Prenatal vitamins

[kitchengirl]

So I'm 5 weeks pregnant, and been taking folic acid for a couple of months now. Should I be taking other prenatal vitamins, or is a (mostly) healthy diet enough?

[babymamamilk]

You can get a good all in one like pregnacare so it's lots of prenatal vitamins and you won't feel like you're going to rattle with a million different tablets. I personally didn't find out I was pg with DC till I was eight weeks and he was fine with just folic acid from then. It's better to be sooner obviously.

Congratulations on the baby xxx send me some luck too xxx

[arbrighton]

The only other vitamin that's recommended for pregnancy for all women is vitamin D throughout.

Pregnacare etc are stupidly expensive, increase nausea for a lot of women and have actually been shown to be of no additional benefit.

I got separate folic acid for ttc and first 12 weeks then cheap just vit d tablets from chemist

[babymamamilk]

@arbrighton I actually got pregnacare on prescription so didn't pay for it. I also spoke to a dietician who did a special diet plan to make sure I got all my vitamins (vegetarian and dairy free).

[vfoster]

I use pregnacare for my first pregnancy and for this one. I only found out recently that they are so much cheaper if you subscribe on Amazon! I was paying like £20 a pack in Boots!

[EssentialHummus]

I took folic acid from when we started TTC, then from 12 weeks on I've been taking the free NHS ones (they're available from any pharmacy).

[Emeraude]

I used the pregnancy vitamins from Sainsbury's. They're £5 for 30 and have all the safe vitamins and some fish oil thing. They'd sold out the other day so I got some Pregnacare instead. Makes me feel better when I'm eating chocolate cake.

[Alexandra07]

You can buy from nhs folic acid/vitamin c/vitamin d combination tablets. You can get a box with 56 for £1. I don't qualify for the healthy start coupons but I could still buy them. You can find a list of retailers here:
www.healthystart.nhs.uk/

What confuses me is that they suggest a combination tablet for the wholre pregnancy but I have read that we should take folic acid only for 12 weeks, not for the whole pregnancy and whilre breastfeeding.

[DebsOctBaby]

I'm using the boots all round pregnancy tablet which is fine. Pregnacare made me really really sick and my midwife said that's very common and the boots one is just as good

[kel1493]

I only took the healthy start vitamins they gave me. And that was hard enough as I hated taking them due to the chalkyness of them

[rainbowsockstoday]

@alexandra07 I'm still taking the breastfeeding ones now at 27mths and did my whole pregnancy too

[EssentialHummus]

alex in my area (Lewisham) they seem to just give them out, even if you don't qualify - worth checking. Not sure if it's a policy but the midwife just directed me to the pharmacy to collect even though I'm not eligible.