Should you take Vitamin D during pregnancy?

Wouldn’t it be great if pregnancy was easy? If it was, you wouldn’t have to worry about taking vitamin D during pregnancy.

For a long time, the health industry has recognized the benefits of vitamin D for bone health. The vitamin also offers benefits for your cardiovascular system and can help you fight cancer and respiratory ailments.

Unfortunately, no one knows for sure if taking the vitamin can help your baby.

Vitamin D during pregnancy

In 2016, a study showed that expectant mothers who took supplements experienced fewer problems such as premature birth. Vitamins also seemed to reduce incidents of low birth weight babies and pre-eclampsia.

Still, nothing suggests that supplements help babies grow in the womb. The same goes for preventing miscarriage.

Just imagine: You take vitamin D to help you and your baby, but you’re unsure if the benefits outweigh the risks.

Until now, clinical research into the efficacy of prenatal vitamins remains both limited and inconclusive.

Similarly, doctors have not reached a consensus on the optimum amount of vitamin D for pregnant women.

However, despite the flaws in data, scientists have discovered that taking vitamin D while pregnant reduces by one-fifth the occurrence of wheezing in children three years old and younger.

For pregnant moms, vitamin D during pregnancy can substantially reduce the risk of gestational diabetes and pre-eclampsia.

Best of all, vitamin D should not affect the sensitivity of your pregnancy test.

Good news: No evidence to suggest that prenatal vitamin D poses risks to your baby.

Still, you need to know that doctors and scientists have not yet fully understood the effects of vitamin D.

However, emerging data published by the National Institute of Health affirms the importance of Vitamin D:

Vitamin D is an essential fat soluble vitamin and a key modulator of calcium metabolism in children and adults. Because calcium demands increase in the third trimester of pregnancy, vitamin D status becomes crucial for maternal health, fetal skeletal growth, and optimal maternal and fetal outcomes.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3540805/

That study reports of a significant amount of Vitamin D deficiency among pregnant women and the maladies that can result, especially to the unborn child.

Another NIH study says,

Vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy has been suggested as an intervention to protect against adverse pregnancy outcomes.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26765344/

Learn more about vitamin D during pregnancy

If you want to learn more about vitamin D and how it affects pregnancy and other important pregnancy-related topics, read:

The Informed Parent: A Science-Based Resource for Your Child’s First Four Years, by Tara Haelle and‎ Emily Willingham Ph.D.

Also, read about vitamin D supplementation for pregnant women at the U.S. Library of Medicine.

CPG Health Disclaimer

CPG Health does not provide medical advice.

We urge potential mothers to discuss Vitamin D considering pregnancy with their doctor or similar qualified health professional.

Are you to test for pregnancy? Consider getting your test at Walgreens.

More from CPG Health

You can improve your life by reading other health-related articles published at cpg-health.com.

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