T. J. Clark's Prenatal/Postnatal Multivitamin/Mineral Formula™

Vitamin A, a fat-soluble vitamin stored in the liver, is important for your baby's embryonic development; cell growth; eye, heart, limb, and ear development; healthy skin and mucous membranes; infection resistance; bone growth; and fat metabolism. Vitamin A is particularly essential for pregnant women because it helps with postpartum tissue repair, as well as maintaining normal vision and helping fight off infections.

·          Vitamin B1 - Thiamin is responsible for regulating the supply of carbohydrates to your baby, which are critical to the development of his/her brain. A severe deficiency in thiamin during pregnancy may result in a child born with congenital beriberi (a syndrome of heart failure and mental confusion that may progress to coma). Thiamin promotes the breakdown of carbohydrates, thus providing your body with energy. A deficiency of thiamin can cause loss of appetite, fatigue, constipation, backache, and insomnia.

·          Vitamin B2 - Riboflavin is an essential water-soluble vitamin that helps your body produce energy. It promotes growth, good vision, and healthy skin and is important for your baby's bone, muscle, and nerve development.
There's some evidence that women who don't get enough of this important vitamin may be at greater risk for preeclampsia. An infant born to a mother with a deficiency can be prone to anemia, digestive problems, poor bone formation, and a suppressed immune system.

·          Vitamin B3 - Niacin is another vitamin in the B vitamin family. Easily destroyed by light, this vitamin is needed in the formation of red blood cell and antibody. It is also an important vitamin during pregnancy since lack of it can damage a developing fetus. Not only that, sufficient vitamin B3 during pregnancy would also relieve pregnancy cramps. Because it helps the tissue to use oxygen, lack of this vitamin would show on your skin tissues first.

·          Vitamin B5 - Pantothenic acid is a vitamin found in plant and animal tissue that regulates your body's adrenal activity, antibody production, and the growth and metabolism of protein and fat. If you're pregnant and don't get enough B5, your baby's growth may be slowed.

·          Vitamin B6 - Pyridoxine, aids your body's metabolism of protein, fats, and carbohydrates. It also helps convert amino acids and form new red blood cells, antibodies, and neurotransmitters, and is vital to your fetus's developing brain and nervous system. Research shows that the vitamin may relieve nausea or vomiting for some women during pregnancy, though no one knows for sure why it works.

·          Vitamin B7 - Biotin is necessary for cellular function and growth and because it cannot be produced in the body, the fetus is dependent on the maternal biotin supply. In the body, biotin is attached at the active site of four important enzymes called carboxylases that are involved in a variety of metabolic pathways. Approximately 50 % of pregnant women excrete a particular compound (3-hydroxyisovaleric acid or 3-HIA). 3-HIA is excreted in the urine when biotin status is low. A recent study showed that supplementing pregnant women with biotin (300 ug/day) reduced the excretion of 3-HIA, presumably improving their biotin status. It is not clear yet whether the increased urinary 3-HIA measured in these pregnant women reflects a true deficiency or just a change in the maternal metabolism during pregnancy.

·          Vitamin B9  - Folic acid (also known or folate) is one of the few nutrients known to prevent neural tube birth defects such as spina bifida, which affects about one in 1,000 pregnancies each year in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control report that women who take the recommended daily dose of folic acid starting one month before they conceive and throughout the first trimester reduce their baby's risk of birth defects such as spina bifida by up to 70 percent.
This alone is reason enough to make sure you take folic acid before you get pregnant and during pregnancy, but there may even be other benefits as well. Some studies have shown that women who don't get enough folic acid may increase their risk of miscarriage, as well as cleft lip and palate, limb defects, and certain types of heart defects in their babies. Folate helps make normal red blood cells, prevent anemia, and produce the nervous system chemicals norepinephrine and serotonin.

·          Vitamin B12 – Cyanocobalamin, this vitamin is required for cellular growth and nervous system development, essential for DNA synthesis, production of red blood cells, and is an important component that protects against maternal anemia. Deficiency of vitamin B12 is rare when a varied diet is consumed. Women adhering to a strict vegetarian diet may be at risk for inadequacy.

·          Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, is essential for tissue repair, wound and bone healing, and healthy skin. Vitamin C also helps your body fight infection.
Both you and your baby need this vitamin daily - it's the cementing agent that holds new cells together. It helps your baby grow and builds strong bones and teeth. And it helps your body absorb iron.

·          Vitamin D - Your body needs vitamin D, a fat-soluble vitamin, to maintain proper levels of calcium and phosphorus that help build your baby's bones and teeth. A deficiency may affect fetal bone mineralization and contribute to poor fetal skeletal development.

