many claims such as you will get stronger nails and thicker hair if you are consuming prenatal vitamins. These claims are definitely not true especially when it comes to this claim. Why are we saying this is because the idea of having prenatal vitamins when not necessary can put your health at risk!
Comment down below regarding your experience of taking prenatal vitamins and if you have ever faced any concern when consuming them!
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