Taking the best prenatal vitamins you can find is one of the most important things you can do for your baby before he is born. This is especially true for women with special dietary concerns, those who don’t get a balanced diet daily and those unfortunate souls whose healthy eating habits are wrecked by morning sickness.

You may be interested in organic prenatal vitamins, which is fine. Just make sure that the prenatal vitamin contains only the vitamins and minerals found in a typical prenatal vitamin. You don’t want any extra herbs or other additions. Keep in mind that “natural” does not necessarily mean safe, especially when it comes to pregnancy. Your doctor should be able to help you choose the best prenatal vitamin for your specific needs, but there are some vitamins that are so important that they should be in the supplement you choose.

Folic Acid: Folic Acid is one of the most important vitamins you should be taking while you're pregnant. In fact, taking a prenatal vitamin with folic acid before you even conceive is highly recommended. This is because folate helps to prevent neural tube defects, such as spina bifida. A woman planning on getting pregnant should be consuming 400 micrograms (mcg) of folic acid a day; once pregnant she should up that amount to 600mcg. If you’ve had problems with neural tube defects in the past, you’ll need even more; perhaps as much as 4,000mcg. This shouldn’t replace the folic acid you get from food, which is actually harder for your body to break down than folate in a prenatal vitamin.

Iron: Many women, pregnant and not, don't get enough iron in their diets. During pregnancy your body produces more blood, which means that your regular iron stores get thinned out. That’s why pregnant women require more iron than non-pregnant women. An iron deficiency can lead to anemia, which among other concerns, can cause you to be extra tired while pregnant. You should be getting 30mg to 40mg of iron in your daily prenatal vitamin.

Calcium: Calcium is important for not only your baby’s bone development, but also to preserve your own. If your baby isn’t getting the calcium she needs, she’ll take it from your bones, making your body more fragile. A pregnant woman should consume at least 1,000mg of calcium every day. Unfortunately most prenatal vitamins don’t contain enough (200mg to 300mg is considered a lot for a prenatal vitamin), so make sure you get the rest from your diet or from a calcium supplement.

Zinc: Studies have shown that zinc can increase fertility. This is especially important for women who are taking a prenatal vitamin while trying to conceive. For women who are already pregnant, zinc helps your baby’s tissue to grow. Your prenatal vitamin should have at least 15mg of zinc.

B6: Vitamin B6 has been shown to decrease a woman’s likelihood of experiencing morning sickness. To gain this benefit, it’s important to take a prenatal vitamin before conception or, at the very least, within the first weeks of pregnancy, when you may not even realize you’re pregnant. around 1.9mg daily is the usual amount, though you may want to increase your B6 intake if your doctor agrees that it will help with morning sickness.