Maintaining sufficient levels of vitamin D during pregnancy is crucial for having a healthy baby. Highlighting this point, a new study says that vitamin D deficiency in early pregnancy can escalate the risks of giving birth to small babies.
Lead author of the study Dr. Alison Gernand from the University of Pittsburgh and colleagues looked at 2,146 pregnant women involved in the Collaborative Perinatal Project conducted between 1959 and 1965.
Vitamin D levels (25 (OH) D) of these women were measured at or before 26 weeks of gestation. Researchers recorded birth weight, head circumference and placental weight after birth.
They found mothers who had sufficient levels of vitamin D during the first trimester, giving birth to babies with 46 g higher birth weights and 0.13 cm larger head circumferences, compared to mothers who had low levels of vitamin D during early pregnancy.
"We found that a mother's vitamin D level, in the first or second trimester of pregnancy, was related to the normal growth of babies who delivered at term," Dr. Gernand told ANI.
"If a mother was vitamin D deficient, the birth weight of her baby was 46 g lower after accounting for other characteristics of the mom. Also if moms were vitamin D deficient in the first trimester, they had twice the risk of delivering a baby that suffered from growth restriction during the pregnancy."
Findings of the study have been published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).
The findings come at a time when about one in every 12 babies is born with a low birth weight and it is one of the leading causes of neonatal mortality or death before 28 days of age in the country. A birth weight less than 2,500 grams (five pounds and eight ounces) is considered to be a low birth weight. Low birth weight of children has been a concern among parents, as they are at a higher risk of developing learning problems, intellectual disabilities, cerebral palsy and vision or hearing loss.
Vitamin D is essential during pregnancy. A severe vitamin D deficiency can lead to infantile rickets, and sufficient intake can reduce childhood wheezing and type 1 diabetes in children. Following a diet rich with vitamin D - milk, juice, cereal, orange juice, yogurt and margarine - can, to an extent, help in solving this problem. Foods like shiitake and button mushrooms, oily fish (tuna, mackerel, trout, herring, sardines, kipper, carp, anchovies and orange roughy), beef liver, cheese and egg yolks are some of the natural sources of vitamin D apart from sunshine.
