In the US and other developed countries most women take a prenatal vitamin during pregnancy. Here also the risk of preterm delivery and low birth weight babies is reduced. However, the same is not true in developing countries.
Pregnant women in developing countries often do not have access to high nutrient foods or prenatal vitamins. The incidence of pregnancy loss, premature births, and small for gestational age babies is quite high compared to the US. One of the primary reasons is believed to be malnutrition, in both the mother and the baby.
In many developing countries there are programs in place that provide iron and folic acid to pregnant women. Both iron deficiency anemia and neural tube defects are the most common conditions that can result due to poor nutrient intake. After initiation of these programs a quick decline in iron deficeincy and neural tube defects was observed.
In the last few years additional research on improving the health of HIV positive pregnant women found that babies were more healthy and pregnancies were more successful if additional vitamin supplements were given on top of the folic acid and iron. The primary additions were antioxidant vitamins C, E and A as well as B vitamins that are integral for cell replication including DNA production.
To test the addition of supplements in non-HIV positive women researchers from Harvard University School of Public Health enrolled more than 8,000 pregnant women from Tanzania in a study. All the women received folic acid and iron, while only half received additional Vitamin C, E and Bs. Pregnancy outcome was recorded for each women.
The results, published in the latest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, were positive.
Women who took the additional supplements had a lower rate of small for gestational age babies, or babies weighing less than 5.5 pounds.
However, there was no effect on premature deliveries or fetal death. The death rate was around 5 percent regardless of treatment and the rate of premature delivery was 17 percent.
The study showed that the simple addition of vitamins can have a significant impact on the health of babies born in developing countries. Low birth weight babies can have long term struggles, especially if a nutrient deficiency is to blame.
The authors suggest that the addition of Vitamin C, E and B vitamins to the folic acid and iron programs would be relatively inexpensive.
Posted by Dr. Christina Gutierrez on April 4, 2007 03:58 PM
