Vitamin D Deficiency in Pregnancy increases Risk of Gestational Diabetes, Pre-Eclampsia and Small Babies

Experiencing vitamin D deficiency after conceiving may lead to severe pregnancy-related complications and poor birth outcomes, a new study says.

Vitamin D is essential during pregnancy. Many previous studies have shown deficiency of vitamin D during pregnancy leads to many adverse outcomes - a C-sections and children with lower IQs or autism. Apart from that, according to health experts, vitamin D supplements are unavoidable during pregnancy as severe deficiency can lead to infantile rickets and adequate levels can lower childhood wheezing and type 1 diabetes in children.

Re-confirming the importance of maintaining sufficient levels of vitamin D during pregnancy, a team of researchers from the University of Calgary in Canada found women having low levels of 5-OH vitamin D in pregnancy at higher risk of developing gestational diabetes or pre-eclampsia (a condition that triggers hypertension) and having babies with low birth weight.

Researchers based their study on 31 previous studies, reported between 1980 and 2012, that included participants ranging between 95 and 1,100. Even though they found strong links between maternal vitamin D deficiency and gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, low birth weight, they couldn't prove vitamin D deficiency in pregnancy affecting baby's length and head circumference.

Health experts recommend pregnant women to follow a diet rich with vitamin D - milk, juice, cereal, orange juice, yogurt and margarine, to solve 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.

The findings of the study published Tuesday, March 26, in BMJ 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. children with low weight are at a higher risk of developing learning problems, intellectual disabilities, cerebral palsy and vision or hearing loss.