Pre-natal vitamins AND seperate folic pills?

Okay, this may be a stupid question but I was told that you need to take pre-natals, as well as folic acid pills. Is that true? I'm taking pre-natals now but I'm just curious. Also, at your first appointment does the Dr. prescribe you vitamins and such? I can't get my first appt until July 1st so I'm just curious in the meantime! :)

[megmil]

Yeah the doctor will start you on prenatal vitamins. Your doctor should have already. I never have to wait til my first appointment before my doctor prescribes a prenatal vitamin. About the folic avid, it is important for baby's development but if you have a good prenatal vitamin you shouldn't need another folic acid pill although I don't see what harm it could do taking an extra folic acid vitamin. I can't think right now of what the folic acid is for I think it's for brain development. You can also get over the counter prenatal vitamins. I take them becaue the over the counter vitamins have more iron and I'm anemic. They also don't make me so sick like the ones I've been prescribed.

[hoping4thebest19]

Oh ok, for the meantime I bought some pre-natals.. The only reason I have to wait until July is my husband just came home from Iraq and went back to his civilian job so we actually have to wait until the insurance kicks in again- gotta love the state jobs, eh? LOL.. I'm dying to get into the doctor but I guess I just have to wait a little.

[sstaceyy]

you have to have folic acid it helps with the brain development of the baby. with my frist one i took my vitemans and folic acid and he came out great i didnt take any thing with my 2nd he came 5 wks earliy and spent 24 days in the nicu. there is some foods that have folic aicd in them like tuna fish. you can get prenatals with folic acid in them at the store just so you know, i dont know if you have a sams club store but you can them from there for cheap.

[AnnieBrooke]

You should be taking extra folic acid three months in advance of trying to get pregnant.  I took extra folic acid on top of my prenatal once I began the prenatals.  

Pregnancy loss, abruption and especially neural-tube defects are the problems that can come from being deficient in folic acid.  A lot of foods now are folic-acid enriched for this reason, but since it is a water-soluble vitamin (i.e., you cannot take too much and hurt yourself) it does not hurt and probably helps to take it liberally.

[TriciaAS]

I'm taking prenatal vitamins plus and extra folic acid vitamin. So in total I'm having 2 mg of folic acid a day. I don't take it all at the same time though. I space them out during the day.