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From the moment of conception, your baby relies entirely on you for the nutrients needed to build their brain, bones, and immune system. Many women begin pregnancy already deficient in important vitamins and minerals, often without realizing it. A busy lifestyle, dietary restrictions, and limited nutrient-dense food intake can all contribute.
In a comprehensive 2022 review of prenatal research, Dr. James Adams and colleagues found that vitamin D, B-12, folate, choline, and iron are common deficiencies before pregnancy. These nutrients become even more critical as pregnancy progresses. Pre-existing gaps can compound the challenge of meeting elevated nutritional needs during gestation.
In a comprehensive 2022 review of prenatal research, Dr. James Adams and colleagues found that vitamin D, B-12, folate, choline, and iron are common deficiencies before pregnancy. These nutrients become even more critical as pregnancy progresses. Pre-existing gaps can compound the challenge of meeting elevated nutritional needs during gestation.
Established and emerging research alike highlight just how crucial the proper nutrients are during this window of rapid development. For example:
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Folate (vitamin B9) is essential in early pregnancy to help prevent neural tube defects, a serious condition affecting the brain and spine.
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Vitamin D supports skeletal development and may reduce the risk of preeclampsia.
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Choline and DHA (an omega-3 fatty acid) play critical roles in your baby’s brain growth and cognitive function.
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Minerals like iron, magnesium, selenium, and zinc help with everything from red blood cell formation to immune system support.
These are not just “nice-to-haves”—they're core to your body’s increased nutritional demands and your baby’s developmental needs.
Prenatal nutrition isn’t just about getting “enough”—it’s about getting the right nutrients, in the right amounts, at the right time.
Prenatal nutrition isn’t just about getting “enough”—it’s about getting the right nutrients, in the right amounts, at the right time.
Why transparency matters in prenatal supplements
If you've found shopping for supplements confusing, you're not alone. Despite how critical prenatal vitamins are to maternal and fetal health, the supplement industry remains surprisingly underregulated.
In the U.S., dietary supplements—including prenatals—are not required to undergo pre-market approval by the FDA for safety, effectiveness, or even accurate labeling. This gap in oversight can lead to inconsistencies in ingredient quality, potency, and purity.
That means the burden often falls on consumers to decipher what's inside a product, and whether it truly meets their needs during such an important time.
Not all prenatals are created equal
In an underregulated category, good intentions simply aren’t enough, and not all prenatal supplements deliver what pregnant women truly need, based on the most recent guidance. Research by Dr. James Adams and colleagues has shown wide variability in the quality, comprehensiveness, and potency of prenatal vitamins on the market today.
In a review of 188 prenatal supplements, many were found to contain only a subset of recommended nutrients—often at levels well below what scientific evidence supports. Dr. Adam’s research found that the average prenatal has 44% of the Neurological Health Foundations’s recommendation. For example, important nutrients like choline, magnesium, and DHA were frequently missing or present in amounts too small to meet the increased demands of pregnancy. Similarly, vitamin D and iron—two nutrients often deficient in pregnant women—were commonly underdosed.
Some products exceeded safe upper limits, while others didn’t meet basic quality standards like consistency in labeling or purity from contaminants. This inconsistency can leave you thinking you’re fully supported by a prenatal, when in reality, it's falling short in critical areas.
Our Partnership with Dr. Adams & The Neurological Health Foundation
Considering the state of prenatal supplements—outdated research, wide variability in nutritional value, and an opaque industry—HealthyBaby decided to work hand-in-hand with Dr. Adams to develop trimester-based prenatal formulations based on his groundbreaking research.
Our prenatal formulations across Preconception/T1, T2, T3, and T4 are the first truly comprehensive formulations based on Dr. Adam’s research.
What you should know about heavy metals
There’s been a lot of discussion about the presence of heavy metals in prenatals. Lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, and other heavy metals are naturally occurring elements found in the Earth’s soil and water. Because of this, trace amounts can appear in fruit, vegetables, grains, and herbs we consume daily, including in organic or non-GMO foods.
Even plant-based ingredients and mineral-derived nutrients—common in high-quality prenatal vitamins—can contain trace levels of these elements as part of their natural origin. To put this in perspective, the amount of heavy metals reported in some prenatal vitamins is typically lower than what’s found in healthy everyday foods, like leafy greens.
HealthyBaby tests for heavy metals twice during Our Prenatal process:
- On the front end to ensure raw materials are safe before we use them
- In the finished product to ensure everything is safe for consumption.
We test for the heavy metals below to ensure that Our Prenatal meets the rigorous standards aligned with Prop 65 legislation in the state of California.
Our Prenatal testing protocol
At HealthyBaby, we source only the best ingredients from highly reputable and trusted suppliers, and then we test Our Prenatal at every step of the process, every single time we make them.
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All raw materials are tested by our suppliers for microbiological concerns and heavy metals. Then we review and verify key details as part of the receiving process.
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Once received, all raw materials are thoroughly screened to ensure the materials are high quality and meet our specifications before we use them.
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Once pills and softgels are manufactured, they're tested again to ensure they have the expected levels of nutrition and are safe for consumption. This includes testing a second time for heavy metals.
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We test for microbiological concerns again after packaging pills and softgels into finished products ready to ship to customers.
Please reach out to us at support@healthybaby.com, if you have any questions.
Our Prenatal: Preconception & 1st Trimester
Our Prenatal: Preconception & 1st Trimester
$85
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