How to Choose a Postpartum Supplement: A Simple Guide for Mums
You just had a baby. You want to feel better. You do not need to become an expert on supplements to do that.
You need five questions.
- Does the label say how much of each thing is in one serve?
- Is that amount enough, or does the percentage just look big?
- How big is the serve? Will you really take it every day?
- What type of iron is it?
- Will they show you the test results?
Most products fail on one of these. Once you know them, you can check any tub in about ten minutes.
But one thing comes first. Get a blood test. You cannot pick the right supplement until you know what you are low in.
First: get a blood test
This is the step most mums skip. It is also the one that saves the most money.
After birth, being tired can have a few different causes. Low iron. A thyroid problem. Not enough sleep. Low mood. They all feel much the same. Only one of them is fixed by a supplement.
Ask your GP for these tests:
| Test | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Iron studies, with ferritin | How much iron you have stored |
| TSH and free T4 | How your thyroid is working |
| Vitamin D | Easy to run low when you are stuck inside with a baby |
| Vitamin B12 | Matters most if you eat little or no meat |
Ask for ferritin by name. This is important. Lots of women are told their blood test was fine when only one part was checked. Ferritin is the part that shows your stores. You can have a normal result on the other test and still be low.
Australian doctors have pointed out that a ferritin between 15 and 30 can still mean you are low on iron, even though it may not get flagged.
If something comes back low, you need the right treatment for it. Your GP or pharmacist will tell you what that is. A general wholefood powder is not built for that job.
Want to know the warning signs? Read Postpartum Iron Deficiency: Signs to Watch For.
Question 1: Does it say how much is in there?
Pick up the tub. Look for a label with numbers next to each nutrient.
If all you can see is a list of ingredients, you cannot judge it. Neither can your GP.
Watch out for two tricks.
"Proprietary blend." This is one weight for a whole group of ingredients. It sounds special. What it really means is you cannot tell how much of anything you are getting. A blend can be mostly the cheapest ingredient and still list the good one first.
Big ingredient weights. A label might shout "2,000 mg of beef liver". That tells you how much liver is in there. It does not tell you how much iron or B12 you get. Those are different numbers. Only the second one helps you.
Question 2: Is that amount actually enough?
This one is worth two minutes. It explains why so many products look better than they are.
The percentages on Australian food labels are old. They are measured against numbers written in 1991. Our food regulator says so openly, and is working on updating them.
The advice we use today came out in 2006. For some nutrients, the two are very different.
| Nutrient | What the label is measured against (1991) | What you actually need while breastfeeding |
|---|---|---|
| Iron | 12 mg | 9 mg |
| Iron, if you are not breastfeeding | 12 mg | 18 mg |
| Folate | 200 µg | 500 µg |
| Iodine | 150 µg | 270 µg |
| Vitamin C | 40 mg | 85 mg |
| Vitamin B12 | 2.0 µg | 2.8 µg |
Here is what that looks like in a shop.
A supplement with 10 mg of iron can print 83% on the front. That is measured against the old 1991 number. But if you are not breastfeeding, you need 18 mg. So that same 10 mg is really about 56% of what you need.
Both numbers are true. Only one helps you.
What to do: ignore the percentage. Read the milligrams. Compare them to the right-hand column above.
One more thing. A food only needs 10% of that old number to say it "contains" a nutrient. So "contains iron" means a rule was followed. It does not mean there is much in there.
Question 3: What counts as one serve?
Every label works off a serve. But a serve is not the same size on every product. So before you compare two of them, check what one serve actually is.
It might be one scoop. It might be a tablespoon. It might be four capsules.
This matters for two reasons.
You need to compare like with like. If one product lists its numbers for two capsules and another lists them for four, you cannot put the two lists side by side until you even them out. A bigger serve is not a worse product. It just means more of the tub goes into each dose, and you should see that reflected in the numbers.
Check how long the pack really lasts. Look for "serves per pack" on the label, not just the capsule or gram count. A pack of 90 capsules with a three-capsule serve is 30 days, not 90. Good labels print the serves per pack for you.
Then work out the cost per serve. Divide the price by the serves per pack. That is the only fair way to compare two products with different pack sizes.
Last, pick the form that fits your day. Powders let you stir a dose into a drink or a smoothie, and you can taste what you are taking. Capsules have no taste and you can take them anywhere with a glass of water. Neither one is better. The better one is whichever you will still be taking in three months.
