Dr. Meg Byrne, DC, MS, CAcu
Patients are always sharing with me during their appointments that swallowing pills is so challenging in the first trimester, let alone the nausea that comes with just the thought of pills. They are not skipping their prenatal because they forgot. They skip it because they are competing with the pregnancy nausea and the reality that it might not stay down, and by week eight a lot of them have quietly given up.
A lot of my non-pregnant patients like Grüns because they are so easy to take; it even reminds them of the Flintstone vitamins we all know so well from the 1990’s. But when it comes to prenatal options, they have been disappointed, and so have I. That has changed with the Needed Prenatal Multi Gummy.*
For a long time, my answer on prenatal gummies was no, and I still think that was fair. A gummy can only hold so much. But the Needed gummy is the one that changed my answer.
When I look at a prenatal, I look at two things first. What form the nutrient is in, and how much of it is in there. A nutrient your body cannot efficiently utilize can be just a word on a label and so is a dose too small to matter. Folate is the clearest example. Folic acid must be converted before your body can use it, and some women convert it slowly or poorly, so I want to see folate already in its active form, methylfolate. Dose is the other half. Plenty of prenatals include multiple nutrients, but then put in so little of each that it hardly counts.
In the Needed Prenatal Multi gummy, three gummies give you 17 nutrients. You get 4,000 IU of vitamin D3, 40 mg of B6, 75 mcg of B12, and the folate is in the active form. Needed’s Prenatal Multi Gummy offers 8x more nutrition than the leading prenatal gummyǁ, and 4x more than the average of leading prenatal vitamins, including capsules‡.
The B6 within this gummy is so important and often overlooked. It is the first thing I reach for when a patient tells me the smell of coffee sends her back to bed. The typical prenatal carries only a few milligrams, which does very little for a woman who cannot keep breakfast down. When a patient is losing meals to morning sickness, B6 is the nutrient I want in her prenatal, and I would rather it come from the same gummy she is already keeping down than from a fourth bottle she has to remember.
Two things are left out on purpose. Omega-3 is available on its own, because an optimal dose for your baby’s brain will not fit in a gummy.* Iron is also separate. Iron needs are different for every woman, and one number does not work for everyone. Some of my patients come in with a ferritin level that needs real support while some do not need extra iron at all, and the most commonly prescribed forms of iron (like ferrous sulfate) can contribute to uncomfortable gastrointestinal issues. That is a decision I would rather make with her bloodwork in front of me than leave it to a one-size doesn’t-fit-all bottle.
I always recommend a woman preparing to conceive meet with a physician to identify her personalized needs prior to supplementation. Needed supplements allow you to customize your plan with iron, choline, and omega add-ons, which my patients love! Choline is one I bring up at nearly every preconception visit, because very few prenatals include enough of it.
If you are in the thick of the first trimester and even the thought of a pill turns your stomach, this is the one I have been waiting to hand you. Three gummies a day carry you from day one through delivery and postpartum, one prenatal for your whole pregnancy and postpartum, and it is easy to take.
Grab these incredible Prenatal Multi Gummies
Prenatal Multi Gummies + Choline
This post is sponsored by Needed, a brand I genuinely recommend to my patients and use personally.
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Talk with your physician before starting or changing a prenatal supplement.
ǁ Based on a comparison of each brand’s labeled daily serving amounts of vitamins and minerals relative to the pregnancy Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs), calculated as an average across those nutrients. As of May 2026.
‡ 4x more nutrition refers to the average amount of vitamins and minerals provided per daily serving, measured relative to pregnancy Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs), compared to the average of the leading prenatal gummy and capsule brand and Needed’s Prenatal as of May 2026. Brand A: 8x, Brand B: 4x, Brand C: 4x, Brand D: 4x.
