Sunny Gault 0:08
From the moment we find out, we're pregnant, we're told we need to take these prenatal vitamins. And it makes sense. We know our bodies are working overtime to make tiny humans. But what are these vitamins actually doing for us? And what should we be looking for in a prenatal vitamin? And perhaps more importantly, what should we try to avoid? today? We're learning all about the ingredients inside prenatal vitamins. This is Preggie Pals.

Sunny Gault 0:41
Welcome to Preggie Pals. I am Sunny, I'll be your host today. Just a little bit about myself. I have four kiddos only three pregnancies. So yes, that includes a set of twins. I am not currently pregnant. But we do have a couple of awesome guests joining us today who are and we're going to introduce them in just a bit. Now if you haven't already, be sure to visit our website, https://newmommymedia.com And subscribe to our weekly newsletter, which keeps you updated on all of the episodes we release each week. Another great way to stay updated is to hit that subscribe button, and your favorite podcast app. And if you're looking for a way to get even more involved with our show, then check out our membership club. It's called Mighty Moms because you guys are all amazing, mighty women. And that's where we chat more about the topics we discuss here on our show. It's also an easy way to learn about our recordings. So perhaps you can join us live. So let's meet today's panel of guests. We have two very pregnant mamas joining us today, Tricia and Natalie as well as our expert during block. So Trisha, this is your first time on a podcast. I'm gonna put you on the spot. Why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Tricia Mueller 2:21
Great. Yeah, first time on a podcast. So this is my first pregnancy first kiddo. And I know really nothing about prenatal vitamins other than I have picked the one that tasted good. So I'm looking forward to maybe learning some more and maybe making some slightly more informed decisions next time around.

Sunny Gault 2:42
Now you're about ready to have your baby. How many weeks are you now?

Tricia Mueller 2:46
Just a little over 38 weeks. very impatient.

Sunny Gault 2:50
Oh my goodness. Well, good luck. Super exciting. I'm glad the baby held out for today's recording. And Natalie is joining us. So you guys, Natalie is the new host of our other show a new mommy media called new bees, which is focused on it's a great actually a great podcast for you guys to subscribe to now because you guys are gonna have your babies. And then you need to know what to do with your babies once they come out. So Natalie is the host of that show. Natalie, why don't you tell our audience a little bit about yourself.

Natalie Gross 3:22
Hey, everyone, I'm Natalie. Gross. And yes, please come join us over at newbies. We have a lot of fun over there as well. So I am 35 weeks pregnant just a little bit behind Trisha with my second girl and I also have a three year old boy.

Sunny Gault 3:37
All right. Welcome to the show. And Doreen, tell us a little bit about you.

Doreen Bloch 3:41
Hi, everyone. My name is Doreen and I am the founder and CEO of Ellements which is the company revolutionising prenatal vitamins. I studied nutrition science at Stanford University. And prior to founding element, my background was in data science. So I am a numbers person who is also obsessed with health and wellness. And I'm a mom to an amazing four year old son named Ethan.

Sunny Gault 4:07
Awesome. Thank you for being with us. Okay, so I have a question for you guys. Before we go to commercial break, I want to know how informed you were about prenatal vitamins before you started taking them. So I think Trisha, it was you that said, Oh, I kind of tasted good. Which I think a lot of women are in that boat. So let's talk about this a little bit. Trisha, what was it? You know? Did you get any kind of information from your doctor or walk me through that a little bit?

Tricia Mueller 4:37
Yeah, sure. Sorry. I jumped the gun on the topic. And so the prenatal vitamin I picked it was basically I was looking for a gummy because I thought that I had heard that vitamins are better if you if they're chewable because the you absorb more of it than if it's in like a hard pill form. I was just at the grocery store last smarty pants and got And they tasted good and so I stuck with them. And my doctor really never asked much about like, what prenatal vitamin I was taking and then, like three fourths of the way through pregnancy, my sister was like, oh, you should be taking a prenatal DHA too. So I added that one in and that's about that's about all I know, just word of mouth.

Sunny Gault 5:22
Okay, so does that mean you're taking two different prenatals now you're still taking the gummies and then the other one that was suggested? Wow, look at you. Okay, all right. Natalie, what about you? What are you taking?

