Mothers Recruited For Pre-Eclampsia Test

Researchers are recruiting pregnant women today to test whether vitamins could prevent them developing pre-eclampsia.

In what is thought to be the biggest trial of its kind in Britain, the baby charity Tommy's hopes to find out more about the condition, which can prove fatal for mother and child.

The nationwide study will give women at high risk of pre-eclampsia vitamin supplements - in an attempt to stop them developing the condition.

Pre-eclampsia, which affects up to 25,000 women in Britain each year, causes a pregnant woman's blood pressure to rise to dangerously high levels.

Read More..

VITAMIN B12 DEFICIENCY IN PREGNANT WOMEN LINKED TO BIRTH DEFECT

A study recently published in the journal Pediatrics has revealed that women who do not have an adequate intake of vitamin B12 during pregnancy are at greater risk of having a child with a birth abnormality called neural tube defect.

About Folic Acid, Vitamin B12 and Birth Defects

The researchers had noted that folic acid fortification in food had helped to lower the prevalence of neural tube defects by about 50% to 70%. As it was not likely that levels of folic acid added would be increased anymore to further help prevent neural tube defect occurrence, they set out to investigate another modifiable risk factor - vitamin B12.

Read More..

VITAMIN B DEFICIENCIES DURING PREGNANCY ALTER DNA, LEADS TO FAT MALE BABIES

Women who are deficient in vitamin B before they conceive may be more likely to give birth to obese and hypertense babies, according to a study conducted on sheep by researchers from the University of Nottingham, England, and published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Researchers fed 25 female sheep a balanced diet, while depriving another 25 of sufficient B vitamins to induce deficiency. The deficient sheep were kept in that state for eight weeks before being artificially inseminated, and for the next six days as well. After six days, the embryos from the vitamin B-deficient sheep were transferred to sheep that had been fed a balanced diet.

The embryos from the eggs of B-deficient sheep were significantly more likely to be obese and to experience high blood pressure in adulthood, and the effect was particularly pronounced in males.

Read More..

VITAMIN D DEFICIENCY EXTREMELY COMMON DURING PREGNANCY; MOST CHILDREN BORN VITAMIN D DEFICIENT

The vast majority of pregnant women tested in a study published this year in the Journal of Nutrition were found to be deficient in vitamin D, as were their infants. Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh found widespread vitamin D deficiency, even though more than 90 percent of the women tested were taking vitamin supplements during pregnancy.

What you need to know
• Researchers evaluated blood tests on 200 black women and 200 white women who had been studied between 1997 and 2001. Blood samples taken from their infants at birth were also studied.
• More than 80 percent of black women and almost 50 percent of white women tested vitamin D deficient at pregnancy. The levels were even higher among infants; 92.4 percent of black babies and 66.1 percent of white babies were vitamin D deficient at birth.

Read More..

EATING FRUITS AND VEGETABLES CUTS RISK OF MISCARRIAGE, SAYS STUDY

The consumption of fruits and vegetables during pregnancy can reduce the chance of a miscarriage, according to a new study published in the International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

The study of nearly 7,000 pregnant women by researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine looked for links between diet, lifestyle and miscarriage, and were detailed in the study led by Dr. Maureen Maconochie from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Maconochie and her colleagues studied thousands of pregnant women and concluded that those who ate fruits and vegetables often in pregnancy were 46 percent less likely to have a miscarriage compared to those who did not use fruits and veggies as often.

Read More..

REGULAR MULTIVITAMIN USE NEAR TIME OF CONCEPTION SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCES PREECLAMPSIA RISK

heWomen who are considering becoming pregnant may significantly reduce their risk of developing a common life-threatening complication called preeclampsia by taking a multivitamin supplement regularly three months before conception and during the first trimester of pregnancy. This finding is being reported in a University of Pittsburgh study available online now through an "advance access" feature of the American Journal of Epidemiology. The paper is scheduled for publication in the Sept. 1 print issue of the journal.

Overall, women who used multivitamins regularly showed a 45 percent reduction in preeclampsia risk, according to the study. However, results were even more remarkable for women who were not overweight prior to pregnancy.

Read More..