Cranberry pill to help prevent urinary infections?

I used to take an cranberry pill to help avoid urinary tract infections. Is it still okay to take them now that I'm pregnant?

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Peg Plumbo CNM

Peg Plumbo has been a certified nurse-midwife (CNM) since 1976. She has assisted at over 1,000 births and currently teaches in the... Read more

I have looked through a list of herbal remedies not safe for use in pregnancy and this was not listed. Commercial cranberry juice contains only about 10 percent juice, so it is not very helpful sometimes in prevention of UTIs. There are sources of pure juice, however, and some food co-ops do stock it.

Crangel is a powdered form, but I've never heard of the pill form, although I can think of no reason why you could not take it during pregnancy.

E. coli bacteria have trouble sticking to the walls of the bladder and urethra when you drink cranberry juice. Vitamin C also works well and may be used in pregnancy at moderate dosages, 1,000 milligrams per day.

I hope this helps. If anyone writes in with more information, I will pass it along.

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