Many pregnant women take supplements during their pregnancy but are they actually necessary?
You may have been told by your healthcare provider that if you eat a well-balanced diet, then a multivitamin in pregnancy is not usually required. However, we know that often a woman’s diet is not always ideal and in fact, one recent Australian survey showed not a single woman who participated consumed the recommended daily dietary intake of food group serves for pregnancy!
Certainly, pregnancy is a time where your nutritional needs increase in order to provide support for the baby’s optimal growth. However, your body also has an amazing capacity to adapt to different situations, and in some cases, although the requirement for a nutrient is greater in pregnancy, your body adjusts its processing of this nutrient so that increased intake from the diet is not actually required. Things are further complicated by the fact that it isn’t always easy to measure certain vitamin and minerals either and different genetic influences may contribute individual variability as well. So just what do you need to take?
Pregnancy nutrition -Folate
Without a doubt, we know that folate is critical for its role in reducing neural tube defects (NTD). All women of childbearing age should take a folate supplement of 400mcg daily for one month before and throughout the first trimester. Those with a family history of an NTD or who have pre-existing diabetes are recommended to take a higher 5mg daily dose.