Question 4: What type of iron is it?
The type matters more than the number on the front.
There are two kinds.
Haem iron comes from animal foods, like liver. Your body takes in about 22% of it.
Non-haem iron comes from plants and most iron tablets. Your body takes in about 4% of it.
That is roughly five times the difference. So a smaller number of haem iron can give you more usable iron than a bigger number of the other kind. Read the type and the amount together.
Question 5: Will they show you the test results?
"Independently tested" and "third-party tested" sound official. In Australia, those words have no fixed legal meaning. They might mean every batch gets tested. They might mean one test, done years ago.
So just ask. Send the brand an email:
- What does the test cover?
Three things matter in the answer:
- Heavy metals, like lead and mercury
- Bacteria, since this is a tub that sits in your kitchen for a month
- Whether the numbers were measured in the finished product, or just worked out from a food database
Both of those last two are allowed. Only one tells you what is really in the tub.
Warning signs
| Warning sign | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| "Proprietary blend" | You cannot tell how much of anything you get |
| "2,000 mg of [ingredient]" as the headline | That is the ingredient weight, not the nutrition |
| "Contains kelp" with no iodine number | Iodine changes a lot, and too much is a problem |
| Before and after photos | Not proof of anything |
| No reply when you ask for test results | The silence tells you something |
| A pregnancy vitamin sold for after birth | Your needs change. Iron and folate drop. Iodine and vitamin C go up |
Our own numbers
Mothers Replenishment
One 7 g serve, which is a tablespoon. 30 serves in a pack.
| Nutrient | Per serve | What the label says | What it really is, for breastfeeding |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vitamin C | 77 mg | 193% | 91% |
| Vitamin B12 | 4.69 µg | 235% | 168% |
| Iodine | 245 µg | 163% | 91% |
| Iron | 1.6 mg | 13% | 18% |
| Folate | 25.2 µg | 13% | 5% |
Vitamin C, B12 and iodine all land at or near what you really need while breastfeeding. The iron is 1.6 mg. That is 18% of what you need. This is not an iron supplement. If iron is what you are short on, this is not the product that fixes it.
Those numbers are what they are because this is food. It is made from whole ingredients, and whole ingredients. That works well if you are topping up a diet that has gone sideways since the baby came.
Of the ten ingredients, nine are there for nutrition. One, organic monk fruit, is there to make it taste like something you will actually drink.
If iron is your problem: Nourishing Energy
We make a second product for exactly this gap. It is capsules, not powder, and it is built around iron.
| Mothers Replenishment | Nourishing Energy | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Wholefood powder, 7 g serve | Capsules, 4 per serve |
| Iron per serve | 1.6 mg | 10.9 mg |
| Type of iron | Haem, from beef liver | Haem, from beef liver and spleen |
| Against the label number | 13% | 91% |
| Against what you need if not breastfeeding (18 mg) | 9% | about 60% |
| Vitamin B12 | 4.69 µg | 4.84 µg |
| Job it does | Broad top-up | Iron and B12 |
Nourishing Energy is made from certified organic, grass-fed Australian beef liver and spleen, freeze-dried. Nothing else. It is third-party tested, and the organic certificate number is 24087.
Two honest points about it.
The iron is haem iron, the kind your body takes in about five times better than the iron in most tablets. That is why 10.9 mg from this goes further than 10.9 mg from a plant source.
But it is still a food, not a medicine. If your blood test shows you are low on iron, talk to your GP about how to fix that properly. Food can help you hold a good level. Getting back up from a low one usually needs more than food.
Before you take two things at once
If you take more than one supplement, add up two numbers across all of them.
Iodine. The safe upper limit is 1,100 µg a day for women 19 and over. A postnatal multi, plus an iodine capsule, plus something with kelp in it, adds up faster than you think.
Vitamin A. Liver products contain vitamin A, and there is a safe upper limit for it, 3000 µg a day. Plant sources of vitamin A do not carry the same worry.
Common questions
What should I look for in a postpartum supplement? Five things. That the label says how much of each nutrient is in one serve. That the amounts are enough when you read the milligrams instead of the percentage. That you know what one serve is and how many serves are in the pack. That you know what type of iron it is. And that the brand will show you a test certificate.
