3 Things to Look for When Buying a Prenatal Supplement

The supplements that we choose to take when preparing for pregnancy (or in the preconception phase), pregnant & postpartum are important. As a women’s health naturopath, I’m often educating my new clients on what to look for when buying a prenatal supplement & why.

Here are my top 3 suggestions to consider to best support the health of you, your future baby & set you up for a well-nourished postpartum.

1) Choose activated folate or folinic acid instead of folic acid

You may have heard of the importance of folic acid in pregnancy before. Folic acid, a synthetic form of vitamin B9, is broadly recommended when trying to conceive and in pregnancy – and for a good reason. Folate is really important for supporting baby’s neutral tube development and reducing the risk of conditions such as spina bifida.

When we talk about folic acid, activated folate and folinic acid we are talking about different forms of the nutrient, folate, that is found in foods such as broccoli, brussel sprouts and beef or chicken liver.

When taking the synthetic form of folic acid, our liver has to convert the folic acid into a useable form. This is fine for some people, but for others due to genetic variations in the MTHFR gene, may pose an issue when it comes to fertility. To avoid this dilemma, I recommend that my clients take activated folate (also known as methyl-folate or 5-MTHF). Similarly, folinic acid requires less steps to be metabolised.

2) Contains Choline

Choline is one of those nutrients that not many people have heard of before, and yet, it’s super important when it comes to trying to conceive, pregnancy and postpartum.

Choline can be found in eggs, particularly the yolks, beef & chicken liver, salmon, and in lower amounts, in green vegetables such as broccoli.

Choline has a whole range of benefits. Just like folate, choline is important for neural tube development and brain development of your growing baby. As well as supporting baby’s health, choline is also important for maternal health. Here are some of the benefits of choline for mum:

• Supports liver function – reducing risk of the development of fatty liver in pregnancy
• Reduces risk of pre-eclampsia and hypertension
• Reduces risk of gestational diabetes
• Supports maternal cognition
  • Think: less brain fog, more clear thinking

 

3) Contains 1000mcg Vitamin D

Optimal Vitamin D levels are important for a whole range of things – including:

• Regulating mood
• Supporting immune function
• Good energy levels

You might be surprised to know, that vitamin D also effects fertility and pregnancy outcomes (plus is pretty important postpartum, too). Here are some of the benefits:

• Maintaining optimal Vitamin D levels in pregnancy can help to reduce maternal bone loss
• Studies are starting to explore the effect of vitamin D on ovarian function, essential for ovulation and conception
• Optimal vitamin D levels can also help reduce the occurrence of conditions in pregnancy such as pre-eclampsia while low vitamin D levels have been linked to low infant birthweight

It’s actually pretty hard to meet our vitamin D requirements through diet – we need regular, safe sun exposure to make our vitamin D – which can be quite hard for those of us living in Melbourne! Foods that contain vitamin D include eggs (higher amounts found in pasture raised eggs) and in fatty fish. You can also find a very small amount of vitamin D in mushrooms. The trick to this is putting mushrooms outside in the sun for 15 minutes to 2 hours before cooking to actually increase the vitamin D levels in the mushrooms!

Make sure you check how much vitamin D is in your prenatal vitamin as some common prenatal supplements contain as low as 200IU of vitamin D – which let’s be real, here in Melbourne, simply isn’t enough.

 And – make sure you’re getting a yearly Vitamin D blood test when you go to visit your GP. This will help to identify if you need to be taking an even higher dose of vitamin D than this.

What supplement should I choose?

In my Women’s Health Naturopathic Clinic in Croydon, 9 times out of 10 I recommend Natal Support by All Things Better. It meets all three of the requirements listed above and is Naturopathically designed to support women through pre-conception, pregnancy and postpartum. It is also great for supporting breastfeeding mothers.

Yes – there’s more to why I prescribe this supplement – actually, I’ve made a whole webinar over on the Sacred Mother membership where we go into detail exploring this. However, this is enough information to get you moving forward in the right direction – supporting both you and your baby in this incredibly exciting (and often overwhelming) time.

There are some other good options out there that meet the criteria I’ve listed above and I’ll be sure to go into more detail on other aspects of why I use this prenatal supplement in the clinic – including why I choose to stock an iron-free prenatal supplement, so make sure that you join my mailing list to ensure that you don’t miss out.

When should I not take this supplement?

I highly recommend speaking with your degree qualified Naturopath or Nutritionist if you have a condition such as a thyroid condition (including Hashimoto’s, Graves, Hypothyroidism or Hyperthyroidism) where prescribing may be a bit more complicated. Other factors to consider include whether you’re on any other medications – in which case, you’re welcome to book in an acute consultation to assess if this is the right option for you.

Where to from here?

At KBW, we have options available to support all women – right from starting to think about trying to conceive, through trying to conceive, couples struggling with fertility or going through IVF, pregnancy, postpartum & beyond.

We can support you with the following:

• Free downloadable resources
• Webinars & courses, available on The KBW Health Hub
• Our Online Store – where we sell Naturopath & Clinical Nutritionist approved products
• 1:1 Consultations available in our Natural Health Clinic in Croydon, and Online Australia-Wide
• Over in the Sacred Mother membership

More than just one on one:

We know that one on one consultations simply aren’t right for everyone, and that’s why we are in the process of putting together some really great resources for those of you who would prefer to learn from webinars, do self-paced online courses or join a monthly membership. Please keep an eye on our Health Hub to see what we have available. By joining the mailing list we will also let you know when new resources are uploaded.