7 Moms on Their Experience Taking Ritual Prenatal Vitamins

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So, you’re pregnant — and now you’re looking up must-have lists of everything you need to buy for this new journey.

If this is your first baby, you might be feeling a touch overwhelmed. If you’ve been here, done this, you may be trying to keep your shopping cart as light as possible while gazing out at the gear and toys that have encroached on your living spaces.

In either case, many would argue that a quality prenatal vitamin should be at the top of the shopping list.

Ritual’s prenatal vitamin is one great option our team recommends, primarily due to its traceable ingredients and nutritional makeup. Additionally, most of the moms we spoke with experienced a significant improvement in their nausea.

The only caveat if you choose this prenatal: Our dietitians recommend consuming additional choline through food sources since Ritual’s prenatal contains only 10% of the recommended amount.

And, as you’re probably hearing many times during pregnancy, what works for one mom can flop for another. So, for this review, we included various moms’ personal experiences below.

First, the facts:

A stark contrast to my first two pregnancies

“For my first two pregnancies, I bought whatever prenatal vitamin was the cheapest at the store. I figured it was wiser to spend my money on the gear we would need, like a crib.

“But the truth is, I felt awful. I had low energy, I was so sick, and I felt miserable — all because my health was not a priority. It wasn’t until my third pregnancy that I felt my best.

“I truly believe it was because I stopped taking whatever prenatal vitamin was on sale, just to check the ‘I took my prenatals’ box, and instead started investing in the Ritual Essential Prenatal.

“As a first-time mom, I didn’t know what I didn’t know. But hindsight is 20/20.

“My first two pregnancies were a mess. I was nauseated, weak, and pretty much miserable from the moment of conception until the end.

“My memory of carrying both of my daughters is plagued with exhaustion, an inability to sleep, and the worst nausea you can imagine — the kind where you pull over on the side of the road to vomit. No one deserves that.

“When I found out I was pregnant with my third child, I knew I needed all the help I could get to keep my energy up. I had two kids and a part-time job that wasn’t about to slow down anytime soon.

“As soon as I saw that second line on the pregnancy test, I went straight to researching ways to keep my energy up. Of course, there were plenty of suggestions that just did not apply to me — going to bed early doesn’t work when you work and have two preschoolers.

“The best advice I found? Make your health the top priority. With all that in mind, I decided to give Ritual a shot.

“Originally, I heard about Ritual vitamins in a moms group where everyone swore by them. But to be honest with you, what attracted me the most to them was how the pill capsule was designed.

“The capsules for Ritual vitamins are made with a double layer that’s designed in such a way that it won’t fully dissolve until it’s in your small intestine.

“This is meant to reduce nausea and help your body absorb the most nutrients — two super important considerations when you’re growing a little one.

“My third pregnancy was more of a surprise, so I didn’t start taking Ritual prenatal vitamins until after I discovered I was pregnant (around 6 weeks).

“Once I started taking them each morning, however, I began to feel better within a few days. I had more energy, less pain, and the ability to sleep easier in the evenings.

“My nausea lessened, and my energy increased — which was exactly what I needed since I had two preschoolers that I had to keep up with.”

— Christine Luna

A vegan option that didn’t make me nauseous

“I used Ritual during my fourth pregnancy in 2019. My daughter was born in October 2019, so I continued taking the prenatal for years, through breastfeeding, and then switched to the postnatal vitamin when that became available.

“Compared to my previous pregnancies, I was now eating vegan and wanted the highest quality vegan-friendly vitamin. I also had a complicated first trimester, and it mentally made me feel better knowing I was putting something high quality in my body during this time.

“I have tried several other prenatals, from generic ones from Target to prescription ones. Most left me feeling more nauseous. I never became nauseous from Ritual vitamins, which was a big thing for me during the first and second trimesters, as I had experienced this with many other vitamins.

“This may not be correlated, but I also felt my best during this pregnancy than during my previous three.

“I did occasionally experience the fish burps still, but nothing horrible that made me want to discontinue use.”

— Hannah Hillson

A match for my sensitive stomach

“I took Ritual’s prenatal from February to September of 2022, which was from the time I was about 12 weeks pregnant through just after, when I switched to their postnatal vitamin.

“Prior to becoming pregnant, I had been taking the Smarty Pants gummy vitamins. On the recommendation of my doctor, I wanted to go ahead and start taking a prenatal when I was considering becoming pregnant to ensure I was getting plenty of folic acid.

“I thought they had an odd texture and aftertaste that I hadn’t experienced with normal women’s health gummy vitamins. I admit this caused me to take them less regularly than I would have liked.

“When I became pregnant, I switched to taking the Perelel daily vitamin packs. I wanted to take this brand because they seemed to have so many health benefits above and beyond a typical or generic prenatal, but I thought they had such a horrible vitamin taste.

“Taking them on top of my new morning (and afternoon, and night) sickness was simply impossible, especially because there were so many pills.