Is the percentage on a supplement label right? It is legal, but it is measured against numbers from 1991. Food Standards Australia New Zealand says the values used on food labels come from the 1991 Australian RDIs and some 1989 American figures, and that it is working on updating them. The advice we use today came out in 2006. Compare milligrams, not percentages.
Can I keep taking my pregnancy vitamin after birth? It is not made for the job. After birth your needs change. Iodine goes up to 270 µg a day and vitamin C to 85 mg. Iron drops to 9 mg and folate to 500 µg. A pregnancy vitamin is built for pregnancy, so it gives you too much of some things and not enough of others.
Should I get a blood test before buying a supplement? Yes, if you are buying it because you feel exhausted. Being tired after birth is often caused by low iron, a thyroid change, broken sleep or low mood. A thyroid problem called postpartum thyroiditis alone affects about one in 20 women in the first year. Ask for iron studies with ferritin, plus TSH and free T4.
Why do I have to ask for ferritin? Because the other iron test can look normal while your stores are empty. Ferritin is the one that shows your stores. Australian doctors have pointed out that a ferritin between 15 and 30 can still mean you are low, even if it is not flagged.
Does the type of iron matter? Yes. Haem iron from animal foods is taken in at about 22%. Non-haem iron from plants and most tablets is taken in at about 4%. So a smaller amount of haem iron can give you more usable iron than a bigger amount of the other kind.
Which Honour Wellness product has the most iron? Nourishing Energy, with 10.9 mg of haem iron per 4-capsule serve, from organic Australian beef liver and spleen. Mothers Replenishment has 1.6 mg per serve and is made as a broad top-up rather than an iron product.
Will a supplement fix low iron? It depends how low you are. Food can help you hold a good level. If a blood test shows you are low, you usually need more than food to get back up, so ask your GP what is right for you.
What does "third-party tested" mean in Australia? It has no fixed legal meaning. Ask the brand for a test certificate for the batch you are buying, and ask what it covers. Heavy metals, bacteria, and whether the numbers were measured in the finished product are the three things worth knowing.
How much of a nutrient does a supplement need before it can say it "contains" it? Ten percent of the old 1991 number, per serve. Twenty-five percent to say "good source". These are low bars, so "contains iron" tells you a rule was followed, not that there is much in there.
How do I compare the price of two supplements? Divide the pack price by how many serves are in it. Then check the serves give you similar amounts of what you want. A cheaper pack with a smaller serve often costs more per unit of nutrition.
Can I take more than one supplement at once? You can, but add up the iodine and the vitamin A first. The safe upper limit for iodine is 1,100 µg a day for women 19 and over, and it is easy to go over by mixing a multi, an iodine capsule and something with kelp. Check with your GP, midwife or pharmacist while breastfeeding.
References
- Food Standards Australia New Zealand. Regulatory nutrient reference values. https://www.foodstandards.gov.au/consumer/nutrition/nutrient-reference-values
- Food Standards Australia New Zealand. Nutrition, health and related claims. https://www.foodstandards.gov.au/business/labelling/nutrition-health-and-related-claims
- National Health and Medical Research Council. Nutrient Reference Values for Australia and New Zealand. https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/about-us/publications/nutrient-reference-values-australia-and-new-zealand-including-recommended-dietary-intakes
- National Health and Medical Research Council. Iodine, Nutrient Reference Values. https://www.eatforhealth.gov.au/sites/default/files/2022-04/n35-iodine_0.pdf
- Updating the diagnosis and management of iron deficiency in the era of routine ferritin testing of blood donors by Australian Red Cross Lifeblood. Medical Journal of Australia. 2024. https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2024/221/7/updating-diagnosis-and-management-iron-deficiency-era-routine-ferritin-testing
- Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. Thyroid disease in the perinatal period. Australian Family Physician. https://www.racgp.org.au/afp/2012/august/thyroid-disease-in-the-perinatal-period
- Mayer Labba IC, et al. Nutritional composition and estimated iron and zinc bioavailability of meat substitutes. Nutrients. 2022.
This article is general information about food and supplement labels. It is not medical advice and does not replace seeing a doctor or dietitian. Honour Wellness products are foods, not medicines, and are not meant to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Everyone's needs are different. Talk to your GP, midwife, pharmacist or an Accredited Practising Dietitian before starting or mixing supplements while pregnant or breastfeeding.