Prenatal vitamins for pregnant women are supplements that a woman can take every day, to be sure she gets all necessary vitamins, nutrients in the right quantities. They are taken to make pregnancy proceeding without any problems and complications. It is important that a woman would constantly consult with her doctor and go to the survey, because the body cannot get some vitamins. However, before taking any prenatal vitamins you should consult with the doctor and take them only after they are prescribed by a doctor. The fact is that there are some supplements that can be very dangerous for pregnant women. That is why we must be very careful and consult to a doctor timely.

First of all, nutrition of pregnant women should be correct. This means that every day your diet should include proteins, fats and carbohydrates in a certain proportion. Of course, proteins are in the first place, they are the building blocks for child body. Most adults do not need supplements and prenatal vitamins, as they receive all necessary materials from a balanced diet fully and adequately, but the fact is that a pregnant woman should receive more. She needs additional nutrients, especially folic acid and iron, as a pregnant woman, except her body, should provide her growing child with vitamins and nutrients. But we must be cautious in use of vitamins and supplements, one must ensure the diet diet does not include potentially dangerous amounts of these additives.

Vitamin A is one of the most toxic prenatal vitamins women take. Pregnant women should be especially careful in use of this vitamin. Therefore, the best way to take vitamin A – to take it only in the form of beta-carotene. Beta-carotene is a nutrient located inside fruits and vegetables. In the body, beta-carotene is converted to vitamin A. If pregnant women take supplements of vitamin A in two and a half times higher than recommended doses (more than 10 000 ME / day), then they have two and a half times higher risk of child’s defects, compared with pregnant women not taking high doses of vitamin A. Moreover, women taking vitamin A in large quantities have five times higher risk of giving birth to a child with a neural crest defect, cleft lip, heart disease or brain disorders. As vitamin A is involved in the growth and development of a healthy fetus, then its too high content, even accumulated in mother’s body before conception, can lead to devastating consequences.

In fact, excess of vitamin A is the greatest danger during two weeks before conception and during first two months of pregnancy. Rate of its consumption for pregnant women is approximately 2500 ME. If vitamin A is taken separately, and one also adds multivitamins to it, you can easily bring the daily intake up to 10 000 ME. Before pregnancy dose of vitamin A should not exceed 5000 ME.

Multivitamin prenatal vitamins are also needed, as the body of a pregnant woman needs to increase their content, and consumption of only vegetables and fruits cannot fully satisfy this need. Some prenatal vitamins are made specifically for pregnant women and contain vitamins and trace elements in perfect proportion. But before you use these drugs, you should consult a physician at the first consultation. The doctor can check the body on a deficit or surplus of vitamins, compose a diet and determine whether you want to improve reception of certain vitamins, if they are not enough for a growing child. Most doctors advise and prescribe their pregnant patients to go through a course of taking folic acid and a certain group of prenatal vitamins during the first trimester.

During the first three months of pregnancy, when all child’s organs are formed, it needs optimal nutrition. Even in the earliest days of pregnancy fetus is rapidly changing and evolving. This is exactly the time when most women do not even know they are pregnant. For this reason, wanting to get pregnant, it is very important to adhere to proper nutrition and healthy lifestyle, avoiding alcohol and smoking, take extra prenatal vitamins and minerals, especially folic acid. This vitamin has been shown to reduce the risk of having a child with a serious illness – spina bifida, but for this you need to take folic acid from the date of conception.

Most doctors prescribe folic acid for pregnant women, because folic acid is essential for proper child development and health. Folic acid is particularly important for proper brain development. Doctors also advise pregnant women taking iron supplements. This helps avoiding anemia, which in mild form can manifest itself in women both during and after pregnancy. Most pregnant women feel tired, especially in last months – this is another reason to prevent iron deficiency.

New genetic research advances may provide the hope many women suffering with faulty mitochondria to birth healthy offspring. This inherited disorder, which affects thousands of women, may be corrected with this new process which was used successfully to birth healthy twin baby monkeys
recently. The hereditary defect lies in the mitochondria, or structures in the female’s egg. The mitochondria maintain the egg’s internal process. When a women’s egg with faulty mitochondria is fertilized, the resulting off spring may potentially suffer, after birth, with any one of hundreds of different diseases, many of which are extremely debilitating and some even fatal.

Early research to correct the mitochondria defect involved the researchers injecting healthy donated mitochondria into the defected eggs, but this resulted in birth defects. Mitochondria are very delicate and this process damaged the eggs during transfer. This therapy was banned in the United States because of its dismal failure rate. The new process, performed at the Oregon Health and Science University transferred the DNA needed to make a baby out of the faulty mitochondria, leaving behind the potentially diseased genes and transferred the DNA into eggs empty of DNA which contained healthy mitochondria. This method created three healthy births, neither of which showing any signs of birth defects.

With thousands of babies born each month with this hereditary defect and the subsequent disease it causes, the researchers believe it is important to begin human trials as soon as possible. This new process could alter In Vitro Fertilization techniques worldwide. This would enable women with faulty eggs to birth children without requiring donor eggs. Opponents of the process believe further study is necessary before moving into human trials, sighting the potential for germ line genetic changes because a small number of genes from a third parent will be passed to the child which is also transferrable down through multiple generations.