Considering the sea of shelves lined with various over-the-counter prenatal multivitamin labels in any pharmacy or grocery store, it’s reasonable that you might find yourself in a dizzying state of shock-and-awe trying to answer just which supplement is best for you and your body. Questions consume you – Which is the best prenatal supplement? How do I know I’m getting the appropriate amount of daily nutrients? What is the difference between organic certified and non-organic? Are any of these really that different from each other?
The truth is yes, they are different. With some it’s more obvious than others. You can look at the ingredients list on the back of any bottle and see which multivitamin has toxic color dyes or which is certified by a reputable organization. But oftentimes what is most difficult to distinguish and yet most important are differences found at the micro level. Or rather, the level of micronutrients.
But before we get too far into the weeds on what makes a good and healthy prenatal supplement and why you should consider the EarthFirst Organic Prenatal Multi, we should address some of those macro questions.
Why are prenatal multivitamins important?
During pregnancy, women often experience a dramatic decrease in essential minerals and vitamins to the body due to increased nutritional demands. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists suggests that most women need a daily supplementation of folate, iron, calcium, vitamin D, choline, omega-3 fatty acids, B vitamins, and vitamin C. Folate and iron are especially important vitamins to supplement as they help decrease the potential for neural tube defects (NTDs), low birth weight, and maternal anemia.
When should you start taking a prenatal multivitamin?
Because the risk of NTDs is so high during the earliest stages of fetal development, and because women don’t usually learn of their pregnancy at the point of conception but weeks later, it’s recommended that women begin taking a prenatal supplement between 1 and 3 months before expecting to become pregnant to ensure their bodies are maintaining the necessary levels of vitamins and minerals.
How do you know if you’re choosing the right prenatal multivitamin?
The options truly do seem endless when your eyes are scanning over the many labels planted on rows and rows of store shelves, or when you’re scrolling through the weeds of online reviews trying to discern fact from fiction. But the good news is there are indicators to look for that will help you root out the good from the bad and ensure that you’re choosing the cleanest, healthiest prenatal supplement for your body, your baby, and your future.
What is folate?
It’s possible you’ve never heard the word in your life. Simply put, folate is the umbrella term for essential B-vitamins we find in foods like green leafy vegetables, citruses, legumes, seeds, eggs, and poultry. But because it’s rare that women receive the necessary amount of folate from diet alone, healthcare professionals recommend a daily organic prenatal supplement to optimize folate levels during pregnancy.
A glaring caution: Though often used interchangeably, folic acid is the synthetic form of naturally occurring folate. Because our bodies struggle to break down folic acid as quickly as natural folate, the result sometimes means you’re getting an excess of folic acid. Research suggests individuals with high levels of folic acid in their system may be more susceptible to health risks, including various cancers. Not uncommon to be found in women is a gene mutation that prevents their bodies from metabolizing folic acid, therefore increasing their health risks even more.
For those reasons, EarthFirst is dedicated to using methylated folate, or methylfolate, in our prenatal multivitamins. This natural folate is responsible for producing red blood cells and moving oxygen throughout your body. And during the earliest stages of your pregnancy, methylfolate will play a key role in your baby’s development by significantly decreasing the risk of neural tube defects and increasing the likelihood of a strong, healthy, natural start to their lives.
Organic v. Synthetic: What’s the big deal?
Let’s go back to our aisle full of prenatal options. You’ve narrowed it down to two options. In one hand, a familiar brand name. Nothing splashy. A little clinical looking maybe. But it promises to do the trick. You consider it. But something on the second bottle catches your eye. You read it over and over. Organic. You like the sound of it. But what does it mean exactly?
When we say synthetic v. organic - or alternatively, isolated v. natural - we’re referring to how the key micronutrients in a supplement are packaged and delivered, so to speak. The difference is this – synthetic supplements are manufactured in factories through a chemical process that creates artificial vitamins and minerals. Due to the chemical process, petrochemical solvents are sometimes used to make synthetic supplements marketable as a food product. That’s petro- as in petroleum, as in the stuff we use to make the gas we put in our cars. Ironically, tragically, exposure to petrochemicals have been linked to birth defects and infertility. Compare this to organic supplements which are obtained from dehydrated whole food sources grown in a farm system. This is why we’ve partnered with regenerative organic farms in Missouri, Tennessee, and Australia to bring you the cleanest and greenest organic prenatal multivitamin.
