We have a very special guest on the podcast today, Julie Sawaya, who is one of the co-founders of Needed, a company that focuses on providing women with the highest quality of vitamins needed during the entire perinatal period.Julie shares with Meagan the research behind Needed's prenatal vitamins and supplements. She talks about why you need a prenatal vitamin in the first place, the optimal dosage and forms of specific vitamins in pregnancy, how supplementing proper nutrition in the best ways can positively impact your entire birth experience, and so much more!Use the code VBAC20 to receive 20% off at www.thisisneeded.comAdditional LinksNeeded WebsiteWhat to Look for in a Prenatal VitaminFolate vs Folic Acid. What's the Difference?Ryann Kipping: The Prenatal NutritionistReal Food for Pregnancy: The Science and Wisdom of Optimal Prenatal NutritionHow to VBAC: The Ultimate Prep Course for ParentsFull Transcript under Episode DetailsMeagan: Hello, Women of Strength. We have a very, very special episode for you today. We have our friend, Julie Sawaya, and she is the co-founder of Needed. If you haven’t heard us talking about Needed yet, go listen to the other episodes and get on Instagram. You guys, Needed is incredible. She is a mama of two young girls. We were just talking before the episode and her youngest is nine months. She is a lifelong nutrition nerd. I love that she calls herself this, a nutrition nerd. I’m a birth nerd. When we find ourselves passionate about something, we just nerd out, right? It’s so amazing. Julie grew up in a family of medical doctors and learned at a young age the power of nutrition and how it can influence or help. Julie went on to study the issue of nutritional access in college and got her Master’s in business from Stanford where she met her Needed co-founder, Ryan Of the most nutritionally aware of their friends, Julie and Ryan were shocked to realize that through nutrient testing, they were seriously major deficient in key nutrients. We don’t think about it, Julie. We just don’t think about this, I think, enough. We think we’re taking something and we think that we’re good. They found out that there was really much more needed for a healthy pregnancy. They dug into the research and they realized that they were not alone. 97% of women take a prenatal, yet 95% have nutrient deficiencies. Let me just say that again. 97% of women take a prenatal, yet 95% have nutrient deficiencies. Most prenatal vitamins just weren’t cutting it and Julie and Brian started Needed to create a new, higher standard for perinatal health. Working alongside a collective of more than 3,000 perinatal nutrition and health experts, together they have redesigned the products, education, expertise, and experience that women need. Welcome to the show, Julie. I seriously am reading this and I’m like, “Oh my gosh.” This is amazing because like I was saying when I was pregnant years ago, I did not pay attention to anything. I got the bottle. I took it. Check mark.Julie: Yeah. No, I mean, I think it’s a problem. The core underlying problem that we’re solving at Needed is that women are nutritionally deficient in this life stage. It’s a problem both with the products that are available. Most prenatal vitamins are designed to meet just the bare minimum nutrient needs, not to set you up for optimal health, and it’s also an awareness or an education problem because, in some way, it’s a problem that you don’t know you have until you feel the effects of it. We’re told it’s normal to feel depleted, that it’s normal to not feel your best, to feel like yourself during pregnancy or postpartum. So many of the complications of pregnancy have a nutritional root to it whether it’s gestational diabetes or preeclampsia or hypertension or nausea even, or more severe nausea like hyperemesis. There is a nutritional component to it. Not to say that nutrition is a cure-all, but it’s a reasonable first step in supporting your body optimally. Meagan: It