When I got pregnant, 2 months after I got married, my first thoughts were of how much I wanted to pump my body full of good nutrients in order to give my baby the best start on life!  My motto quickly became, “It’s easier to get them to eat healthy when they are inside because they don’t have an opinion!”  I viewed my 10 months of pregnancy as potentially the greatest time in my child’s life to build a healthy baby and, as a result, one day, a healthy adult. I had already been taking some great supplements called Shaklee for 2 years that had really helped me with some severe physical issues due to an eating disorder I had in high school. So I did a little investigating on what’s out there, if Shaklee was the best, and then what a pregnant woman should be taking. I hope these findings are as helpful to you as they were to me for all 4 of my pregnancies!

Compare  Your Prenatals to What You Get in Shaklee Supplements

Here are 3 tests I did to check out my prenatals up against Shaklee.

2. Another test I did was the cooking test.  You can literally “bake” your vitamins at 325 degrees.  If there are harsh binders and fillers in the vitamins they will cook out.  Nasty black stuff came out my prenatals!!  It was really gross.  Nothing came out of Shaklee’s because it is a whole-food supplement so it was just like cooking food!

3. Finally, I compared the vitamin and mineral level that the prenatal contained vs. Shaklee’s Vita-Lea (their multivitamin). VitaLea had almost twice as much stuff in it!

Foundational Nutrition

• Vita-Lea– gives you 100% RDA of all the necessary vitamins and minerals.
• Vitamin B + C Complex– C boosts your immune system, which is down because of your body working so hard to form the baby.  Plus Vitamin C does tons of other things involving connective tissue and basic body building functions, preventing stretch marks, and aids in post-labor recovery time.  Shaklee’s C is Sustained Release, meaning it releases over a period of time.  Taking one C is like eating 1 1/2 oranges every hour for 6 hours. This Complex is also coated in the critical B vitamin, folic acid, which is necessary for the baby’s development.  Many B-Complexes contain this important B vitamin but your body can’t access it in time and it leaves your system unused.  B also helped when I was in labor with cramping!  It is called the “happy vitamin”–helps regulate hormones, blood sugar, reduce cravings, etc.
• Carato-E-Omega Complex–helps with skin elasticity, provides critical antioxidants, and aids in proper circulation.  It also delivers 7 Omega 3′s to help reduce the risk of heart disease and promote brain and joint health. CaratoMax part of the Complex is basically caratanoids found in fruits and vegetables which provide tons of antioxidants protection.
• Optiflora–can help maintain a healthy balance of intestinal microflora. This helps prevent yeast infections and promote digestive health.

Energyzing Soy Protein–THIS WAS HUGE FOR ME!!!  This is probably the biggest part, in my opinion, of a foundational nutrition program for a pregnant mother. Everything involved in making a baby requires protein. Every cell in the baby has to come from somewhere.  It will either come from what you put in your body, or from your organs, muscles, etc.  The baby must get protein to build cells.

It also helped me with morning sickness in those early months because it regulates blood sugar — which causes nausea. Your immune system is 96% protein so the Energyzing Protein keeps your immune system running by providing it with all 9 essential amino acids.  Almost every function in our body has amino acids as its base, so this is crucial in the formation of the baby.

I would make myself a shake first thing in the morning, but I also would make a glass of boiling water and mix a serving of the cocoa protein in at night so that I went to bed with a full stomach (but not from food that would keep me awake or make me feel sick!). This really helped to curb the nausea!

Other Supplements I added:

• Osteomatrix (Calcium/Magnesium) – calcium manufacterers have a hard time getting the needed amount into a form your body can digest in that 30 minutes period of time–Shaklee’s dissolves in 10 min. in water to ensure that you get 100% of the calcium you take.
• Herb-Lax–when you are pregnant you are very prone to constipation at times so this helped to keep me regular, while continually cleansing my colon from harmful toxins from the food I ate.  I tried to do my best to eat healthy, but toxins can enter in through so many different ways!
• Lecithin — Is found to improve brain development and function. I took this more heavily during month 6-7 when the baby’s brain is developing.