“A good mom friend recommend Ritual prenatals, so I gave them a shot, and I’m so thankful that I did! The lemon taste was much kinder to my sensitive stomach, and it was so much easier to take just two pills than a whole handful. I felt that I was still getting a robust, complex vitamin to meet my health needs without any of the negative tastes I found in other products.

“I continued taking the Ritual prenatal through birth and shortly after and then switched over to the postnatal vitamin to support breastfeeding (and lack of sleep!). Especially now that I have a baby to care for, it is so convenient to have them auto-shipped to me each month and have one less thing to think about.

“At 10 months postpartum, I am still taking this product, although now that I have stopped breastfeeding, I may consider switching to their generic women’s multivitamin.

“I am planning to continue taking Ritual’s vitamins daily and will switch back to prenatals when I’m ready for my baby to become a big brother!”

— Katey Daniels

A convenient subscription model

“Ritual was easy to find online. I prefer to buy most things online (even groceries), so it was honestly easier than picking out a prenatal in the store. I also knew it had the right levels of folate, so it eliminated needing to research any other brands.

“I took it even before trying to get pregnant and then continued to take it during pregnancy and still do! I’m currently 5 months postpartum and still breastfeeding.

“My OB recommended continuing to take one as long as I was breastfeeding. I can’t comment on the overall well-being, as I only ever took Ritual, but I was confident it had all the nutrients I needed.

“I did not switch to Ritual’s postnatal vitamin. I chose to stick with the prenatal because I knew it worked and I liked it. My OB said the postnatals were really just a marketing practice and there weren’t any additional vitamins I would need after pregnancy.

“I never had any weird tastes or burps. There is a slight flavor to the pills, but it’s not bad at all. It’s a little lemony.”

— Anonymous Healthline reviewer

Not a noticeable enough difference for the cost

“I took Nature Made’s prenatal for my first pregnancy and only found out about Ritual in my second one. I tried it because it was all over social media and one of my friends was already using them and she has a promo code, so I gave it a try because of the clean ingredients.

“I took them during my early pregnancy, for 3–4 months.

“Honestly, I gave it a try, but I felt Nature Made had a better price point, and I did not feel the two were any different for me.

“It was not cost-efficient to me, as it is a pill a day for more than a year.”

— Monika Patel

It actually made me nauseous

“I was heavily targeted for it on social media and by influencers. I figured for my second pregnancy I’d try a more premium product — I liked that it had clean ingredients and was meant to be easy on the stomach.

“I started taking Ritual during the fall of 2022 and only lasted on the vitamin for a week because it made me so nauseous. I was often sick [within 30–60 minutes of taking] the prenatal at night.

“On the bright side, I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to contact Ritual’s customer service and how quickly they refunded me for the bottle.

“I switched to Nature Made’s prenatal with DHA. I had no nausea. I noticed no difference healthwise, but Nature Made’s was significantly more affordable.”

— Rachel Contini

The only thing I could keep down

“I chose to try Ritual’s prenatal vitamin after a friend recommended it to me. I told her I had been taking a generic prenatal vitamin from Walmart months before getting pregnant, but it started making me sick as soon as I got pregnant. I tried another random kind from the store, and it made me so sick too. She recommended Ritual.

“To be honest, I’m not sure that Ritual’s prenatal made me feel better than the generic prenatal vitamin I had been taking before did. I just truly couldn’t keep any other prenatal vitamins down.

“I’m not usually one to splurge on name-brand things, but once I went Ritual, I’ll never go back. The lemon scent and slower dissolve time made me much less nauseous. I still had a hard pregnancy, but Ritual prenatal did make it a little bit easier.

“I canceled my Ritual subscription after giving birth and started using the generic store brand vitamins again to save on cost (since I wasn’t nauseous anymore, finally). But postpartum and breastfeeding was a pretty horrible experience for me. Maybe I would have felt better if I kept taking Ritual’s prenatal.”

— Alaina McCartney

Ritual is a wellness company that was founded in 2016 by Katerina Schneider with the goal of creating high quality supplements for women by women.

Specifically, Ritual specializes in multivitamins for women at various stages of life, including before and after pregnancy.

Since the company’s inception, Ritual’s product line has expanded to include multivitamins for men, teens, and kids.

Here are the multivitamins currently available from Ritual:

• Essential for Women 18+
• Essential for Men 18+
• Essential for Women 50+
• Essential for Men 50+
• Prenatal Multivitamin
• Postnatal Multivitamin
• Essential for Teens Multivitamin for Her
• Essential for Teens Multivitamin for Him

For those who are looking for an easy way to boost their protein intake, Ritual’s product line also includes protein powders formulated for adults over age 18, adults over age 50, and people who are pregnant or nursing. Additionally, the brand offers a synbiotic, which contains prebiotics, probiotics, and postbiotics for gut health.