Best Nest Wellness Mama Bird Prenatal Vitamin Iron Free, No Iron or Iodine, Methylfolate (Folic Acid for Pregnant Women), Organic Herbal Blend, Vegan, Once Daily (30 Count)

Saved My Bacon
I have always struggled with swallowing pills, vitamins, and medications. Nearly every time I had to pop an ibuprofen for a severe headache or take a daily fish oil, the capsule would manage to glue itself to my esophagus where it would slowly breakdown over the course of a few days, despite my all of my efforts to move the pill. This caused quite an amount of discomfort in the days following and often contributed to unnecesary coughing and throat tickle, heartburn, and choking. To make do, I would instead dissolve medication under my tongue or opt for a liquid alternative. For several years I have completely avoided taking any form of medication resemaking a capsule or pill.When I became pregnant and needed to begin taking prenatals, I dreaded the thought of even attempting to take the vitamins and opted for a gummy alternative, thinking I could surpass the discomfort altogether. For two weeks I looked forward to end of the day so I could take the delicious little candy-vitamins, thinking how clever I was that I would never have to risk a lodged capsule in my life. That was until the day I officially turned six weeks pregnant.Something about this magical day made my stomach churn when I took the gummies. Though I had absolutely no other symptoms of morning sickness or pregnancy discomforts, I instantly vomited every consecutive day, only after taking my tasty little vitamins. I switched brands and flavors nearly twice a week, hoping that one of them would work like a charm. I tried changing the timing, eating only half of the gummy at a time, swallowing them whole while taking a monstrous bite of a hamburger and washing it all down with ginger ale, all to no avail.I scoured the Internet looking for something, anything, that could get me to keep the blasted vitamins down, which is when I finally read about Mama Bird Prental’s in a blog post. In summary, the post talked of the same issue with taking prentals and had chalked it up to the fault of synthetic vitamins, recommending that switching to a whole-food source would aid in the vomiting episodes I experienced solely after taking my vitamins every day. Sounded pretty promising!The only problem was that these vitamins came in pill form, which as I mentioned, I have a history with capsules and pills. I searched high and low for a natural gummy, but finding nothing comparable in quality or price. Since I was nearly 12 weeks pregnant, I simply could not imagine the dreading “pill time” every night for the next 28 weeks. As I previously mentioned, I had no other symptoms of morning sickness or queasiness and was uneasy about my midwife’s hesitant recommendation of medication to keep the prenatals down, besides my ability to even fully swallow the medication.I finally decided to give these a whirl and was pleasantly surprised, to say the least. Firstly, something about the size, shape, and texture of these prentals has been incredibly easy to swallow every evening, and just as the blog post suggested, they never once caused me to empty my stomach’s contents.I am VERY happy with the purchase of these vitamins, and have been taking them since week 12 without any issues, thus far at 30 weeks. No queasiness, no vomiting, no stomach aches. I can take them with or without a meal, morning, noon, or night, with or without a glass of water, upside down, in a plane, in a train… you name it!I would recommend these to anyone, but with a single reservation; the smell/taste. Not pleasant, but bearable for the 10 seconds it takes to swallow these. If you are sensitive to smells, I would recommend taking these alongside a glass of milk or juice or mid-meal.

Exactly what I needed
First, background: I have a copy of the A1298C MTHFR genetic mutation. Not as much is known/researched about this copy, but some of my symptoms have included thyroid issues, gluten intolerance and 5 years of unexplained infertility. It took over a year of changing diet/lifestyle before I conceived my son, now 3.5 years old. He also displays some signs of MTHFR, including midline defects (tongue and lip ties, which are also genetic).I did NOT know about the whole folate vs. folic acid vs. methylated folate thing back then, but had a fairly uneventful, tho super stressful pregnancy.Well, we decided to not try/not prevent for baby #2 early last year but nothing all year long. Later in the year, knowing what I do now about MTHFR, I went gluten free again, and researched and finally settled on these prenatal vitamins.I started taking them mid-December, and one cycle later, I’m pregnant!! I’m not going to say that I believe it was all because of the prenatals, because that’s not accurate. But personally, I do think these were and ARE an important key to my fertility and pregnancy. It will be interesting to see if this baby has the same midline defects or not.Things I love about this prenatal:. MTHFR-friendly. Vitamins are NOT synthetic, but come from whole foods – this is super important to me!. No yucky taste – I even let it sit in my mouth for a few seconds but it didn’t start dissolving. Neutral smell – sometimes you open a bottle of whole foods vitamins and wanna gag, but these are coated well so don’t smell too bad at all. Only ONE A DAY!!!Things I don’t really like:. A little on the larger side – I almost choked on one once, but I’m not the most coordinated person in the world hahaThings I would love to see:. A kids chewable vitamin with same MTHFR-friendly, whole foods ingredients! Not a gummy… pretty please and thank you! 🙂