vitamin A please read

[looloo13]

I was advised by a pharmacist to take an a-z multi vitamin as I was unable to eat much due to bad morning sickness, Ive just seen midwife today and told they where not good as contained vitamin A, Im worried sick now as took them during most vital development time, Im now 11wks 3 days. anyone else had experience of this

Sorry you're worried looloo. If it was a general pregnancy vitamin you took, don't worry as it will contain a level around 100% of the RDA ( recommended daily amount).

Vitamin A is only a concern if it's taken as a mega-dose (ie many times the RDA). Also remember in generations gone by, women were routinely advised to eat liver (and worse!) in pregnancy & their babies were all fine!

Unless you've taken a mega-dose, don't worry! (If you've still got the packaging have a read at the label & see what percentage of RDA the dose was)

hi thanks for answering its a normal multi vitamin and contains 50% daily recommended amount x

50% of RDA will have done you no harm at all. Try not to panic! Oh & congrats on your pregnancy :)

Sorry meant to say you or your baby! D'oh!

I second lotsofcheese they recommend we avoid it, but I am sure, if you challenged the midwife on why, they may not be able to give you the answer. A friend of mine who is a GP looked it up as to why it must be avoided, it's because if you take too much you are at a higher risk of suffering from osteoporosis in later years. Though you are only taking a 50% dose I think as long as you stop now and change to a pregnancy multivitamin you should be fine.

I must admit that I have only taken folic acid, when I took a pregnancy multivitamin it made me tremendously constipated at there was too much iron in it and I already had an iron rich diet.

An sure too it will be fine. I think the high levels of vit A cause issues hence no liver etc nowadays but carrots contain it and no one says not to eat them congrats and enjoy your pregnancy

thank you all for replying, having stressful time enough as on fragmin due to previous blood clot and already had plenty heartache from previous pregnancies :(

High doses of vitamin A are known to be "teratogenic" ie cause harm to the developing baby.

Apparently some pregnant lady in Italy once ate liver every day whilst pregnant & had a deformed baby as a result.

Kellestar, your friend the GP was wrong. As a midwife I can tell you the risks of vitamin a are nothing to do with osteoporosis.

Looloo, the chances of the dose of vitamin a you've taken causing any problems are next to nothing. Pregnant women still need vitamin a , their rda is just half that of a non pregnant woman. So if you've been taking a 50% dose then you've actually been taking the right amount! Though you'd have been getting a little bit more from diet but I bet not loads.

The research that fou d problems with vitamin a were when people were taking very high doses of around 12,000re a day.

If you look here study this shows no correlation between women taking normal vitamin supplements and birth defects.

I've certainly seen pregnant women at around 12 weeks who have been happily taking a multi vitamin and not knowing about vitamin a. They were fine. Try not to worry about it.

thank you for replying. Im most stressed out mum to be already. greatful for your answer xx