I'm not sure about vitamin D dosages... but I have to disagree with your midwife on the no other vitamins thing. I know a lot of people prefer you get your vitamins from a food source, but that's not always an option for some people. I am a vegetarian, so I take prenatal, B complex, calcium/magnesium, and iron. I can't handle dairy that well and since taking the calcium, I've noted a difference. That one was directly recommended by my midwife and my OB asked me to take the iron. I take B because I should with my diet.
Sounds to me like you need more D if you are recognizing familiar symptoms!
Not pregnant, TTC, but my Vitamin D was at 19 so she has me on "3000-5000IU" of Vitamin D/D3 per day. I'm doing 4000IU currently. I'd go with the hospital over the midwife on this.
my vitamin D levels were so low (i don't know how low exactly, sorry) that my doctor was very insistent on me going on pills. i've been on 5000/week (once a week tablet) since early on in my pregnancy, for three months (i'm down to the last few pills now) and once those run out, she wants me to take just normal vitamin D supplements. she said otherwise the baby will take a lot of nutrients from my bones, and it's important to keep them healthy.
(oh, and my prescription is for a liquid capsule, and it should also be noted that i live in alaska AND never go out in the sun anyways because i have an autoimmune disease that causes depigmentation of the skin so i avoid the sun as much as possible)
Low Vitamin D can be really awful for the baby. I felt comfortable taking 1,000 extra IU, about three times a week. I also take a DHA fish oil supplement every day that contains Vitamin D, along with my normal prenatal.
These combined raised my D levels from horrifyingly low to something nice like 29 or so. Now I take the extra 1,000 IU only like once a week.
I think being very low in D is much more worrisome than taking an extra supplement.
What dose a person should take should be based on their individual levels determined with blood work. My doctor likes his patients to have a level between 80 and 120 in general. I never had my level taken at the start because I had all teh symptoms of a deficiency and live in Alaska. So for an two years I took 25,000 units 4 times a week. At the end of two years I was pregnant and had blood work done. I was at 84. The midwives asked how much I was taking because it is rare for a woman who is pregnant to be there without supplementation, and they wanted me in the 80 range. They did not like me taking 25,000 units at a time and told me to drop it to 4,000-6,000 units just to be sure I was not over loading my babies system with so much at once. I still kept my total dosage similar so as not to have my level drop. I personally find it rediculous how low a dosage is usually recommended for adults across the board. People need to take into account their lifestyles and where they live, and optimally should have blood work done
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Sounds to me like you need more D if you are recognizing familiar symptoms!
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(oh, and my prescription is for a liquid capsule, and it should also be noted that i live in alaska AND never go out in the sun anyways because i have an autoimmune disease that causes depigmentation of the skin so i avoid the sun as much as possible)
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These combined raised my D levels from horrifyingly low to something nice like 29 or so. Now I take the extra 1,000 IU only like once a week.
I think being very low in D is much more worrisome than taking an extra supplement.
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