Great Organic/Non GMO Prenatals- but you will need to add other supplements! Pros: This is a great product and one of the only food based, organic, non-GMO prenatals I could find. Food based is vital for baby! Cons: They do have a slightly strange flavor (just while you are swallowing them) so I usually try to take them with juice and not water to avoid noticing it. Note: These prenatals are good but are not 100% complete for many moms. They lack many nutrients you need to grow a healthy baby. I did a ton of research on nutrients needed for optimal fetal development and this is what I came up with. (Note: I am healthy woman with no preexisting medical conditions- each mom is different and you should talk with your doctor/ midwife to decide what is best for you). Vitamins recommended in pregnancy (upper limits): -- how much is in the Garden of Life prenatals: Calcium: 1000mg (<2500) â€" 125mg Choline: 450mg (<3500) -- 0 DHA: 300mg --0 Folate (better than synthetic Folic acid): 600mcg â€" 800mcg Iodine: 250 (<1100mcg) â€" 150mcg Iron: 27mg (<45mg) â€" 18mg Potassium: 4700mg --0 Riboflavin: 1.4mg â€"1.7mg B6: 1.9mg â€"2mg B12: 2.6mcg â€"6mcg C: 85mg (<2000mg) â€"60 mg D: 600IU (<4000) â€"1,400IU Zinc: 11mg (<40mg) â€" 7.5mg Biotin: 30mcg â€"300mcg Magnesium 360mg â€"38mg Based on this information, I still needed the minimum of the following nutrients each day: Calcium: 875mg Choline: 450mg DHA: 300mg Iodine: 100mcg Iron: 9mg Potassium: 4700mg C: 25mg Zinc: 3.5mg Magnesium 322mg Note: You get some of this with a healthy diet, but I wanted to ensure I was getting all of it daily for me and my developing baby. So I also take the following supplements each day with this prenatal: 1. New Chapter Whole Mega Alaskan Salmon Oil (wild caught) for my DHA (220mg) https://smile.amazon.com/New-Chapter-Wholemega-Supplement-Astaxanthin/dp/B002FU6I9K/ref=sr_1_1_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1474225642&sr=8-1&keywords=new chapter salmon oil 2. Garden of Life Raw Calcium (food based) for Calcium: 756mg; Vitamin C: 50 mg; Magnesium: 386mg https://smile.amazon.com/Garden-Life-Vitamin-Calcium-Capsules/dp/B003L31NM2/ref=sr_1_sc_1_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1474225696&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=garden of life raw calc 3. IntraNaturals Choline for Choline 550mg https://smile.amazon.com/Choline-550mg-Pregnant-Cognitive-IntraNaturals/dp/B01A9WLFZC/ref=sr_1_1_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1474225230&sr=8-1&keywords=organic choline 4. Dr. Berg Organic Sea Kelp Supplement (Pure Icelandic Sea Kelp) for Iodine: 500mcg https://smile.amazon.com/Supplement-Capsules-Icelandic-Nutrients-Dr/dp/B01A2IRCZU/ref=sr_1_2_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1474224803&sr=8-2&keywords=Organic Kelp 5. Garden of Life Healthy Blood (food based) for Iron: 28mg (note this is more iron than you need when coupled with this prenatal but when you are making 4-5 pounds of extra blood many women need it - this is different for each woman and you should get your iron tested) https://smile.amazon.com/Garden-Life-Vitamin-Code®-Capsules/dp/B0098U0QWA/ref=sr_1_1_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1474225734&sr=8-1&keywords=garden+of+life+healthy+blood&th=1 After all these supplements, I am still short: DHA: 80mg Calcium: 119mg Potassium: 4700mg Zinc: 3.5mg I do get most of this in my healthy diet each day, but just to be safe (and ensure I grow the best baby I possibly can) I also take the following “nonessential” but beneficial supplements each day: 6. Garden of Life raw B-Complex (food based) for extra B vitamins (these give you energy so best to take in the am and you pee out what you don't need) https://smile.amazon.com/Garden-Life-Vitamin-Complex-Capsules/dp/B0098U0SQO/ref=sr_1_2_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1474226074&sr=8-2&keywords=garden of life b complex 7. Chlorella Spirulina 50/50 Tablet Mix for cleaning out my blood. https://smile.amazon.com/Premium-Chlorella-Spirulina-1250-Tablets/dp/B00FAB10ZI/ref=sr_1_3_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1474226153&sr=8-3&keywords=chlorella spirulina 8. World Organics Ultra Concentrated Liquid Chlorophyll: to give me extra green nutrients, also it has been linked to decreasing blood loss during labor: https://smile.amazon.com/Ultra-Concentrated-Liquid-Chlorophyll-Ounces/dp/B008MOOS2W/ref=sr_1_1_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1474226366&sr=8-1&keywords=ultra concentrated liquid chlorophyll Note: I don't work for any of these companies and am not getting anything for this review. I am just an expecting mom that did A LOT of research of prenatals and nutrients needed for optimal development and wanted to share what I learned. Please talk with your doctor/ midwife to determine what is best for you. Hopefully I can help another expecting mom and you will find this information useful! Best of luck with your pregnancy :

