Every expectant mother wants her baby to have the healthiest start in life possible. The best way to achieve this is by maintaining a proper diet--one packed with all the vitamins that are essential to a developing baby. The vitamins you ingest during pregnancy affect the strength of your baby's bones and teeth, the healthy development of the brain, spinal cord and organs, and could impact your baby's long-term health.
Vitamin A.
This vitamin affects many aspects of the development of your baby. Vitamin A is critical for the healthy growth of cells, skin, teeth, bones, and eyes. On the flip side, deficiencies in vitamin A have been linked to premature births, skin disorders and slow-growing fetuses. The American Pregnancy Association recommends that you take 700 mcg of vitamin A while you're pregnant. Vitamin A-rich foods include spinach, kale, carrots, sweet potatoes and pumpkins. Take care not to consume excessive amounts of vitamin A, however, as it is believed that too much of the vitamin can cause birth defects.
Vitamin B6
Vitamin B6, also known as pyridoxine, is crucial in helping your body use protein to build the baby's tissue. Pyridoxine also helps the formation of the baby's red and white blood cells, and the brain and nervous system. It also has important benefits for the mother--vitamin B6 helps reduce morning sickness and clears up the acne that pregnancy hormones can cause. You should consume 1.9 mg of vitamin B6 daily. It can be found in foods such as bananas, tomatoes, watermelon, avocados, brown rice, beef, veal, and lamb.
Folic Acid
This B vitamin is so essential to a fetus's health that doctors recommend that women begin taking folic acid three months before they start trying to conceive. Having sufficient levels of folic acid in your body during the first three months of pregnancy is essential to preventing neural tube defects in your developing baby. It is recommended that a pregnant woman take 600 mcg of folic acid daily. Foods high in folic acid include leafy green vegetables such as kale, spinach and collard greens. It can also be found in asparagus, beans, peas, bananas, and avocados.
Vitamin C
Vitamin C is an antioxidant that helps to produce collagen, a protein vital to tissue repair. It is also critical to the development of a fetus's muscles, cartilage, bones, skin and eyes. Vitamin C also helps an expectant mom's body to absorb iron, which is necessary for the production of red blood cells. Pregnant women should take 85 mg of vitamin C per day. And as most of us know, it can be found in citrus fruits such as oranges, lemon, grapefruit, kiwi and tomatoes, but it is also present in vegetables such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, raw cabbage and sweet potatoes.
Vitamin D
This vitamin is important to the developing bones and teeth of a fetus, but also gives significant health benefits to the mother. MayoClinic.com reports that taking vitamin D while pregnant reduces the risk of pre-eclampsia, lengthens the gestation period, and contributes to healthy birth weights. Sufficient levels of vitamin D during pregnancy may also reduce health problems in your baby later in life. Such health problems may include asthma, schizophrenia, brain tumors and autoimmune disorders. Vitamin D can be produced by the body through exposure to sunshine, or consumed by eating butter, fortified milk and eggs. If you take a supplement, ingest no more than 10 mcg of vitamin D per day -- an excess could harm the cardiovascular system.
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