“It’s a very high volume that I find in general is hard to eat indefinitely as you get later in pregnancy and don’t have so much space in your stomach.” On top of that, food aversions might make it difficult for you to eat your leafy greens, whole grains, fresh fish, or other nutritious foods.Ĭertain micronutrients, most notably folic acid, are critical to fetal development, and pregnant people need particularly high amounts to support the health of the baby and mom. “You would have to eat a bunch of livers and, like, five cups of lentils” every day to get enough iron through diet alone, Smith says. Take iron, for example, which is important for fetal brain development consuming low amounts of iron can cause a pregnant person to develop anemia, which is when a person doesn’t have enough red blood cells to carry oxygen throughout the body. “Good diet is good, but during this special time, a prenatal vitamin can be helpful to make sure you have all your bases covered,” says Emily Smith, an assistant professor of global health and nutrition at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. And because the effects of nutrient deficiencies can be particularly dire during pregnancy-preeclampsia and fetal neural tube defects among them-it’s especially important that pregnant people meet their nutritional needs. Pregnant people have higher micronutrient needs to support growing a new organ (the placenta) and the fetus while maintaining their own physical health. But pregnancy is a different ballgame: Pregnant and lactating people have increased nutritional needs compared with others. Most Americans don’t need supplements unless their doctor tells them they have a deficiency in a particular nutrient.
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