Are prenatal vitamins important?

Even women with balanced diets may be unable to meet the dietary requirements of pregnancy.  Hence, multivitamins are important for most pregnant women to take.  Micronutrients such as selenium, molybdenum and many vitamins can be hard to absorb from diet alone. A notable exception are pregnant individuals with hyperthyroidism.  Since virtually all pregnancy multivitamins contain iodine, they are not appropriate.  An iodine free women’s health multivitamin and additional folic acid would be a good substitute. There are multiple suitable pregnancy and breastfeeding multivitamins in every pharmacy and supermarket.  Most contain similar ingredients.  A notable difference is the iron content.  Since iron is constipating, you might choose a lower content preparation in early pregnancy and a higher one later on when iron deficiency is more likely.  Some of the better known preparations and in order of highest to lowest amount of iron are Elevit, Blackmore’s, Suisse, Nature’s Own but there are many.  We do not recommend any one specifically and their relative cost might also influence your choice.