Even though I am a dude, I did an extensive amount of research on prenatals. I am a nutrition nut and would not give a supplement to my wife if I did not fully believe in its quality and efficacy. To be clear, do not allow this to replace a high quality, nutrient rich, diet. Ladies, make your man cook for you- vegatables/meat are way too easy, "I can't cook" is a poor excuse for any man to use. My wife has been taking these during her entire pregnancy and for six months prior. She is nearing the end of her pregnancy and these multivitamis have been great. She has always struggled with pills, but, she gets these down easily. With actual folate, not folic acid, and the genuine attention it appears is given to the quality of each ingredient, I am confident these multivitamins will have contributed to the development of the healthiest little girl possible. I recommended these to my sister-in-law when she found out she was pregnant and I would recommend to any other woman/couple

I had to chime in here because I see this product getting an influx of negative reviews. I took this with my son who is not only extremely happy and healthy but also advanced for his age. I'm not sure if it was the prenatals but that was a possible contributing factor. The other thing about this vitamin is that it does not make my pee neon yellow like almost all vitamins do which indicates high absorbtion. If you look at the website labdoor.com they do independent testing of vitamins and this was ranked as the highest prenatal. As for people up in arms about vitex....do your research. I know a lot about vitex and I'm currently taking it as I prep to get pregnant for baby #2 and it helps balance hormones. It's not recommended in high doses in pregnancy but a small amount like 4mg is nothing to be concerned about

I have done SO much research on prenatal vitamins, and this is the one I keep coming back to! If you are going to take a prenatal vitamin, this would be the one I would take. The nutrients are bioavailable(readily absorbed by the body) because it is whole foods based. It's great to see that it does not contain dangerous ingredients, and contains lots of healthy ORGANIC fruit and veggie juices, sprouted grains, etc. The dose being split into 3 pills a day means that the nutrients are better absorbed because you are not taking them all at once(although if I forget to take them during the day I will take them all at night and have not had any probs, but I prefer spacing them out). However, there are MUCH better sources of probiotics than the small amount of the 1 strain in this pill, and I would not count on a pill's added probiotics being alive when you take it. I prefer to get probiotics from probiotic foods: I make my own kefir with kefir grains, which is probably the best source of probiotics period. I also make homemade saurkrat, the old-fashioned way, which is fermenting it (check out the book Wild Fermentation). Kombucha is also good, if you have no mercury dental fillings. Please keep in mind that a pill is no substitute for a sound, healthy diet, especially while growing a baby! These vitamins did not give me morning sickness(or worsen what I was already feeling) like other brands I have taken. This supplement is low in calcium, magnesium and vitamin k, and does not contain phosphorus, which you can get from a healthy diet, especially if you are concentrating on eating foods containing those things. I drink raw milk for the phosphorus and calcium(Pasturized milk contains no phosphorus and its other nutrients are depleted because of the heat treatment, and they are not as easily absorbed. It also loses its beneficial enzymes), and raw sprouted nuts and seeds for calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus(dont eat raw nuts/seeds that are not sprouted due to the high amounts of phytates that block minerals from being absorbed), as well as broth (home made with bones) for the minerals. Feel free to salt your food to taste, as long as you use UNREFINED salt! Such as Redmonds, celtic salt, himilayan salt, etc, dont use refined white table salt! It is especially important to consume lots of minerals if this is not your first child because pregnancy and breastfeeding deplete the mothers body of vitmains and especially minerals (and DHA!) that it stores, so its best to be doing these things before conception. This supplement will not provide you with protein, and you need A LOT of protein while pregnant! Animal sources are by far the best, and are best utilized by the body. Adequate protein consumption has been proven to prevent pre-eclamsia, check out Dr. Brewers findings on this. My midwife has me drink organic alfalfa tea for vit k. There is also K in fermented veggies and aged cheese such as parmesan. I realize I stress protein a lot because it is so important, carbs are also important but not in huge amounts. I think a diet that includes lots of different foods is key. If you eat grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, etc, just make sure they are whole (as in whole grains I mean) and are soaked or sprouted. Dont consume a lot of sugar, even if its in the form of fruit. Eating 10 apples a day is not a balanced diet ;D I also take a DHA supplement for pre-conception, pregnancy and lactation. I take fermented cod liver oil, and its best if paired with high-vitamin butter oil. I take salmon oil on days I dont eat seafood as well. (salmon oil would be a good alternative to fermented cod livero oil if you dont like that idea. So is krill oil) Trying-to-get-pregnant, and pregnant women: I recommend the book Real Food for Mother and Baby by Nina Planck, the video The Business of Being Born (I bought it on Amazon, its on Netflix too I know), as well as the book Ina May's Guide to Childbirth! CONGRATS! PS- edited in Dec, 2012, I am pregnant again with my 3rd baby and have changed a few things in this review to reflect new research I have been doing on pregnancy nutrition. I am currently taking pastured organic raw liver cut in to "pills" as a prenatal supplement, and only using 1 of these vitamins per day. I also try to eat some Brewers yeast daily, the only brand I will take is made by Lewis Labs

