Function of vitamin d during pregnancy & bull; hello healthy

Research shows that pregnant women who consume enough vitamin D in sufficient doses will have high IQs later on for their children.

What is Vitamin D?

Vitamin D is important for bone health and strength. It's also an important factor in making sure your muscles, heart, lungs and brain are working properly and your body can fight off infection.

Unlike other vitamins, your body will produce its own vitamin D when you expose your skin to sunlight. However, you still need to get other vitamins from the food you eat. For example, you need to get vitamin C from fruits and vegetables.

Why is taking Vitamin D so important?

Vitamin D helps regulate calcium and phosphate levels in your body to maintain healthy bones and teeth.

Lack of vitamin D when you are pregnant or breastfeeding can prevent your baby from getting enough calcium and phosphate. This results in poor development of teeth and bones, and in a few cases can also develop rickets in your baby.

Vitamin D can help you to fight infection. This vitamin can also help prevent diabetes and some types of cancer.

There may be a link between low vitamin D levels during pregnancy and an increased risk of having a low birth weight baby. Scientists have long known that vitamin D has the greatest impact on bone health. Maintaining strong and healthy bones is essential for growing babies and children, but its foundations are established in the womb.

Calcium, bone, or vitamin D problems in a developing baby don't occur until several months after birth (often during the second year). After birth, the baby will rely on calcitriol to absorb calcium from the intestines, and if the baby is deficient in vitamin D, low calcium intake in the bones will lead to rickets (soft bones).

When to take Vitamin D.

Even before becoming pregnant you should have plenty of vitamin D. If you had enough vitamin D before pregnancy and you become pregnant, continue to take enough vitamin D for the needs of you and your fetus.

It is recommended that you take a supplement containing 10 micrograms (mcg) of vitamin D daily during pregnancy and while you are breastfeeding.

Most pregnancy multivitamins contain vitamin D. Or you can take a single vitamin D supplement. You need to take vitamin D during pregnancy to give your baby enough vitamin D for the first few months of his life. You should take 10 micrograms of vitamin D every day when you are pregnant and if you are breastfeeding

Make sure you are only taking multivitamins made for pregnancy, and check labels to see how much vitamin D they contain. Ask your pharmacist, midwife or doctor if you are not sure which one is suitable.

If you don't take vitamin D supplements while pregnant and breastfeeding, your baby may not have much of the vitamin D he needs in the first few months of his life. If this is the case, your doctor or midwife can recommend a daily dose of vitamin D for your baby from one month of age.

Food sources that contain Vitamin D.

You get most of the vitamin D from the sun on your skin. This is because vitamin D builds up under the skin in reaction to sunlight. Vitamin D is also found in a small number of foods, including:

• fish oil
• egg
• foods fortified with vitamin D, such as breakfast cereals and powdered milk

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