Natalie Gross 5:35
So, I have been switching so right now currently, I'm taking the one a day vitamin the gummy kind before that I was taking Ali which I found out through like an Instagram influencer marketing, they were talking about the ALI vitamin. And I really love the taste of that. But I've kind of just been going with, like, availability and price. I, you know, like Trisha said, my OB, and my midwife haven't really asked what kind I'm taking or given me any sort of guidance on that. So I've just been going with like, Okay, what's there when I go to the store when I run out, and what tastes good?

Sunny Gault 6:09
You know, I was always surprised by this, because I had the same experience when I was pregnant to no one talked to me about the type of prenatal now, I brought it up one time, I remember, I brought it up, because I have kind of a sensitive stomach. And I was told with the gummy vitamins, that those could be easier on your stomach. So I remember talking to an OBGYN about that. And they're just kind of seem like, oh, yeah, well, whatever works for you. But like, nobody talked to me about this. And this is, it seems kind of strange to me which story and I definitely want to get your take on this. Because this is why you started your company, like, you know, this the vitamins, the nutrients that our bodies are, you know, need are all a little bit different. And I'm just, I'm kind of perplexed that more education hasn't gone into this.

Doreen Bloch 6:57
It's exactly right where to begin. I mean, when I was pregnant about five years ago, now, I had a very similar experience to everything that Natalie, Tricia, and Sunny that you're sharing, I actually knew, to be honest, very little about pregnancy and birth broadly. So being a kind of research driven person, I immediately started to learn as much as I could about this, you know, what would become a life changing milestone for me. And I knew I needed to take a prenatal because of the folic acid. I think people hear maybe more about that. But the conversation with my doctor was really leaving me feeling like there had to be more to this story. The doctor basically told me, it doesn't matter what product you use, they're all the same. But then you'll look at the label and you see different ingredients, different dosages, different form factors. So I like what Trisha is, is doing now had to sort of cobbled together my own supplement routine for multiple brands trying to figure out the optimal timing. I sort of joke that I feel like I got a PhD in prenatal supplements. And it just seemed to me that there had to be a better, more personalized way. So it took about three years for me to really understand the full story talking to OBGYN, dieticians, fertility specialists, manufacturers. And that's what led me to creating element which is truly superior in terms of bioavailability, simplicity, wellness, etc. But the the problem is really there that there's no FDA approval in this category, which makes it kind of a free for all and makes people really susceptible to the kind of marketing that's online. And people are just regularly switching their prenatal all the time, because they're not sure what's best for them.

Sunny Gault 8:41
Yeah, 100%. Well, we're going to dive into that we're going to learn more about the ingredients that are in prenatals. And as well as ingredients that we should try to avoid right after this break.

Sunny Gault 8:57
So today, we're talking all about prenatal vitamins. And again, it's a topic that I really never learned a lot about, despite having four children. Now, durian block is the founder of element a company that is reinventing the prenatal by customizing it for each person's needs. So during like are all prenatal vitamins, do they all have the same ingredients? Or are different vitamins? You know, do they kind of vary a little bit?

Doreen Bloch 9:24
It definitely varies. What you will see most often is that there are different dosages and different form factors. So for example, nearly all prenatals you will see some version of folate or folic acid. The reason for that is there have been very significant volumes of clinical studies that have shown that that particular ingredient is really critical in the first trimester for neural tube formation. So the challenge though comes in in terms of well which form do you need, and there's been a lot of debate, especially on social media over the last, I would say 18 months to two years about, should you be taking synthetic folic acid or methyl folate, and most prenatals will have one or the other. But that's just one out of I would say 30 Other ingredients that you might see within a prenatal vitamin, everything from the different B vitamins, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, etc. all the way to less common ingredients like potassium is not always included omega threes coq10, lutein, zeaxanthin. So, it there's a huge range and it can get very complex.

