I agree with Alan, if you eat a healthy, balance diet, the need of vitamins can be excluded. Besides, back in the older days, I don't think vitamins were heard of! I tool vitamins before my pregnancy because my doctor insisted the need of folate acid. Luckily, the folate acid and vitamins are combined together so I didn't need to take ten thousand pills a day. Furthermore, I was fortunately because my doctor prescribe the vitamins & folate acid which is divided into two little pills... I had no problem at all taking them. One disadvantage of that is the cost of the vitamins. Each month, I pay about 50 Canadian dollars for a one month supply. So, I guess, financial could be an issue especially if they are at such high cost!