#52 - Choosing a Prenatal Vitamin: New Chapter Organics Perfect Prenatal vs. Nature's Way Completia Prenatal

Over the last few posts, I've reviewed five different prenatal vitamins and discussed the pros and cons of each of them. Today I've narrowed my choices down to two and will compare and contrast these too and make a decision. Vitafusion Gummy Prenatal vitamins were immediately ruled out due to their lack of iron and calcium. I then ruled out GNC Prenatal with Iron and Rainbow Light Prenatal vitamins because they're a little higher in folic acid than I think I need. Recommendations for folic acid prior to and during pregnancy is 400-800 mcg. Both of these vitamins have 1000mcg. It's important to realize that many foods also contain folate which is the naturally occuring version of folic acid. (I didn't know folic acid is the synthetic form of the vitamin!) The safe upper limit for folic acid set by the Institute of Medicine is 1,000 mcg/day for adults. For further information on folic acid, click here. So anyways, these two vitamins would provide too much folic acid considering I'd still be eating foods with folate in them (spinach, citrus fruits, etc) and foods fortified with folic acid (orange juice, cereal, etc) as well. ;)

So after ruling out those three vitamins, my two remaining choices are New Chapter Organics Perfect Prenatal and Nature's Way Completia Prenatal vitamins.

Here's a quick visual comparison of the two:

 I think either of these two vitamins would be appropriate for me in preparing for pregnancy. Obviously when I finally get to meet with my doctor she can do blood work to determine any other deficiencies and/or recommend a different vitamin if she wants to do so.


Nature's Way is less expensive than New Chapter. But it's also below recommendations in more vitamins. However, it's important to recommend that vitamins are meant to ensure you get the recommendations...not necessarily to provide them at the full dose. I'll also be getting vitamins from the foods I eat. When I looked up reviews on the Nature's Way vitamins, they got 2.5-3 out of 5 stars. Some of the reasons people didn't like them was because you have to take 2 of them twice a day and they are really large. Others commented that they taste horrible and they couldn't take them when they were pregnant due to the smell and nausea. If these beat out of the New Chapter vitamins by a long shot, I might try to deal with the taste and smell, but there's really not a major difference in the two and if either of them provide more vitamins, the New Chapter ones win out. For some of the reviews on the Nature's Way Prenatal Completia vitamins, click the links below:

Drugstore.com reviews for Nature's Way Prenatal Completia
Amazon.com reviews for Nature's Way Prenatal Completia
Vitacost.com reviews for Nature's Way Prenatal Completia

New Chapter Organics Prenatal vitamins are more expensive than Nature's Way. But the reviews on them are really good. These vitamins average around 4-4.5 out of 5 stars. They have a little more folic acid than the Nature's Way vitamins but not so much  more that I worry I'll get too much. New Chapter vitamins are a bit low in calcium and iron but that's easy to take care of with diet and/or a calcium and iron supplement. I'll be tracking my food intake via myfitnesspal.com so I'll be able to determine if these supplements are needed or not. Some reviews on New Chapter Organics Perfect Prenatal vitamins are available below:

Amazon.com reviews for New Chapter Organics Prenatal
Drugstore.com reviews for New Chapter Organics Prenatal
Vitacost.com reviews for New Chapter Organics Prenatal

So for now, I'm going to try New Chapter Organics Prenatal vitamins. I'll let you know later how it goes. :)