I use this along with a Nordic Naturals Prenatal DHA supplement and it has all the vitamins you need including folate which is key when TTC. The pills are normal sized capsules you can either take as normal or you can open them up and put it in the smoothie or something. I just take it normally as the previous multivitamin I used to take was a much larger pill. These have no type of odor or taste to them which is great. I've read reviews of other brands where people say that their prenatal vitamin makes them feel nauseous, this brand does not do that whatsoever. The natural and GMO ingredients are a plus too! I included a couple photos to give you an idea of the size of the pill. The Garden of Life RAW Prenatal is the second pill from the right in both photos. In order from left to right these pills are: 1. ON Fish Oil Softgel, 2. ProSource Women's Multivitamin, 3. Garden of Life Vitamin Code Prenatal, 4. Nordic Naturals Prenatal DHA

To the reviewer: Maria, You should get a new doctor... the reason why there is not any calcium is because if you take calcium with iron they negate each other. Do not have any dairy after taking a vitamin with iron for a few hours so the iron can absorb. Then take a calcium pill... The doctor should know this common fact. Also, the doctor was wrong again. Folate and folic acid are the same except: dietary folateâ€"the form found in whole foodsâ€"is preferable to the synthetic folic acid found in supplements and processed foods. It is both more readily available to the body, and it does not pose the same potential risks of build up. The recommended daily amount of folate for adult women who are planning pregnancy or could become pregnant should be advised to get 400 to 1,000 mcg of folic acid a day. That being said, this had been a great prenatal for me, but in sad they removed the ginger... that helps with morning sicknes

I have been taking this prenatal for almost 3 years. I'm 25 and took it about 18 mos pre-pregnancy and then all throughout my pregnancy. It's been a supplement of mine for what feels like forever! We now have a beautiful 6 mo baby girl who is thriving and i took this the entire pregnancy without knowing about the Vitex additive. BUT I've been taking this postpartum and until running out of these recently, never realized the Vitex ingredient (until reading reviews here!), because i simply trusted this formula for so long. Let me tell you-I have noticed it impacts me-and i am very keen on what my body is feeling. It's been very subtle, but there is a difference for me (I can say this is it 100% bc i do not consume soy, another known hormone disruptor, eat very clean, and do not take any birth control). My cycle calendar was very regular when taking this (pre-pregnancy, before it had Vitex), and now, even though I am breastfeeding, it seems it was “normal” just about a month ago, and now my cycle is way off (i'm not pregnant, it was delayed ovulation). I have decided to discontinue this sadly, because it's not worth the unknown risks to my body. Knowing that i took this while pregnant makes me uncomfortable for many reasons, so i wish i was alerted sooner of this added unwelcome ingredient

