The Prenatal Vitamin I Recommend Most

I still remember the evening like it was yesterday. The boys and I just got back home from an evening walk; my husband was still stuck at work. I sent the boys upstairs to take showers before we started our Friday evening game night. As I finished cleaning up the kitchen from dinner, I remembered that I needed to take my prenatal vitamin. Being three months pregnant (with our third…eek!), running around with these two boys, I often forgot to take my prenatal vitamin until the evening when everything settled down. 

So, I grabbed the three capsules from the jar and put them in my mouth one at a time. Swallowing each one independently, because nothing was working harder than my gag reflex anytime I tried to swallow a capsule. And not ten seconds after I swallowed the third capsule, I felt it. Knowing my body was trying to throw up, I tried to fight it. And I lost. I threw up all over the floor as I ran into the downstairs bathroom. 

The boys heard the retching and the splattering… and ran downstairs, concerned. As they came over to check on me, I tried to hide everything with a beach towel from under the sink. Then we played 20 questions while they peppered me with inquiries, wondering what was wrong and if I was okay. They had never seen me throw up before.

I briefly explained to them that I was having a hard time taking my prenatal vitamins because my tummy would get upset easily. And I knew that prenatal vitamins were important, but knowing I should take them didn’t make it any easier to actually keep them down during my third pregnancy.

So What Prenatal Vitamin Do I Recommend?

I tell this story because I keep it in mind when working with pregnant women or women trying to conceive, because they always ask for my recommendations on all the mom and baby stuff. And often, I get asked about prenatal vitamins. They know that I lean toward more natural, cleaner products. I am super picky about what I put in my body, especially when pregnant. And I don’t make recommendations to others unless I have personally used the product. 

But, because prenatal vitamin capsules were really difficult to tolerate during my pregnancy, I never felt comfortable making a recommendation. How could I recommend something that made me gag and vomit regularly? A while back, someone asked me about gummy vitamins. And to be honest, I’ve been skeptical of gummies in the past. Was their convenience sacrificing nutrition? Could they really be as nutritious as the clean capsules I’ve done so much research on?

That’s when I was recently introduced to Needed Prenatal Gummies Vitamins. I’ve been a fan of Needed for years, so naturally, their gummy prenatal vitamins piqued my interest. Come to find out, they spent four years developing a formulation for these gummy vitamins that are packed with more bioavailable nutrients than other prenatals, like Ritual, on the market.

What’s a bioavailable nutrient? It’s a version of a vitamin or mineral that is better absorbed and utilized by the body. Nutrients that have poor bioavailability don’t absorb as well into the gut and get passed through to the urine or feces, leaving the body without efficiently doing their job. 

What Do I Look For In a Prenatal Vitamin?

So what do I look for in a prenatal vitamin? First, I always want to make sure a vitamin is tested by a third party. This means the vitamin is sent to an unaffiliated lab and tested for purity and potency. It tests to see if the actual ingredients in the vitamin match what the bottle says. This extra step gives me peace of mind. Needed does this. 

Second, I want a prenatal vitamin that offers a more bioavailable version of folate. The Needed Prenatal Gummy Vitamins have methylfolate, instead of folic acid, which is a form of folate the body can use more efficiently because it’s already in its active, bioavailable form. Methylfolate doesn’t require the extra conversion steps folic acid needs to become usable by the body. Now, don’t get me wrong, folic acid is the more studied source of folate, but methylfolate can work more efficiently to get folate into the body. 

Third, I want a prenatal vitamin that helps me stay consistent. If I am vomiting more often than not because my nausea is out of control or my gag reflex is on overdrive, capsules can be really daunting. A gummy vitamin gives me the option to ingest the prenatal vitamin with more ease. And we all know that when there are fewer barriers, habits are easier to sustain.

And lastly, I want a prenatal vitamin that has enough nutrients to save me from having to take a number of other separate supplements. Think of nutrients that are crucial for pregnancy, like Vitamin A, Vitamin D, B6, B12, choline, and zinc. Needed also offers a prenatal and choline bundle for moms looking for an extra boost in choline.

One thing to note, all Needed prenatal gummies intentionally don’t contain iron or Omega-3s, each for its own reason. Omega-3s are separated out to allow for a meaningful, optimal dose that wouldn’t fit within a multivitamin. Iron is separate because needs vary too much person to person to treat as one-size-fits-all; it’s best dosed individually.

A Prenatal Vitamin Doesn’t Replace A Balanced Diet

I always say this to my pelvic floor clients, and I will say it here: Whole foods are the best source of nutrition, especially during pregnancy. But remember, nausea, vomiting, and fatigue can all challenge a well-balanced diet. I never want a client to think that taking a prenatal vitamin can take the place of a balanced diet. But a multivitamin can be crucial to fill in where nutritional gaps exist. 

And Now My Kids Are Taking Their Vitamins, Too

Want to hear a quick side story of why I am loving these Needed Gummy Prenatal Vitamins? I’ve had the HARDEST time getting my kids to take a vitamin. I’ve tried liquid, chewable, gummies, you name it. They always spit them out, stating they taste awful. 

Well, as a breastfeeding mom who still takes a prenatal vitamin, I started taking these Needed gummies in front of them. Didn’t tell them what I was doing, but they were curious. What was I eating? Was it candy? Was it a fruit snack? I told them it was my gummy vitamin, and now they’ve started asking for their gummy vitamins. Thankfully, I had some in the cupboard in hopes that they would one day try them again. And here we are. 

This was such a good reminder that our kids follow what we do, not what we say. I didn’t have to beg them to try their vitamins. They saw me doing it and wanted to do it too.

Who I Recommend These Prenatal Gummies For

So, if you were my client and you had issues with nausea, your gag reflex was in overdrive, nothing tasted good, and you were dreading taking your multivitamin. I would recommend the Needed Gummy Prenatal Vitamins. They offer the convenient nutrition pregnant moms need to stay consistent without compromising nutrition.

I look back over my last three pregnancies and wish this prenatal gummy vitamin had been available so that I could have more comfortably and consistently gotten the extra nutrition my body needed during pregnancy. 

This post is sponsored by Needed, a brand I genuinely recommend to my clients and use personally.