The following excerpt was taken from my favorite website, DoctorYourself.com. The link is http://www.doctoryourself.com/pregnancy_lactation.html. In this website is discussed the safety and benefits of taking large, or mega, doses of certain vitamins and minerals for the treatment, prevention, and even the cur eof certain illnesses, diseases or conditions. Here is what my hero Andrew Saul, PhD has to say about the use of Vitamin C in pregnancy.

Because it is water-soluble, "C" is naturally safer than vitamin A at all times, including pregnancy. F. R. Klenner, M.D. gave large doses to over 300 pregnant women and reported virtually no complications in any of the pregnancies or deliveries (Irwin Stone, The Healing Factor, Chapter 28). Indeed, the hospital nurses around Reidsville,N.C. noted that the infants who were healthiest and happiest were the "Vitamin C babies." Abram Hoffer, MD, has similarly reported that he has observed a complete absence of birth defects in babies born to his vitamin-C taking mothers-to-be.

Specifically, Klenner gave: 
  (1) 4,000 mg each day during the first trimester (first three months of pregnancy) 
  (2) 6,000 mg each day during the second trimester 
  (3) 8,000 to 10,000 mg each day during the third trimester 
Some women got 15,000 mg daily during the third trimester.

Results? There were NO miscarriages in this entire group of 300 women.

Klenner gave "booster" injections of vitamin C to 80% of the women upon admission to the hospital for childbirth.

The results? Wonderful, indeed:

First, labor was shorter and less painful.  (My children's mother, with her 2:45 and 1:45 labor times, can confirm this.)

Second, stretch marks were seldom to be seen. (I looked, and can vouch for this.)

Third, there were NO postpartum hemorrhages at all. And, there were no toxic manifestations and no cardiac distress (Stone, p. 191).

Among Klenner's patients were the Fultz quadruplets, which at the time were the only quads in the southeastern U.S. to have survived. These were each given 50 mg of "C" daily at birth. This is an important point: if the Mom is taking vitamin C, it also has to be continued for BOTH mother and baby afterwards as well. Failure to do this will result in the well-publicized "rebound effect." Therefore, don't stop a good thing. If "C" is important enough for the woman to take before giving birth, then it is important enough for the baby to get AFTER it has been born.

Klenner had children take their age in vitamin C each day. That is, a gram of "C" per year of age, leveling off at the age of ten at 10 grams (when in good health).

Vitamin C and Breastfeeding 
Varying amounts of vitamin C will be found in breast milk. If Mom takes a lot of "C" there will be "C" in the breast milk too. If Mom is healing up and stressed out, there will probably be less "C" available to the baby. And if Mom is sick or eating hospital food, there will almost certainly be a diminished "C" supply in her breast milk. The solution, again, is for BOTH mother and baby to supplement with vitamin C.

We did exactly this with our babies, and were impressed with the results. You can finely powder a tasty chewable "C" tablet and put it on your finger or the baby's tongue. This should be done at every feeding.  Infants do not need a lot of supplemental  "C"... but they DO need it frequently each day for maximum success. "Success" is easy to define: a healthy, happy baby that eats and sleeps well.

Very little vitamin C is found in formula, especially after it is packaged, opened, heated, poured, and oxidized during bottle feeding.


Considering this information, I plan to use this treatment plan with my next pregnancy. I didnt get any stretch marks with Elsa, but I would like to keep it that way. Anything that can make my labor take less time and be less painful deserves a shot in my book. I personally have taken as much as 10,000mg vitamin C at a time without any significant side effects. In fact the only issue I had was that it gave me diarrhea, but this is the body's way of telling you that you've reached your maximum capacity for the day and probably ought to reduce your dose for the next day. 

As discussed in the Health Care article Water, Vitamins and Exercise: Why Are They So Important? I discussed how the FDA's Recommended Daily Amount is not accurate for everyone and how you may actually need a significantly higher dose of certain vitamins than the government tells you is 'safe'. If you're one of those people the government depends on to perpetuate the lie that vitamins can kill you then please, feel free to contact the CDC and ask for documentation on how many people died due to vitamin overdose. Andrew Saul, PhD wrote an article about this very thing, No Deaths from Vitamins, Minerals, Amino Acids or Herbs: Poison Control Statistics Prove Supplements' Safety. This article was peer reviewed by 10 members of the medical profession, 5 of which are Medical Doctors -one of which also has a doctorate in Law-, and 1 who has a doctorate in Pharmacology. From here you can download any Annual Report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers from 1983-2008 free of charge and check the numbers yourself. Saul lists his references as well. If you would like to start any mega dose therapy be sure to consult your physician but come prepared. Print out as much of the materials available to you about the safety of the therapy you'd like to try, and tell your physician that you just want them to monitor things to make sure you're still healthy while undergoing the therapy and that you accept responsibility for whatever consequences the therapy might have. If your doctor has serious concerns about the therapy then hear them out and consider the information. If you still would like to try the therapy let them know, if they refuse you then you may have to find another doctor that will assist you. Most Dr's should be agreeable to this however, as it would give them an opportunity to document something new or interesting, as well as maintain their commitment to you to ensure your good health. If at any time the therapy appears to be negatively impacting your health, feel free to discontinue for a period of time that is reasonable to determining what the causative factor really was before blaming the vitamin therapy.