Written by Jenny Wordsworth. Reviewed by Dr Phoebe Howells. 

Trigger warning: sensitive content relating to pregnancy. 

This blog discusses pregnancy via outlining the launch of OVUM’s prenatal, Time to Carry®, Please take care if you decide to read this, and please stop reading if at any point you feel you need to. 

Your wellbeing matters, and that is the biggest priority. OVUM is here to create a community that is safe and accessible to all, so we recognise that we need boundaries in place to ensure everyone feels comfortable when we share information and provide education. 

Support is available for you, and some resources include: 

• Tommy’s Charity: a charity supporting those through pregnancy and baby loss

• Mind UK: a mental health service available to adults in the UK

• Fertility Network UK Support Groups: available to those who wish to share experiences with others. 

Jenny's message

When I founded OVUM, it was for one reason:

To bring scientific integrity, transparency and meaningful reform to the preconception space.

At the time, it was clear the category needed it. Products marketed to those trying to conceive often fell short of the latest evidence. Formulations were outdated. Doses were poorly considered. And very few brands were truly grounded in clinical research, with none having the full backing of IVF clinics.

We built OVUM to change that.

Over the past few years, we’ve supported thousands of people through the trying-to-conceive stage. As I know all too well, it is a uniquely vulnerable chapter. It demands rigour. It demands honesty. It deserves better than guesswork.

As members of our community began to conceive, many of you wrote to us with a simple request:

“I trusted you to get me here. Please don’t disappear now.”

When we looked closely at the prenatal market, what we found was concerning.
Just as preconception once did, the prenatal category is crowded but not necessarily evidence-led. Many formulations have not evolved in line with emerging research. Nutrient forms, dosages and combinations often fail to reflect the best and latest science available.

We’re also seeing products positioned as “3-in-1” solutions that claim to support preconception, pregnancy, and postpartum in a single formula. The evidence simply doesn’t support that approach. The nutritional demands of folliculogenesis and implantation are biologically distinct from those of placental development, foetal growth, and postpartum recovery. These stages are not interchangeable, and their micronutrient requirements aren’t either.

A single, static formulation cannot meaningfully optimise for all three. When everything is included, compromise is inevitable.

None of this sat comfortably with us. Pregnancy deserves the same level of scrutiny, reformulation and clinical thought that TTC does. We all deserve products that reflect current evidence, not lazy products focused on profits.

So we have developed a prenatal supplement built to the same standard we hold ourselves to in preconception: so meet Time to Carry® - clinically reviewed, rigorously formulated, and grounded in the latest data.

But I want to be clear about something important.

OVUM is not pivoting away from TTC. Trying to conceive remains our core. It is where our heart and deepest expertise lie. It is the community we were built to serve.

Launching a prenatal is not about shifting our identity. It is about continuity of care and about raising standards in another area that urgently needs it.

For those who conceive, we want you to feel supported, not suddenly handed over to a category that hasn’t kept pace with science.

For those still trying, nothing changes. Our commitment to evidence-led TTC support remains absolute. We will continue to advocate, research, educate and innovate in this space with the same focus as ever.

This launch isn’t a celebration of “graduating” from one stage to another. It’s about ensuring that wherever you are in your reproductive journey, you are met with the best available science.

If you are trying to conceive, we are here.
If you have conceived, we are still here.

And in both stages, you deserve better.

With care,
Jenny

Founder, OVUM