You can get it from a store. I get it in my pre-natal, but some multis have it. You can probably also get it alone. An average pregnant woman needs 800 mcg to help avoid early birth defects, but if you have a relative with a specific class of birth defect (I can't remember right now what it is called but it has to do with formation of the spinal cord) then you should take more than 800 mcg. Check the labels of the vitamins so you know how much folic acid they contain.

What I would suggest is getting an over the counter prenatal vitamin and it should have folic acid in it.

It kinda stinks, because im adopted so i dont know if there is anything in my family history with birth defects..... I also have no idea about any other health risks in my family

So you would say 800mg of folic acid a day?

Thank you everyone You guys are so helpful

The defect is called Spina Bifida (sp?). I have a relative who has it.

800mcg (micrograms) not mg(milligrams). My doctor perscribed 2mg (2000mcg) daily.

It also prevents anencephaly. Both spina bifida and anencephaly are caused when the neural tube does not properly close on either tthe top or the bottom. Having enough folic acid in your system throughout pregnancy ( and many providers reccommend having it while TTC) can help prevent these birth defects from happening.

theres alot of folic acid in the flinstones chewables
theyre freakin loaded

I doubt that any doctor would recomend that you take flinstone vitamins while pregnant or trying to conceive. I would just ask your gyno to prescribe you some, or get ones that are over the counter

actually my doctor told me if my prenatals make me sick or feel sick at all to take 2 flinstones a day? thats what ive been doing throughout my whole pregnancy

I had a very hard time with morning sickness in the beginning, so I was switched to children's chewables for a short time until I could keep things down. Then I went back on the prenatals.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to add: Taking fish oil has been reccommended to help stimulate brain growth as well. I put them in the freezer because they made me burp fish oil smell. Frezzing them made them much more palatable.

did your prenatals make you feel nauseas at all?

I am on children's chewables right now as well. I take the target brand and each tablet has 400 mcg. Taking two gives you the fulll amount of folic acid a pregnant woman needs. However, just so you know for some reason most of the children's chewables only have 200 mg of calcium so you really need to take an extra calcium supplement like viactiv chewables with it. A pregnant woman needs a total of 1000 mg of calcium a day. That's hard to get when you are lactose intolerant.

yeah id recommend the flinstones with iron
like i said they are loaded and seem to be working fine for me?

I have a hard time taking pills so wouldn't it be okay to take two regular multi vitamins and this way you have 800mcg of folic acid?

ive laways had a hard time swallowing pills1 i thought i was the only one lol
ive never taken any kind of medicine though...no tylonol or advil...not even midol when i had my period!

the only way i was able to learn to take pills was by taking motrin because they were so small. now i'm able to take normal sized pills but vitamins are HUGE and just the thought of it makes me want to puke.

It is hard to say, because I threw up without them as well. There is no question that children's vitamins are quite inferior compared to regular prenatal vitamins, but if you can't keep them down, I guess the children's vitamins are better than none at all.

I GOT SOME AT WALMART. FOR LIKE $5

Yeah I guess something is better than nothing. I had no idea that children's chewables had that much folic acid in them.

Let me ask you girls something else???

Ok, I take my regular prenatal every morning, and I also take some B6 and a multi vitamin. Do any of you think that I am getting to much folic acid. I have no idea how much is in a prenatal and there is 400mcg in my multi. What else is in the prenatal that I could be doubling up on with my multi?