Taking Calcium & Vitamin D During Pregnancy? Don’t Miss This Tiny Mineral!
You’re taking your prenatal vitamins, calcium, and Vitamin D every day. You’re doing what your doctor told you. That’s great, and it matters.
But here’s what most pregnancy articles skip: calcium and Vitamin D can’t do their job alone. They need a co-factor that almost no one prescribes and almost no one talks about.
Research shows that 42.6% of third trimester pregnant mothers were vitamin D deficient, highlighting how common low vitamin D levels are during late pregnancy. These are mothers who are trying, taking their tablets and showing up to every appointment. Yet, the deficiency persists which means the problem isn't with the mothers effort. It's just that the body is not able to process the nutrients efficiently. Nutrients like calcium and Vitamin D need one more thing to work properly - regardless you take it naturally or from supplements. And this is the nutrient rarely people talk about.
The Mineral Nobody Mentions
That missing piece is BORON, which is a trace mineral found naturally in fruit, rarely prescribed, and almost never discussed in standard pregnancy care. It plays three specific roles that matter most in the third trimester:
- Reduces calcium loss: Boron reduces how much calcium is lost through urine, so more of what you take actually stays in your body.
- Activates Vitamin D: Boron helps convert Vitamin D into its active, usable form, the form that drives calcium absorption at the cellular level.
- Support magnesium absorption: Boron acts as a co-factor for magnesium, which is critical for bone formation during the third trimester mineralisation window.
Why Third Trimester Is the Most Critical Window
From Week 28 until birth, your baby’s soft skeleton begins rapidly transforming into strong, developed bone, and this final trimester is when bone mineralisation happens at its fastest pace. Every day, your body transfers calcium and important minerals through the placenta to support this growth.
This is also the stage where your body’s mineral demand becomes the highest. Your baby is drawing nutrients from you continuously, while your own stores are being used around the clock. During these final 12 weeks, it’s not just about taking calcium or Vitamin D supplements. It’s also about how well your body can absorb and utilise them to support both your needs and your baby’s development.
Easiest Way to Get Boron Into Your Diet
Here’s the thing, you won’t find boron on a pharmacy shelf. It’s rarely sold as a standalone supplement. The easiest and most natural way to get it is simply through eating the right fruits.
And nature’s richest source of boron? Prune. Not a coincidence that the same fruit your grandmother recommended for digestion also happens to be one of the best things for your mineral levels during pregnancy.
But not all prune sources deliver the same amount. Research suggests that around a minimum of 3mg of boron daily is the amount that starts to make a meaningful difference to how your body processes calcium and Vitamin D. Here’s how different prune sources compare:
A fresh prune is mostly water, hence the boron is very diluted. Dried prunes are better, but you’d need to eat a lot of them every day to get a meaningful amount. Prunus Domestica is a concentrated California prune extract, which means the water is removed and the minerals including boron are packed into every sachet at a much higher level.
Two sachets a day gives you 6.8mg of boron. This kind of amount actually makes a difference, without having to eat a whole bowl of prunes.
How do you use it?
Take one sachet in the morning, one at night. Stir it into your oats, mix it into yogurt, or dissolve it in warm milk. It only takes 10 seconds and the difference you're gonna feel is just extra goodness!
Prunus Domestica is 100% fruit, not a supplement. It’s essentially like eating 3 whole prunes a day, just in a much more convenient form. Want to learn more about Prunus? Find it at your nearest Alpro Pharmacy outlet or read more here!