I love these whole food derived prenatal vitamins.. because i try to steer as far away as possible from synthetic ones. This one is the extreme oppossite.. I just wished they had more to add to the percentage of B vitamins so i won't have to buy extra,.. but thats just me.. I have not only taken these as a prenatal but also as a multivitamin.. Have you read the "Makers Diet" by Jordan Rubin well they created this Garden of Life vitamin line.. and In my opinion it is very trustworthy..and their book is also a good read if your interested in a good whole food based diet book.. Anyway According to their Garden of Life website: Their extensive non GMO verification process and, hence, the non GMO Project Verified label:assures that a product has been produced according to consensus based best practices for GMO avoidance through: verification maintenance by an annual audit and onsite inspections for high-risk products. rigorous traceability and segregation practices (after testing) to ensure ingredient integrity through to the finished product. ensuring that any ingredient that is also grown commercially in GMO form is tested prior to use in a non GMO verified product to ensure Non-GMO status. an Action Threshold of 0.9%. This aligns with laws in the European Union, where products containing more than 0.9% GMO must be labeled. a thorough review of ingredient specification sheets to determine absence of GMO risk Also with vitamins are uncooked, untreated and unadulterated, with no binders or fillers Vitamin Code Prenatal is also a wonderful multivitamin for newly lactating mothersâ€"with the immune support extending to that of the newborn, breast-fed baby. Just like me, you can give your child a “head start,” supporting the child's immune system, even before birth. Sometime during your pregnancy, blood volume can increase up to 50%, increasing iron requirements and causing the heart to work harder to support the developing child's needs. Vitamin Code RAW Prenatal Formula supports heart health and blood health with raw food-created iron, vitamins C, E, and B-Complex, plus folate. Vitamin Code RAW Prenatal also contains 800mcg of raw food-created folate. This is more than what the The Centers for Disease Control recommends. Folate is a B vitamin found mostly in green, leafy vegetables such as spinach or kale and this is where They get it from instead of synthetic folic acid. I have taken these along with my b-vitamins recently..The reason why I also take the Vitamin code b- complex is because im always lethargic.. im prone to being anemic,.. my hands, and body always cold, im always a couch potato my husband tells me to get off my feet. Anyway long story short.. these along with the b complex have given me soo much energy.. and the vitamins I've been missing out on! If you liked my review please feel free to vote that it was helpful thankyou so much!

I suppose you never really know if vitamins are doing what they claim to do... but I am happy with these. I like that they are made from whole foods, have actual folate (not folic acid), and even include a "digestive comfort" blend with probiotics. I do my best to get my nutrients from food but it's not realistic for me to get an ideal amount of everything everyday. I feel like these are a great back up to my diet. I also love that they don't make me feel sick if I take them on an empty stomach like other vitamins do (though I try to take them with food, sometimes I remember to take them in between meals -- having to take them 3 times a day is a bear). Was this review helpful for you? If so, please click the "Yes" button below. If not, feel free to let me know why and I'll do my best to improve it. :

I feel GREAT on this prenatal as opposed to the cheaper one I used to buy at Whole Foods which was "food based". I will explain why I found out later I didn't feel well on the other one too. This one has lots of good things in it and also Folate rather than Folic Acid which is the synthetic form of Folate. It's estimated that half the population may have the MTHFR gene mutation and can't process folic acid. So it's super important to make sure you take a good vitamin with folate (and methyl folate if you do have it). Folic acid otherwise just pools in the body since we have a hard to converting it like the real thing and it ends up becoming toxic. Also, can cause miscarriages and issues with brain development if taking the synthetic Folic acid due to lack of folate being absorbed and passed on to baby. Make sure you find a physician who is familiar with MTHFR. SO MANY MISCARRIAGES AND OTHER DEFECTS ALONG WITH MENTAL ISSUES HAPPENING THAT COULD EASILY BE AVOIDED IF ONLY MORE PHYSICIANS TESTED FOR THIS FIRST AND WOMEN STARTED PROPER TREATMENT FIRST. Do the best you can by at least getting a good vitamin like this one with the actual form of folate in it