Zita West Vital Essence 1 - First Trimester Vitamins & Minerals

In Zita West's experience, even if you have a healthy diet – which many people don’t these days, given missed, hurried or convenience meals – growing numbers of mothers-to-be want the added reassurance of knowing they are getting all the most important vitamins and minerals they need. Not least because intensive food production and processing has stripped many foods of a lot of their nourishment. In Zita West's opinion, a good multi vitamin and mineral supplement is essential during pregnancy, if only as an insurance policy.

It’s perfectly fine to keep on using Vital Essence 1 for a few weeks after the end of the 1st trimester, for example to finish off a bottle that you have only just started. The differences in the formulation of Vital Essence 2 are not huge, and have just been made in order to fine-tune the formulation to make it as specific as possible to the particular needs of your body as you move into this middle stage of pregnancy.

“RDA” is an abbreviation of “Recommended Daily Allowance.” The RDA was devised by the Dept of Health in the UK in 1979 to provide guidance on the intake of a limited number of specific vitamins and minerals that an average adult should have daily in order to avoid a deficiency that may lead to disease or general ill-health. Whereas this was, and remains, a useful benchmark for judging the contribution that any supplement may make to reaching those minimum requirements, it wasn’t intended to represent an indication of optimum intake. You will probably have noticed that many supplements, particularly premium priced ones such as Zita West's own, contain daily levels that are frequently many times higher than the RDA, sometimes substantially so. This is because the vitamins and minerals concerned have been set at therapeutic levels in an attempt to boost the body’s store of the nutrients concerned, often for a particular and limited period of time, the need for which can of course vary depending on factors such as general health, age etc. It is universally recognised that pregnancy, and preparing for pregnancy, for example, benefit from special attention to nutrition on the part of both partners. All of the formulations within the Zita West range are well within the Government’s guidelines for what represents the upper safe limit (USL) for long term daily supplementation of any given nutrient.

The first three months of pregnancy are in many ways the most crucial stage of a baby’s development – the time when all of his or her organs and systems are forming, as well as hands, feet, and limbs. It is now recognised that a mother’s diet immediately before conception and in the first weeks of pregnancy can influence the way that the embryo develops.

Alongside Zita West Vital Essence 1, we recommend taking Vital DHA for maximum benefit to your overall nutrition.

For those looking for a comprehensive range of supplements to support them in their first trimester, take a look at Zita West Newly Pregnant Trimester 1 Support Pack. The pack contains all of the supplements we recommend to support you throughout the first trimester

Yes, it is recommended that women take prenatal vitamins during early pregnancy to ensure that both the mother and the developing foetus receive adequate nutrition. Prenatal vitamins are specially formulated with higher amounts of certain vitamins and minerals that are important for foetal development, such as folic acid, iron, and calcium.

It is recommended to take a prenatal multivitamin and a folic acid supplement in the first trimester, as well as vitamin D.

Zita West Vital Essence 1 contains all of the vitamins and minerals recommended for the first trimester, as well as folic acid, in the more absorbable form of folate.

Zita West also recommend taking Zita West Vital DHA, to support foetal development too.