Can I Skip Prenatals?

I’m struggling to take any prenatal vitamins (even gummies) with my nausea, vomiting, and bad gag reflex (which leads to more vomiting). I’m feeling like I’m doing something wrong as a soon-to-be mom by not taking a prenatal right now. Wondering about your thoughts on this. How bad is it to take a break while morning sickness is bad?

—The struggle with prenatals is real

First of all, that sounds awful. I hope you’ll talk to your provider about the nausea and vomiting. Yes, it’s common to have some nausea during pregnancy. But also, there are interventions that can help! I say this not because you’re terrible for skipping prenatals, but simply because I suspect you’d feel happier if you felt better.

In terms of prenatals: the biggest value of prenatal vitamins is the folic acid, which is important for neural tube development. In general, and especially if you’ve been taking prenatals before pregnancy, you are unlikely to be deficient in this, so it’s really okay if you skip them until you feel better. The other significant value is iron, especially if you are anemic, but this is also something you can catch up on later.

So do not stress about it. The only other suggestion I’d make is that sometimes people find it easier to tolerate a smaller pill, and you could consider finding something that is folic-acid-only, to get that component and skip the (mostly irrelevant) other parts.