Sunny Gault 10:38
Yeah, I mean, we hear a lot about folic acid, that seems to be the big buzzword, you know, and I think when I did ask my OBGYN about it, they said, Well, just make sure it has enough folic acid, like I know how much folic acid I'm supposed to be taking. Right? So there's just so many questions. And even as you were, like, rattling off all those ingredients, I'm going, Yeah, but you know, I don't know how much to look for, you know, I don't know if you know, do any of those ingredients. Like I said earlier, like, I get an upset stomach, you know, with different vitamins. Even when I'm not pregnant, I have to be very careful, that kind of stuff. So I'm always worried I'm like, is this gonna make me sick? Do I have to take this with food? You know, I've got like a gazillion questions. So, um, let's talk about ingredients we should maybe avoid or be very, you know, more knowledgeable about because, again, there's just so much out there, I wanted to kind of, you know, reel this in a little bit. Are they putting stuff? And maybe, maybe it's just because they're not educated? Okay. I don't want to, you know, suggest that there's malice here. But, you know, Is there stuff in prenatal vitamins that you look at? And you're like, What in the world? What are they doing?

Doreen Bloch 11:45
Definately. And I agree with you, I don't think it's malice at all, what I've learned in this journey of developing elements is that it really comes down to manufacturing processes, most of the prenatal vitamins are using and this is very common within the supplement category, they're using off the shelf blends. What that means is that a manufacturer will have, you know, all different raw ingredients, and they'll have their prenatal blends, which will include a bunch of different raw ingredients. And so brands can come along and say, you know, maybe we want to add a bit more folic acid or a bit more bio tin, and they'll kind of customize it and slap their own label on it. But it's not fundamentally different from whatever the manufacturer originally had. And so what that what ends up happening with that is that there ends up being sometimes these auxiliary ingredients that really don't need to be in there, as well as various colorants or flavor enhancers. And so in particular, there are five offenders that we really encourage people to look out for. The first one, actually, that I would like to talk about today and share with you has actually been in the news quite a bit in the last few weeks. I don't know if you've heard about this, the whole class action lawsuit with Skittles, the candy?

Sunny Gault 13:06
I did just hear something about that. Yeah.

Doreen Bloch 13:09
So for those who are not aware, Skittles is a brand from the Mars chocolate company that is in a highly publicized class action lawsuit with titanium dioxide being quote, unfit for human consumption, the ingredient has actually been banned in Europe. In May of 2021, they announced that titanium dioxide would be taken out of any foods and not considered safe for human consumption. And the reason for that is it has it's considered Geno toxic, it has the ability to change DNA. And so the US has not yet established that rule. And so we still see a lot of titanium dioxide in everything from food to toothpaste, including, of course, prenatals. It turns out, yep, in our analysis, about 15% of prenatal brands have titanium dioxide, it's usually listed as a colorant or a Whitener. Brands like targets up and up. Even doctor prescribed brands like Vitapearl. So that's the first one that we say to look out for titanium dioxide during ...

Sunny Gault 14:13
Can I just interrupt you for just a second? So I have an honest question. If this has been let's just take the Skittles, you know, this was in Skittles or isn't Skittles? Why are we just now hearing about this? Did they just change their formula? From my knowledge? I had Skittles growing up, you know, like, what is going on here? Why is this just now coming to light? Do you have any insight on that?

Doreen Bloch 14:37
Look, I think that understanding regarding nutrition, it's still a very new field and there is still a lot of research that is being undertaken by researchers globally. I think in general with food and nutrition. It's one of those types of categories where it's innocent until proven guilty, rather than the other way around. And there's other geographies that take things much more conservatively than we do here in the US. And especially with supplements and vitamins, it's kind of a free for all. It's not an FDA regulated category. And because of that brands and manufacturers can get away with putting things in there that again, are more for their convenience rather than the health and wellness of us as moms and of course, our babies.

Sunny Gault 15:23
Gotcha. Okay, so we have titanium dioxide, what's next?

Doreen Bloch 15:27
Second is silicon dioxide, also known as silica. So silica itself is actually really important. It's a trace mineral, but supplementation is not usually needed. Because most people get plenty of this in their diet, the kind of safe upper limit is anywhere from 700 mg per day, up to 1700 per day. And like titanium dioxide, there are some studies that have shown that it can cause pregnancy complications. This is from animal studies, I do want to caveat that obviously, humans are not exactly the same as rats and mice that they do the studies on, but there are some indications that it can cause complications. And about a third of brands have silica in them, including high end brands, parallel natalist seeking health, ritual, etc. And so it's just one of those that there's not really a reason to have it in there in the prenatal. And so if you can avoid it, might as well, yeah, absolutely. I hope I'm not scaring anyone. I mean, there are brands out there that, you know, can provide everything you need, and nothing that you don't. And again, that's what I have spent the last five years really digging into and there. There's a lot, you know, a lot here to unpack.