The way your body takes in synthetic vitamins differs from that of organic vitamins as well. Because the nutrients in whole foods are more complex, they remain intact long enough for enzymes to pass them into the bloodstream and provide you with the full benefit of their vitamins. However, because each vitamin in synthetic supplements are made up of single molecules, they are more likely to erode and provide you less nutritional benefit.
While the above relates to your body and the small world you’re creating for your baby, let’s consider the impact on the world you’re ushering them into. Because synthetic vitamins are made in factories and labs, they have a much higher chance of being exposed to toxic elements. Considering that the majority of multivitamins available to you are non-organic, it’s perhaps less of a shock that testing done by the FDA on 300+ multivitamin-multimineral products marketed at women and children found that just 1% of those supplements were lead free. And because the production process often does not comply with US pollution laws, many of the synthetic multivitamin brands are manufactured in China or India and shipped back across seas, leaving behind a devastating wake of carbon emissions.
So with all the above in mind, you’re left with the decision to make between those two bottles. But you’re still skeptical. How can you trust that just because it says organic that it is organic? In a future blog, we’ll explore the phenomenon of greenwashing at large. But right now, you’ve got to make a choice. Time is almost up on your parking meter and you’re running late to your Lamaze class. You turn over the bottles and stare hard at the nutritional facts. For the quickest assurance, we recommend avoiding products that list ingredients with the suffix -ide or -ate or prefix di- as these indicate synthetic vitamins. Instead, look for the USDA Certified Organic, Non-GMO, and/or Regenerative Organic Certified® labels.
Wait, there’s more?
Of course, there’s always the exception to the rule. Even some prenatal vitamins pedaling themselves as organic whole food supplements have their shortcomings. For example, in 2020, the non-profit organization Clean Label Project Foundation filed a civil suit against the popular multivitamin company Garden of Life alleging that they “mislabeled, falsely advertised, and adulterated the products,” and therefore engaged in unlawful trade practices. The suit followed testing that CLP performed on various mykind Organic Prenatal multivitamins, which found that they “contained quantifiable levels of heavy metals as well as detectable amounts of WHO Class II Pesticides and BPA.” In short, Garden of Life was selling a healthy promise and a clean future only to deliver the exact opposite.
But mykind isn’t the only example of a brand coming up short when and where it matters. In fact, a study published last year discovered that in a total of 48 different over-the-counter prenatal vitamins, including the top 30 Amazon and Google search results for prenatal vitamins, not one was shown to have the suggested amounts of five key vitamins and nutrients recommended by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
In our grocery store scenario, this means you’re trying to make a choice between two items when both are more than likely coming up short where it matters most – the complete well-being of you and your baby. It’s an unacceptable reality that demands a response and a solution. You deserve a solution.
So what’s the solution?
You’re about to start trying for a baby and you want to be proactive in preparing your body for pregnancy. Or you’ve just found out you’re pregnant and now you’re scrambling to figure out the best prenatal vitamin for you to give your baby the healthiest start to life. Or perhaps you’re just curious about prenatal vitamins and your information journey has led you here. It’s not surprising after reading all the above that you may be feeling more skeptical about prenatal vitamins than when you first arrived. That’s a good thing. We encourage you to question where the vitamins and minerals you put in your body come from. To pressure test labels that promise they’re organic or clean or environmentally-friendly, because your child and their world depend on it. It’s why we’ve gone to such great lengths to provide you a new prenatal alternative that promises to live up to your expectations.
The EarthFirst Organic Prenatal Multi
EarthFirst is planting roots with our Organic Prenatal Multivitamin Once Daily, specially formulated to support you during one of the most important phases of your life — from conception to pregnancy, postpartum and breastfeeding.
With just one tablet a day, it delivers 19 whole food vitamins sourced from the most powerful, whole superfoods on the planet, providing optimal nutrition and energy for you while promoting fetal development.
We evaluate each ingredient and use methods of extraction, chelation, or fermentation to unlock their goodness delivering them in a form your body can absorb and utilize offering the best in class for bioavailability. And all of our ingredients are either USDA Certified Organic or Regenerative Organic Certified®.
And because we know it’s not just what’s on the inside but also the outside that counts, we’re deeply committed to caring for our planet and fostering healthy soil. We source from farms all across the globe that utilize regenerative agriculture to create products that represent the next level of non-GMO, organic whole food nutrition and redefine what it means to live sustainably.
At EarthFirst Organic, we're not just about reducing harm; we're about amplifying good. Our goal is to pave the way for a future where more good is possible—for you, for the planet, and for your little one. You can be a part of that change by starting on the EarthFirst Organic Prenatal Multi today.
These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, or prevent any disease.
