The Good News About Vitamins
Why is it is that women’s health concerns are often so different from those of the general population?
Over the past few months, a number of widely-reported studies have lamented that taking daily vitamins doesn’t seem to improve health or longevity of the general population.
There is one serious exception to those findings: vitamins for prenatal health. While it has long been known that folic acid helps to prevent neural tube defects, and that iodine helps prevent other kinds of retardation, this new study shows that prenatal vitamins also help prevent cardiovascular and limb defects, cleft palate, oral cleft, congenital hydrocephalus, and urinary tract anomalies too.
A report on a study published in the Globe and Mail says that the evidence that taking prenatal vitamins prevents birth defects is so profound that all women of childbearing age should take one a day.
- “This is more than folic acid and it’s not just spina bifida,” Gideon Koren, director of the Motherisk Program at the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children, said in an interview.
- Based on the study, he said all women of childbearing age should be taking a prenatal vitamin daily. Because half of all pregnancies are unplanned and almost all birth defects develop in the first trimester, Dr. Koren said the recommendation should apply to all women.
- But he stressed that they should take a specific prenatal multivitamin.
- These differ from standard multivitamins in three important respects:
- More folic acid, more iron and less vitamin A — high levels of which can harm the fetus.
The study was published in the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of Canada (JOGC) yesterday. It gives women a simple, concrete action that they can perform to help protect their unborn children from serious harm. While there are no guarentees in this life of motherhood and childbirth, it is nice to be able to reduce any risk you can.
Some pregnant women complain that prenatal vitamins make them constipated or upset their already squeamish stomachs. Starting the vitamins before pregnancy, may give the system time to adjust to these discomforts so that they aren’t pronounced during the first trimester.
I would also add the taking the vitamin is so important that women will be forced to experiment and find healthy ways to decrease their discomfort. That may finally get us beyond the land of bad advice when it comes to dealing with morning sickness and other pregnancy discomforts and into the land of an excellent female network of shared experiences. I for one, can’t wait.
Tags: prenatal-vitaminsRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Emotional Wellbeing, Women's health
8 opinions for The Good News About Vitamins
Mama-feminista
Aug 31, 2006 at 7:57 am
I have a love hate relationship with my prenatal vitamins. If I don’t eat before I take it, I vomit and if I happen to forget then I feel guilty all day long and imagine my little one without any breastmilk. I wonder what women did before prenatal vitamins?
Kate
Aug 31, 2006 at 10:18 am
Well, I imagine life pre-pre-natal vitamins was much like life pre-modern medicine.
That said, I do think they probably ate healthier diets than we do. If everyone came out of childbirth alive, they were probably stronger for the experience.
Babylune » Vitamin E and Asthma, Vitamin B and Depression
Sep 2, 2006 at 12:15 am
[…] Further to Thursday’s post about a study the recommends all pre-natal vitamins, a Scottish study reported in the Scotsman this morning suggests that rising rates of childhood asthma may be linked to a diet low in vitamin E. Dr Graham Devereux, who led the research at Aberdeen University, told the Scotsman that a drop in people’s intake of vitamin E in the past 50 years was perhaps linked to the rising number of children with asthma. But he said more work was needed before specific advice could be given to women in order to reduce the risks to their children. […]
Expat pregnancy and childbirth in Hong Kong » Vitamins, or how I learned to love being nagged
Sep 5, 2006 at 9:25 pm
[…] I just read this interesting post on Babylune. […]
pinkdiary808.com » Carnival of Family Life #19
Sep 18, 2006 at 1:52 am
[…] Kate of Babylune says, “The evidence that prenatal vitamin supplements work to prevent birth defects is now so strong doctors should now recommend ALL women of child-bearing age take them.” Get more info in The Good News About Vitamins. […]
Kailani
Sep 18, 2006 at 1:41 pm
No matter how sick I was during pregnancy, I always took my prenatal vitamins. I think the discomfort is worth the health of your baby.
Here via Carnival of Family Life.
Babylune
Nov 23, 2006 at 4:55 am
[…] A few months ago, doctors in Toronto recommended that all women of childbearing age take prenatal vitamins even if they aren’t planning to become pregnant to prevent birth defects. In addition, women who have just given birth are advised to continue to take their vitamins to aid recovery and help prevent post partum depression. […]
Babylune - Prenatal Vitamins Reduce Risk of Childhood Cancer
Feb 22, 2007 at 11:14 am
[…] Remember the research that resulted in the advice that all women of childbearing age should take prenatal vitamins all the time? […]
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