Sunny Gault 16:46
Absolutely. And that's not the purpose, like Yeah, anyone listening, we're not trying to scare you, we're trying to give you information because there are a lot of different products out there. And knowledge is power, right? So you can literally take notes from today's podcast next time you go to this store, just take a look around shop according to the not the labels, the you know what stuff stuff is called, but the label the ingredient labels. So that's what we're hoping that you guys do. Okay, go ahead.

Doreen Bloch 17:14
Number three, we have boron. Boron is another ingredient. That is something that everyone should get day to day, but most people get plenty of it just from their diet, for example, you get it in half a cup of avocado or a medium size peach, that's all you really need in terms of boron on a daily level. So in terms of supplements, there are brands that include boron, it's about 15% of brands based on our analysis, Whole Foods. 365 has a boron in it. Care of ritual actually boasts about having boron, which I've always found to be surprising, they consider it one of their 12 key ingredients, even though again, it's not something that people really need to supplement with. And there have been some early studies this is out of just looking at up now out of Argentina, that people who have been exposed to boron during pregnancy, it's actually a developmental toxicant. It's a metal Loid. And it can cause lower birth weights, as well as developmental delays. So our perspective would be to avoid boron and just get boron naturally from the diet instead of from the from a capsule. Okay, let's move on to our fourth which is manganese. Another one where supplementation is simply not needed. Most people get plenty of it, it comes you can get your full day's amount within a cup of brown rice or chickpeas or spinach. The safe tolerable upper limit is 11 milligrams during pregnancy. The challenge with manganese is that it actually inhibits iron absorption. So the problem is, and we'll talk about this more in terms of timing, as we get into the episode. But iron is critical during pregnancy blood volume doubles by month nine. And so oftentimes women are iron deficient by the time they get to their ninth month of pregnancy. And so if your supplement is including manganese alongside the iron, you're really not getting all of the iron support that you need. And there was one large longitudinal study that found that high intake of manganese especially in the second trimester is associated with higher rates of preterm birth. So again, just one of those that yes, obviously you need it day to day but you should just get it from food not from supplementation. Okay, and the last one on our ones to avoid list is molybdenum cup of yogurt or milk will provide you half of the full amount that you need every day. A safe tolerable upper limit is 2000 micrograms during pregnancy. A study from Mexico showed that there was a potential negative association between molybdenum intake and neuralgia elements. So this is another one that based on the latest clinical research, we highly recommend avoided in a supplement, just get it from your food. And that is really the key to all of this is that at the end of the day, a supplement really should be just that it's supplemental, it should be giving you an added boost of things that you need. But it shouldn't be giving you things that you don't need, or certainly things that are toxic for you or, you know, items that are going through class action lawsuits right now. So that's, you know, really what we want everyone to be aware of, and just to demystify these ingredients that people may have heard of, and know that they're healthy in some levels, and in some capacities, but don't necessarily need to be featured in your prenatal.

Sunny Gault 20:44
Yeah, the last thing we want to be when we're pregnant is lab rats. To know that everything that we're doing is legit. So I have a follow up question sometimes on labels, I see the words natural flavors, or natural flavoring, the five that we just went through. Will those show up like on the side? I think you mentioned one of them might fall into an others category or something like that. Could any of these show up as natural flavors? Because when I see natural flavors, I go, Ah, why do I think that that's not really natural? If you can't even tell me what it is. I don't trust it.

Doreen Bloch 21:22
BINGO, BINGO. Yes, that's exactly right. Whenever you see those kind of coded words, like natural flavors or natural colorants, its chemicals. It's not natural at all. And so absolutely these ingredients, there's a strong crossover there. So for example, titanium dioxide is often used as a colorant or a whitener, just to create a more even look within the capsule. So it's really more aesthetic than it is anything health related. And so Absolutely, you should have your sort of antenna up about that as as a warning sign.

Sunny Gault 21:59
Yeah, sometimes you see to talk about things just being done to make them look pretty, you'll see like, yellow dye or red dye number nine, or you know what, they have these weird names and stuff. And I'm like, okay, that doesn't sound good, either. Why would I purposely, like what do I care with a vitamin looks like, you know, I mean, I know aesthetically, they're trying to make it look pleasing. But what's most important is what's in the vitamin, not how pretty it looks, you know? Exactly.

