folic acid or pregnacare?

[emjaylu]

Hi all, ive been taking just folic acid for the past 5 weeks (i am 6 weeks pregnant) i bought them as soon as i found out as we weren't trying for a baby.

I askedthe doctors at the early pregnancy unit if just folic acid is fine but ivebeen told by a couple of people i should take pregnacare instead? As it hasmore in it?

Can anyone advise me, this is my first pregnancy and i am 20.

I had low hcg levels at week 1 of pregnancy of 294 and 5 days later it was 494 so didnt even double, but when i went back they said it all looks like and i am 5+1 weeks.

Thanjs

In London they now advise us to take vitamin D - for the bone development. Many people have issues here due to the lack of sunshine and it's worse for people with darker skin.

Also from what I have read and been told by consultants it's impt to take iodine- it's lacking in the soil in the UK so we don't get enough in our plant foods. Lack of this can cause thyroid problems esp in pregnant women.

Plus, it's not uncommon to get anaemia in pregnancy due to low iron.

So I would take the pregnacare as it's got all those plus some other things that may be beneficial to you and baby.

The recommended vitamins for all pregnant women are now folic acid 400mcg daily and vitamin D 10mcg daily. You can buy them both separately - or something like pregnacare has them both in plus added other vitamins iron etc. I would say up to you, pregnacare isn't too expensive for the normal one (approx £3.50/month in asda). I started out with folic acid when ttc but changed to pregnacare once pregnant on the basis that my diet was rubbish due to nausea so I didn't want baby to miss out on anything - although there is no evidence to suggest that the extra vitamins will make much difference!

If you want to take a pregnancy multivitamin superdrug and boots own brand ones have a lot of the same stuff as pregnacare for a lot less. Needs to be pregnancy specific ones because they don't contain vitamin A.

I look pregnancy vitamins because sometimes you feel so crap and have to just eat what you can, so I felt better knowing that I was getting a range of vitamins from the tablets that I wasn't getting from my food!

Just to echo mrshjb...I've been eating so much crap (not because I've been feeling ill, but I just can't. stop. eating) that I wanted to just reassure myself that I was getting my daily fix of vitamins, etc. so I invested in Pregnacare Max (or something), but they are about £15 for a months' supply!!! They are the ones with specially formulated Omega 3 capsules too- apparently you can't take normal Omega 3 when you're pregnant for some reason- because I want a genius child with a massively well developed brain!

I'm sure you can get cheaper things which do the same, but do just watch out for the Omega 3 if you decide to take it. It's something to do with fish oil; the same reason you shouldn't eat too much tuna or oily fish when you're pregnant.

I take standard pregnacare on advice of mw. vit d is important plus I am known to become anemic in pg so was told that the iron should hopefully boost my levels enough to not have to have constant blood tests!

I suffered from nausea with my first pregnancy and on the advice on my consultant switched from pregnacare to just folic acid & vitamin d. She said pregnancies can be quite harsh on some people's stomachs. Obviously that's not the case for everyone.
If you can, I would take a pregnancy multi vit (like pregnacare or own brand one) but at a minimum you should be taking folic acid & vitamin d