In my last blog post, we covered essential nutrients for pregnancy and shared our favorite prenatal options. In this post we want to talk about the benefits of building your own prenatal and how you can get started going through that process. We will start with what nutrients we are looking for then dig into what you can get from food vs. supplements.

Nutrients We Are Looking For

We don’t need to get all of these nutrients from a prenatal or DIY prenatal since we will get many of these from food as well, but these are the nutrients we are prioritizing for pregnancy and the recommended amounts. How much we recommend will depend on the client’s hair mineral test and blood lab results. We look at the amounts listed below as minimums for most people.

• Calcium: 1,000mg per day
• Magnesium: 360mg per day (we feel this is low, especially during the first half of pregnancy, and often recommend 5x a woman’s bodyweight beginning pregnancy)
• Sodium: 2,300mg per day is the RDA but we base this off a client’s HTMA levels
• Potassium: 2,900 per day is the RDA but we recommend 4-5,000mg daily.
• Copper: 1,000mcg per day
• Zinc: 11mg per day
• Selenium: 60mcg per day
• Iodine: 220mcg per day
• Choline: 450mg per day
• Folate: 600mcg per day
• Vitamin A: 770mcg per day is recommended in the US but the World Health Organization recommend 8,000IU from food-based sources
• Vitamin E: 15mg per day but we recommend about 300mg daily.
• Vitamin D: 600IU

Nutrients That Are Easy To Get From Food

Nutrients That Can Be Helpful To Prioritize From Supplements

We don’t think it’s realistic to get 100% of the nutrients we need from food since your intake can vary each day and most people have some deficiencies that can be difficult to replenish from food alone. This is where supplements can be very helpful. Ideally, we are prioritizing nourishing foods and supplements.

• Magnesium
  • Pure encapsulations magnesium glycinate is a great general recommendation that most women tolerate. We recommended a minimum of 400mg daily but ideally closer to 600-800mg for most women (as tolerated of course–if you get loose stools, go back down to the dose you tolerated).
• Folate (helpful for first trimester if you’re nauseous and turned off by vegetables)
  • Jarrow Methylfolate: 400mcg
• Calcium (if you can’t eat dairy)
  • Eggshell Powder Forefront Health=500mg
• Vitamin A
  • Jigsaw Cod Liver Oil Capsules=800 mcg (2,667 IU)
  • Desiccated Beef Liver=5,099IU
• Iodine (if you don’t love seafood/seaweed)
  • Ecological Formulas has a supplement that is a mix of iodine, kelp, and selenium–we always recommend taking selenium and magnesium with iodine. Iodine is a deeper topic than we can get into in this email. Learn more in these podcast episodes:
    • ​Iodine Series Part 1​
    • ​Iodine Series Part 2​
• Vitamin E
  • Integrative Therapeutics=268mg (400IU)
• Selenium:
  • Protocol for Life Balance=200mcg
  • Seroyal Selenium CWS=100mcg
• Choline (if you can’t eat eggs)
  • Pure encapsulations (1 capsule is 275mg)
  • Needed (1 capsule is 250mg)
    ​

Example DIY Prenatal

• ​Organ complex: provides vitamin A, copper, B vitamins, vitamin D, zinc, selenium, and other trace minerals
• Pure Encapsulations magnesium supplement (4 capsules provides 480mg)
• Integrative Therapeutics Vitamin E (1 capsule)
• Mary Ruth’s Iodine (2 drops is 250mcg)
• Selenium from food: 1-2 brazil nuts provides about 90-180mcg of selenium
• Folate from food:
  • 1 cup cooked spinach (263mcg)
  • 1 orange (50mcg)
  • 3oz beef liver (212mcg)
  • half an avocado (80mcg)
• Choline from food:
  • 3 eggs provides about 450mg

How To Know What You Need

You may be wondering how to know exactly how much you specifically need of these nutrients and our favorite way is to use a combination of lab testing and someone’s health history:

• ​Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (HTMA): gives insight into all minerals (it doesn’t measure iodine directly but does show if there is likely a deficiency). This is the testing we use with our Nurture Your Fertility program.
• ​Full Monty panel: gives insight into iron status, vitamin A, copper, zinc, vitamin D, and magnesium.
• ​Thyroid blood labs: give insight into iodine deficiency
• Health history: it’s helpful to know if someone is allergic or sensitive to foods now or in the past, has followed restrictive diets, etc.

If you want to see case studies where DIY prenatals were implemented you can check that out here!

​reminder: i’m currently accepting people into my Nurture Your Fertility program. you can learn more here about the program and fill out an application!