By SupplementenscannerHow we compare
Healthy Start first: the vitamins that cost nothing
If you are more than 10 weeks pregnant or have a child under 4, the NHS says you may be entitled to Healthy Start, and the Healthy Start card can also be used to get free vitamin supplements. Any pack ranked below competes with a free one, so the eligibility check comes before the comparison.
The baby's drops and your tablet share one category
For a breastfed baby the NHS is specific: from birth to one year, a daily supplement containing 8.5 to 10 micrograms of vitamin D, and none for a baby having more than 500 ml of formula a day. Baby drops and adult tablets both classify as vitamin D3, and 10 micrograms is 400 IU where a label still prints the old unit. A dropper bottle only gets a per-dose price when the label states how many drops or doses it holds; a bottle sized in millilitres alone stays at the bottle price, outside the per-unit ranking. Heavier adult doses sit in the same category and are not the same product as a 10 microgram tablet.
Postnatal multis come from the pregnancy range
The postnatal and "new mum" multivitamins from the pregnancy brands sit in their own category, pregnancy and breastfeeding multi, apart from the general multivitamin. Three lines on the back usually tell the two versions apart: folic acid in micrograms, iron in milligrams, and whether a separate DHA capsule comes in the box. A two-a-day pack costs twice its per-tablet price each day, and the ranking stays per tablet, so the dose instruction is the number to read next to the price.
Fish twice a week and B12 on a restricted diet: the label lines behind the NHS wording
The NHS asks breastfeeding women to aim for at least two portions of fish a week, one of them oily, and to eat no more than two portions of oily fish a week; it prints no DHA dose. On an omega-3 label the fish-oil total per capsule is not the figure to compare; DHA is a separate line below it, and an algae oil lists DHA as its main component. Finding that line is covered in the fish oil guide.
For vitamin B12 / B-complex, a label gives micrograms and a form, cyanocobalamin or methylcobalamin, often as a lozenge. A B-complex usually carries a fraction of a single-B12 tablet's amount, so per tablet the two are different products, and a postnatal multi's ingredient list shows its own B12 line for anyone already taking one.
Iron, calcium, magnesium, probiotics: the second number on the label
Neither NHS page names these four as breastfeeding supplements, but people buy them, and each is read the same way: a compound, then an elemental amount. Iron prints fumarate, sulphate or bisglycinate and, beside it, elemental iron in milligrams; the forms are set out on the iron page. Calcium and magnesium print carbonate, citrate, oxide or bisglycinate and an elemental figure; the oxide versus bisglycinate gap is explained in the magnesium guide. Probiotics are read in strains and CFU per capsule. Fenugreek and the "milk supply" teas are the one search this ranking cannot serve: no NHS page names them, so they stay out.
Before and after: the pregnancy page, and who decides
The remaining words on a label are decoded in how to read a supplement label. Folic acid and iodine, which belong to the months before birth, have their own pregnancy page. Whether any of these packs is for you is a conversation with your midwife, GP or health visitor; a ranking only says what each one costs per tablet.