Pregnancy & Baby 

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Large doses of vitamins

The best answer is we just don't know about the effects of each vitamin in each dosage. In general, water-soluble vitamins such as B, C, D and folic acid are excreted in the kidneys so excess amounts of these vitamins are usually passed out in the urine anyway. Fat-soluble vitamins, A, E, and K are stored in body tissue and fat and so can accumulate to dangerous levels. Excess amounts of Vitamin A (10,000 IU per day) have been associated with an increased risk of foetal malformations.

Only the requirements for iron, folic acid and Vitamin D double during pregnancy. The recommended daily allowances (RDA) for calcium and phosphorus increase by a half. For pyridoxine and thiamine, the RDA increase is about one third, and the RDA for all other nutrients is very small. For Vitamin A there is no increase necessary.

From these figures you will see that very large doses of any vitamins are not necessary and certainly not recommended in pregnancy.

I hope this is the information you needed. You will usually find all of the dosage units included as listed on the bottles. You should certainly NOT take any vitamin/multi-vitamin tablets unless they are suggested or you can see EXACTLY what has been included. This is certainly so if tablets contain Iron, as any subsequent blood test results can be confusing if your GP/midwife does not realise that you are taking iron by mouth.

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