Exposure to sunlight during pregnancy is crucial for the baby's bone growth. Proving the point, a team of researchers from Ireland found mothers who received more sunlight during pregnancy giving birth to babies with longer thighbones than mothers who were exposed to less sunlight during pregnancy.
The study, published in Fertility and Sterility, examined the importance of exposure to sunlight during pregnancy and the natural production of vitamin D in the body to have healthy babies.
Fionnuala McAuliffe and colleagues from Dublin in Ireland looked at 60 pregnant women. All the participants were Caucasian. Of the total participants, 30 gave birth in March/April and were included in the winter group and 30 in September/October, and were included in the summer group. Vitamin D levels of the participants were measured and recorded during early pregnancy and 28 weeks of pregnancy.
Researchers found women who received less sunlight in early pregnancy, i.e., women from the winter group, giving birth to babies with shorter thighbones than babies of women from the summer group.
"While inside the womb, the developing baby is entirely dependent upon the maternal pool of vitamin D which is critical for the normal development of the baby's bones," study author McAuliffe said in a news release. "Our findings showed low levels of vitamin D among nearly all the women in the study across both groups, ranging from 33% to 97% with a significant seasonal variation."
Concerned with the findings, researchers urge pregnant women to take vitamin D supplements during the winter season - between October and March.
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.