Doreen Bloch 22:24
And I think that's changed over time. It might have been something that, you know, back when these vitamins were newer, I mean, there's no, there are now so many on the market, there used to be, you know, not as many choices. And so that was maybe a differentiator for some brands. But I think that now that people are having access to information much more readily than they were before they're really pulling back the curtain on a lot of those things and really choosing to prioritize health and wellness over some of those aesthetic priorities.

Sunny Gault 22:57
Yeah, I hope so. I hope the tide is changing. For sure. At least after listening to this episode. I hope all of our listeners look at prenatal vitamins a little bit differently. Okay, Doreen, thank you so much for that information. We will be right back after this quick break.

Sunny Gault 23:17
Welcome back to Preggie Pals. Now before the break, we were talking with Doreen blog about the ingredients inside prenatals specifically things that we should probably watch out for. So now we're going to bring our pregnant mamas back into the conversation and maybe get some of their reaction. All right. So ladies, I would love to know, were you surprised at some of the things that Doreen mentioned and some things to look out for Natalie, do you have any thoughts on that?

Natalie Gross 23:45
Yeah, definitely. I mean, my ears definitely perked up with during you were talking about the iron deficiency? Because I am. I've been diagnosed I guess with severe iron deficiency right now. Not once has any have any of my providers asked me what prenatal I'm taking. And so I will definitely be checking those ingredients right after we get off this call.

Doreen Bloch 24:07
Well, if we can just pause on that for a moment. I mean, there is a big knowledge gap with the providers who we turn to for information who we expect to inform us and it's really not necessarily their fault, you know, doctors, OBGYN maternal fetal medicine doctors, they are instructed and trained in delivering babies and having, you know, allowing people to have healthy pregnancies. They are not extensively trained in nutrition or supplementation. So that's the reason that it's actually been really exciting that now that doctors are hearing about element they are recommending it now more to moms to be it's almost like element can become a broader part of the extended care team. Because you're exactly right. I mean, so many people have that challenge that they get to the the eighth or ninth month and they're severely iron deficient and iron is one of those ingredients that it takes time to build up in the bloodstream. So that's one thing that we're hyper focused on it element is making sure that with iron, it's incrementally increasing over the course of pregnancy. And making sure that also, you are not taking iron at the same time as when you're taking calcium. And I'm sure Sonny will get more into this with you too, in terms of your questions on the kind of timing of when to take supplements. But it's it's really interesting to hear that and I hope that you will be feeling better as soon as the baby is born in terms of that the iron since the blood volume really reduces as soon as the delivery is over.

Natalie Gross 25:42
Thank you. Yeah, that was all really helpful information. So thank you so much. I definitely if I ever do this, again, I'm not convinced I will. But I will definitely be armed with with more information when it comes to prenatals.

Sunny Gault 25:54
They all say that. And then a few months later...

Natalie Gross 25:58
I know I said that after the first.

Sunny Gault 26:02
Okay, and Trisha, was there. Was there anything that during was talking about? You're like, Oh, that's really interesting. Anything that that you felt like you learned from that?

Tricia Mueller 26:09
Oh, yeah, definitely. I learned loads. I think the thing that's been frustrating as a first time mom to be is just that, like, I don't know, I feel like I didn't find out what I needed to be taking right at the beginning of pregnancy. And so every time I found out something new, it was like, Why did no one told me this if it's that important? And so, yeah, I was just thinking about like my gummies. I realized, like, at the end of my first trimester that it didn't have iron, and Natalie and actually talked about this before, too, because she had a gummy that also didn't have iron. So now, I wasn't taking iron supplement. In addition, I had no idea you can't take iron with calcium. That's good to know. Yeah, I was reading the label on my prenatal vitamins. As Doreen was going through all the things to avoid. I was like, oh, sweet, and none of them are in my prenatal. And then she got some natural flavors and I was like.....

Sunny Gault 27:06
That's how the get ya....

Tricia Mueller 27:07
Have you even find out if the natural flavors are the best? Like are the natural flavors necessarily going to be like the bad ingredients? I'm curious about that?

