I plan to conceive soon and am a midwife, so I'm very conscious of pregnancy-related purchases and searched a long time for the "perfect" prenatal vitamin. I wanted one that has natural sources of iron to better improve my hemoglobin and prevent pregnancy-related iron-deficiency anemia. I prefer "whole" sources rather than "piecemeal" sources. In other words, most companies shear off the iron atom from an amino acid (amino acids are the building blocks of proteins), but the iron atom is unstable by itself, so they have to bind it to another atom, hence ferrous sulfate (iron and sulfur), which your body has only limited capacity to digest and use. In such cases, I and my fellow midwives usually have to refer our clients to natural sources of iron in supplement form, such as Floridix or Chlorophyll. However, this company uses the whole amino acid rather than shearing off each atom, combining it to another atom, and throwing it in the pill, so theoretically it would be more usable by the body. I'll update later (hopefully in less than a year ;-) ) when I've gone through a pregnancy and can say how it worked for me. I also wanted a supplement that has little or no calcium since I have magnesium-deficiency headaches and calcium interferes with the uptake of magnesium. Unfortunately, this supplement does not have magnesium in it, but I'm used to taking a magnesium supplement and since it doesn't have calcium, I can take my magnesium at the same time. (Interestingly, calcium supplementation increases the risk of heart attack according to a BMJ study and yet magnesium supplementation alone without calcium decreases the risk of osteoporosis. Hmmm... :-) ) It was also really important to me to have a lot of folic acid since that decreases the risk of neural tube defects in the baby (such as anencephaly and spina bifida). As an added bonus, it has some sources of chlorophyll (such as spirulina) for greater iron control, red raspberry leaf to tone the uterus (see Shonda Parker's writings for more information on that), and other substances for digestive support (great for my IBS).
Although the recommended use is 4 capsules per day, these pills do not make me nauseous. Another prenatal vitamin by the same company makes me nauseous just to smell it. The pills are not too big (another benefit you get from supplements that don't have calcium in them) so they're easy for even me to swallow.
Product shipped quickly and in good condition. Thanks!
(Disclaimer: I'm not anti-calcium. It's just not right for me thanks to my magnesium-deficiency headaches; and since magnesium alone without calcium decreases the risk of osteoporosis, I'm not concerned about my bones.
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