Vitamin D is very important for pregnancy, so much that even some researchers consider the need to provide it as a nutritional supplement during pregnancy.
Low levels of this vitamin in the future mother have been associated with a worse development of the child's speech and a new study now relates vitamin D deficiency in pregnancy with low birth weight.
Vitamin D has the peculiarity that it is synthesized in the skin cells, with the help of exposure to sunlight. Also called the "vitamin of the sun" is one of the essential nutrients for proper growth and development of children, as it favors the incorporation into the body of calcium and phosphorus and helps build our bone mass.
In the study, conducted with more than two thousand women from the USA. UU. and published in the magazine Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, it was found that women with vitamin D deficiency in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy they were twice as likely to have babies whose weight was 10 percent lower, which means they were small for their gestational age.
Low levels of vitamin D in the mother's body would impede the mother's calcium absorption, which could reduce bone growth in the fetus, as well as reduce the secretion of the hormones needed to produce glucose and the fatty acids they provide energy to the fetus
Being born with a lower weight for gestational age has a higher risk of developing chronic conditions such as heart disease, hypertension and type 2 diabetes, so researchers consider that it would be a good preventive measure to consider the provision of a vitamin D supplement to pregnant women , as well as other nutrients such as folic acid, iodine or iron.