Doreen Bloch 27:16
Yeah, not necessarily. It's tough to know, because that's the thing with the FDA requirements on labeling is that if an ingredient does not make up a certain weight amounts within the product, they don't even need to list it. So it could be really trace amounts of things that are included that might not even be on the label. Look, I think with natural flavors, it's not the worst of the offenders. I would definitely say mostly personally, I'm looking out for things like titanium dioxide, silica and boron.

Tricia Mueller 27:46
Okay, that's great to hear. Yeah. And so I learned a lot. This is a lot of information and all very helpful. And I hope to do this again. And again, like I said before, be more informed.

Sunny Gault 27:57
Well, Dorian, let's talk about the frequency of taking the prenatals because and you kind of touched on this already, I think this ties back into iron. I know for me, personally, I was looking for the easiest vitamin to take, right? So again, I have an upset stomach with most vitamins. So I was told that gummies I think, oh my gosh, my husband brought home this one jar of vitamins. It tasted more like sugar coated, like tasted like a candy is like they took the gummy vitamins and put sugar on it. And I was like What in the world is but I was taking things like that, which I just didn't feel good about at all. But I was specifically looking for one a days because I because again, I was already getting upset stomachs. I have you know, I have a history of having heartburn when I'm pregnant. So, you know, I'm dealing you know, as every pregnant woman is just dealing with multiple things, right? But your customized vitamins which we're going to talk start talking about now. You recommend you basically have two different packages, one to take an am and the PM. So I wanted to dive into that a little bit and talk about the importance of dividing up your vitamins.

Doreen Bloch 29:06
Absolutely, this is really not talked about enough and it's absolutely critical. Vitamins are absorbed differently in the body depending on what type they are. So there are some vitamins like A E, vitamin D, vitamin K, which are fat soluble. This means that they are better absorbed with fats. Other vitamins like vitamin B or vitamin C are water soluble and that means that they're better absorbed on an empty stomach with just a glass of water. Now it's very common. We hear this from a lot of our customers I would say 50 to 70% that with typical prenatals that they've taken in the past they've had a lot of indigestion or nausea or just general discomfort when it comes to taking the products and that's often because they these other manufacturers are trying to jam so many ingredients in Have these capsules that are fighting for the absorption and cancelling each other out and just kind of wrecking havoc. And that makes that gives people a sense of sort of pill fatigue, as it's called, they just want to take one a day and kind of have their discomfort out of the way. What we're here to say is that you do not have to suffer with this discomfort. A lot of this has to do with the, again, the convenience of the manufacturer, and not for the benefit of the mom and the baby. And so, with element, we designed the first ever two sided packet, which has one side for the morning, which are all of the capsules that you need to take just with water first thing in the morning, and then you have your Pm side, which are all the capsules that you need to take with food. And this has been designed in such a way that none of the ingredients cancel each other out, you're really getting everything you need and nothing that you don't add the right time. And making it super simple. So that you don't need again, to have a PhD in order to have the best possible prenatal experience. And so the the main one to keep in mind is the calcium, the calcium and iron. So again, if you're taking an iron supplement, whether it's with elements or separately, make sure that you are not taking it at the same time as calcium or any sort of calcium rich foods like milk or anything like that you really want to get your iron alone and not take it with any other ingredients.

Sunny Gault 31:26
Mamas, have you heard of that before. I had never heard and I was iron deficient when I was pregnant, too. I never heard that something could cancel out iron. I was shocked when Dorian first told me that.

Natalie Gross 31:37
Yeah, that was actually one of the instructions they did give me. When I started taking I found out around 24 weeks that I had an iron deficiency. And they told me yeah, don't take it with calcium. And so I've had been very careful with that. Still, I guess my numbers were unchanged around, you know, this time in pregnancy. So now I'm severely anemic.

Doreen Bloch 31:58
We gotta get you on Ellements.

Natalie Gross 32:02
But yes, I had heard that before. But I I'm learning so much about how it all works together.

Sunny Gault 32:08
Well, that's a really good lead-in, Natalie, thank you because I wanted to talk more about how our bodies change throughout pregnancy, right. And the needs that we have in our first trimester are different than the second and the third. And then on top of that, you may develop certain, you know, I'll just call them complications, or your body may be going through different things when you're pregnant. So for example, I had gestational diabetes with my first baby. And I would have really have liked to had, you know, more support, you know, with those kinds of things that my body was dealing with. And ideally, that should come from a prenatal that is why we are taking these vitamins to help our bodies. So dureena wanted to, you know, talk to you a little bit about that, because that's what your vitamins are focused on, it's customizing the experience. Can you talk a little bit about the importance of that?

