by Frank Will

Created on: March 05, 2011

Are prenatal vitamins really needed when you are pregnant, or can they actually be dangerous? The answer to this question is really quite simple; they are not only needed, they are critical. The only real danger in this question is if you do not supplement your body during this miracle process we call life, it can be dangerous not only to you, but to the fetus that is growing inside of you. In fact, the earlier that you do take them, the more both of you will be protected.

Prenatal Development:

In fully understanding the importance of prenatal vitamins, it is very helpful to understand the various stages of prenatal development. The actual length of time for this miraculous process is considered to be 38 weeks from the date of conception to the date of delivery. It is during this time frame that a single celled zygote develops in a series of stages. A zygote is the initial cell that is formed when two gametes cells are joined through the means of sexual reproduction.

There are three primary stages in this process; the germinal stage, the embryonic stage, and the third period which is the fetal stage and prenatal vitamins can help in each one of these periods.

The germinal stage occurs as the result of the female egg, or the ovum, being fertilized by a male sperm. In most all cases and if everything is normal, a single egg will be released roughly once a month from the female’s ovary during ovulation. Once this occurs, the egg will travel through her fallopian tube toward the uterus. However, for the actual process of fertilization to occur, the sperm that is introduced must have made its way from the vagina into the uterus, where it then must make its way into the fallopian tube. This process can occur for as long as eight to ten hours after the introduction of the sperm.

If all of this happens perfectly, a sperm cell must then bind successfully with a series of chemical reactions that will in turn allow the sperm to penetrate and enter the ovum’s membrane. The egg and the sperm will then begin to form the single cell that is referred to as the zygote, where it will begin to divide very rapidly. If this process and the steps that follow it also work perfectly, implantation starts and the second stage begins.

In the second stage, referred to as the embryonic stage, prenatal vitamins are critical as several major events will occur.  Once this stage begins, the cells are dividing very rapidly and they also begin to preform different functions,

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