Vitamin A

[Butterfly Dawn]

Whats the deal with Vitamin A when pg?
Some say alittle is good, some say NO!
I've just had a look at my 1st trimseter vitamin pack and its got 1000mg in it, the centrum I was taking before has 4000mg.
Do I need to buy a different preggy multivitamin?

[Fleur]

I thought vitamin A in any supplemented form was off limits. But if that's the case, I can't see why they would put it in a pregnancy muti - so maybe a low dose is ok?

Hopefully someone will come in who knows

[Little Chicken]

I just took a look at my pregnancy multivit, blackmores pregnancy and breastfeeding one, and it has none.

I know a lot of vitamin A in early pregnancy can cause birth defects, but I think you have to take a lot of it. I think there is a thread on here somewhere about supplements in pregnancy.

Not very helpful I know. I'm sorry. But I mean if vitamin A was completely bad then you wouldn't be able to eat carrots when you are pregnant right?

[Artechim]

Basically Vitamin A comes in two forms - Retinol from animal origin and Beta-carotene from plant origin.

Retinol is a known teratogen which means that it causes birth defects in a fetus. Anything containing Vitamin A (Retinol) should be avoided during pregnancy.

Beta-carotene is not harmful at all to the fetus and should be that form in all woman's/pregnancy vitamins. If you look in the ingredients table it should specify which form the Vitamin A is in.

Doubletrouble, the main difference between normal vitamins and preg ones would be the extra folate.

[Little Chicken]

Thanks for that. Must store that info away. Where I used to work I got asked some unusual questions and it is good to have a correct answer.

[Butterfly Dawn]

For that.
I cant see if its retinol or beta so I think I'll look around for some blackmores preggy vits I've heard they were good