Doreen Bloch 33:00
That's exactly right. Customization is critical. And it's not talked about enough, you know, each body is different, each pregnancy is different. And your prenatal should be to, you know, again, historically, this has just never been available before. But we're so excited that we've developed this now and kind of figured out the manufacturing processes in order to create this true customization for each pregnant body. There's really two ways that we look at customization. The first is by stage of pregnancy. So as you mentioned, trimester one and trimester three are quite different in terms of the nutritional needs. In trimester, one, for example, the folate or folic acid is really critical, it becomes less critical by the time you're in the third trimester. Whereas in the second trimester, calcium is really important because the baby's body is building up that bone mass. And if you as the pregnant person are not getting enough calcium, that calcium is just coming straight from your bones. And so, you know, the baby's always going to get most of what it needs from you. But that's where you as a pregnant person might start to feel weaker, or start to have some of these symptoms like Restless Leg Syndrome, etc, that are really uncomfortable. And it's really empowering. I think, for our customers that we are listening to them and listening to these different health and wellness experiences that they're having. And looking at the clinical data and saying, We can adjust your protocol to accommodate for these different things. So there's the stage of pregnancy, there's also different individual preferences. So there are people who have certain dietary patterns, maybe they're gluten free or they have a an allergy, to lactose or to fish. There are all of these different factors that we can accommodate for the first time and really empower each person to have the best possible prenatal supplement experience.

Sunny Gault 34:56
I love it. Mamas, I wanted to bring you guys back into this I mean What do you think of the idea of a customized vitamin had? Have you ever heard of something like this before? Was? Would that have been something that, you know, you would have found interesting if we've caught you guys before? Before now, before your babies are ready to come out? What do you think?

Tricia Mueller 35:13
Yeah, I think I definitely would have been interested in that. Just like I said earlier, I feel like it was such a learning curve. And I'm not a nutritionist and don't have that sort of background. So I appreciate that Doreen did the five years of work to make it so that someone knows what you're supposed to be taking? Yeah, I definitely would have been interested.

Doreen Bloch 35:33
And with a lot of help, by the way, we have an amazing Medical Advisory Board, including maternal fetal medicine specialists, and nutritionists and fertility specialists. And also, interestingly, about 80% of the people who have signed up to learn more about element are still preconception. So we do encourage people, even if you're not pregnant now, or if you're thinking about getting pregnant again, definitely sign up with us, because it's very important to be taking some kind of prenatal even before conception. And I can go into more detail there, if anyone's interested, or you can find more info on our website.

Sunny Gault 36:09
Yeah, we'll definitely include the link to the website in our show notes for you guys. It'll be on our website for https://newmommy edia.com. And that's a great way to get started. Okay, well, thank you guys. This was an awesome conversation. I think we've learned a ton about prenatal vitamins and what to look for. So thank you guys so much, and everyone who joined us for today's episode, be sure to check out https://newmommymedia.com, where we have all of our podcast episodes, plus videos and more.

Sunny Gault 36:46
That wraps up our show for today. Thank you guys so much for listening. If you love preggy pals as much as we do, please consider checking out the amazing businesses that sponsor our shows week after week. And we would also love for you to tell one other pregnant mama about this resource. Just one you guys all know we all know each other right? All the pregnant mamas know, the other pregnant mamas. Of course, this podcast is absolutely free. And if you want to check out some of the other podcasts we produce, we have Newbies, again that's the show that Natalie hosts. We have Parents Savers, The Boob Group, and Twin Talks. It's all on our website https://newmommymedia.com Thanks for listening to Preggie Pals, your pregnancy your way.

Disclaimer 37:30
This is a New Mommy Media production. Information and material contained in this episode are presented for educational purposes only. Statements and opinions expressed in this episode are not necessarily those of new mommy media, and should not be considered facts. Will such information and materials are believed to be accurate. It is not intended to replace or substitute for professional medical advice or care and should not be used for diagnosing or treating health care problem or disease or prescribing any medication. If your questions or concerns regarding your physical or mental health, or the health of your baby, please seek assistance from a qualified health care provider.