The Importance Of Vitamin A In Pregnancy

The Importance of Vitamin A in Pregnancy

Vitamin A can have significant effects on pregnancy—here’s what you should know!

In this post, I wanna talk about the importance of vitamin a in pregnancy .

If you’re gonna get pregnant or you know someone , a family member that’s gonna be pregnant , sound this post.

Okay ?

Now I don’t know how long ago , but there was a change in the RDA , the recommended amount of vitamin a in a in a prenatal .

And that now it’s 8,000 , okay , IUs .

But there’s a study , I’m gonna put a link down below , that talks about the importance of having at least 20 to 25000 IUs to prevent birth defects .

The three forms of vitamin A

There are three forms of vitamin A:

• Retinol
• Retinal
• Retinoic acid

Now there’s 3 forms of vitamin a , active forms of vitamin a , retinol , retinal , and retinoic acid .

There’s if you actually have see a prenatal , you’ll see usually something called beta carotene .

That is a precursor to the active form , and only a small amount of it is converted .

Okay ?

Why vitamin A RDAs are so low

There was a change in the RDAs for vitamin A for pregnant women.

The RDA is now 8,000 IUs. However, new studies show that there are many benefits to taking 20,000-25,000 IUs of vitamin A daily when it comes to preventing birth defects.

You may see a form called beta-carotene in prenatal vitamins.

This is a precursor to vitamin A—meaning your body has to convert it into vitamin A. The problem is that only a small amount of it is actually converted into vitamin A.

So you may not get the full amount that you need.

The reason why vitamin A RDAs are so low is that it can have toxic effects if you have too much of the synthetic version of vitamin A. Always avoid the synthetic version of vitamin A.

Instead, stick to the natural forms.

The following birth defects are related to low levels of vitamin A:

• Kidney malformation
• Dysfunctional ureters
• Cleft lip/palate
• Eye defects
• Brain location outside of the skull
• Short/long mandible

The best natural sources of vitamin A are cod liver oil and grass-fed liver.

And the reason why they made this change to make it a 1,000 , which is way too low , is because there’s been a lot of toxic effects of vitamin a simply because they were using a synthetic vitamin a .

Okay ?

You never wanna take synthetic vitamin a because it’s toxic .

They weren’t using a natural one .

So they decided instead of putting the natural , they decided to put either lower dosages of synthetic or do the precursor , beta carotene .

Okay ?

So that’s what happened .

Congenital disabilities due to low vitamin A

So here is some of this the the the birth defects that can occur .

Kidney malformation , dysfunctional ureters where you’re urinating and the urine backs up through the kidney , Valvular problems around the , the ureters .

Cleft lip , cleft palate where you have that little nonunion of the lip or the the bone right on top of the , the lip there .

Eye defects , your brain becomes , a condition where the brain becomes located outside the skull .

That’s pretty bad .

Short or long mandible , that’s the overbite and underbite .

How many kids have dental arch problems where their bite is not correct ?

That could be a vitamin a deficiency , so simple to correct by just making sure the mother actually has that vitamin a .

The best sources of natural vitamin A

So there’s 2 good sources that I would recommend .

1 would be cod liver oil .

Make sure you get the virgin cod liver oil .

That’s the top of the line .

It’s expensive , but it’s worth it .

Or grass fed liver .

Okay ?

You can get it in tablets or basically just , you know , eat some at least once a week .

And that will give you the natural form of vitamin a because out of all three of these forms , retinoic acid is the most important form to , in the development of the embryo .

That’s why you need the vitamin a to be able to provide that raw material .