·          Vitamin E - plays an important role in the maintenance of your blood, is a powerful antioxidant, and is a potent stimulator of the immune system. Vitamin E is a relatively safe supplement and has been credited with decreasing the risk of premature babies and low-birth weight infants. There is also supportive evidence that supplementing the diet with 200 IU daily may lower the risk of miscarriage. Most prenatal vitamins contain Vitamin E. In large doses this vitamin may aggravate iron deficiency anemia. Vitamin E supplements can cause a transient rise in blood pressure and should be used with caution by anyone suffering from hypertension, having blood-clotting problems of any kind, or taking anticoagulant medication.

·          Choline and inositol are required for phospholipid formation. Phospholipids are required for the development and health of the nervous system (obviously of critical mportance during pregnancy and childhood development).

·          PABA helps maintain healthy skin.

·          Calcium  - Your developing baby needs calcium to grow strong bones and teeth, a healthy heart, nerves, and muscles, and to develop normal heart rhythm and blood clotting abilities. If you don't get enough calcium in your diet, your baby will leach it from your bones, which may impair your own health later on.

·          Chromium is a mineral necessary for regulating your body's blood sugar levels (it's a component of insulin, the hormone that breaks down glucose), and it stimulates the synthesis of protein in your growing baby's tissues.

·          Copper, a trace mineral found in all plant and animal tissues, is essential for forming red blood cells - especially important during pregnancy, when your blood supply doubles. Copper also boosts your body's ability to mend tissue, break down sugars, and keeps your hair growing and looking healthy. Most important, it also helps form your baby's heart, skeletal and nervous systems, arteries, and blood vessels.

·          Iron is essential for making hemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen to other cells. It's also an important component of myoglobin (a protein that helps supply oxygen to your muscles), collagen (a protein in bone, cartilage, and other connective tissue), and many enzymes. What's more, iron helps you maintain a healthy immune system. During pregnancy, your iron requirements go up significantly. First of all, your blood volume expands until you have almost 50 percent more blood than usual, so you need more iron to make more hemoglobin. You also need extra iron for your growing baby and placenta. Most women start their pregnancies without sufficient stores of iron to meet their body's increased demands - especially in the second and third trimesters - and are unable to bring their levels up through diet alone.

·          Magnesium -  When you're pregnant, magnesium helps build and repair your body tissue. A severe deficiency during pregnancy may lead to preeclampsia, birth defects, and infant mortality.
Magnesium and calcium work in combination: Magnesium relaxes muscles, while calcium stimulates muscles to contract. Research suggests that proper levels of magnesium during pregnancy can help keep the uterus from contracting until week 35. Dropping levels at this point may start labor contractions.
Magnesium also helps build strong bones and teeth, regulates insulin and blood-sugar levels, and helps certain enzymes function properly. Research indicates it may also control cholesterol and irregular heart beats. Magnesium routinely given to pregnant women to treat high blood pressure and premature labor also may sharply reduce the risk of cerebral palsy and mental retardation in their babies. In one study, babies born to women that received magnesium had a 90-percent lower prevalence of cerebral palsy and 70-percent lower prevalence of mental retardation. Although the exact relation is unclear, researchers speculated that magnesium may somehow prevent fetal brain hemorrhage or block the harmful effects of a diminished oxygen supply to the brain.

·          Manganese is a mineral that is involved in the formation of bone and cartilage; it plays a role in the development of your baby's inner and outer ears. It also helps certain enzymes function properly.

·          Potassium, a mineral found in many food sources, is important for maintaining fluid and electrolyte balance in your body's cells. Potassium is also important in sending nerve impulses, helping your muscles contract, as well as releasing energy from protein, fat, and carbohydrates during metabolism.
Since your blood volume expands during pregnancy by up to 50 percent, you'll need slightly more electrolytes (sodium, potassium, and chloride) to keep the extra fluid in balance.

·          Zinc - Zinc supplementation during pregnancy has been linked with improved fetal neurobehavioral development. Other studies suggest that prenatal supplementation may decrease the risk of brain tumors. Your body needs zinc for the production, repair, and functioning of DNA, our genetic map and a basic building block of cells, so getting enough is particularly important for the rapid cell growth that occurs during pregnancy.
Zinc is an essential mineral that helps support your immune system, maintain your sense of taste and smell, and heal wounds. It's also important for forming healthy sperm and eggs.

·          Phytogenic Catalyst - everything is assembled using the exclusive phytogenic compounds that your body needs and our exclusive catalyst that makes it all work together to create a "Team Effect".

Always talk to your healthcare provider before taking any nutritional supplement during pregnancy.

Accidental overdose of iron-containing products is a leading cause of fatal poisoning in children under 6. Keep this product out of reach of children. In case of accidental overdose, call a health care professional or poison control center immediately.

Pregnant or lactating women, diabetics, hypoglycemics, and people with known medical conditions and/or taking drugs should consult with a licensed physician and/or pharmacist prior to taking dietary supplements.