Celeste Beck, PhD, MPH, associate research scientist at Heluna Health, was a guest this month on Fourth Trimester, a podcast focused on maternal health and parenting. Beck shared insights from her recent publication on how maternal vitamin D levels influence fetal growth and birth outcomes.
Previous studies examining vitamin D status in relation to birth outcomes have generally measured vitamin D levels during mid-pregnancy, because many people don’t even realize they are pregnant until close to the end of the first trimester, Beck said.
The primary goal of this study was to examine the associations between maternal vitamin D status during earlier stages of pregnancy, and outcomes like preterm birth and fetal growth. Vitamin D is known to be key to skeletal development and immune function, and may play a role in placental development.
The study, which was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that vitamin D status in the first trimester of pregnancy seemed to be more critical to those outcomes compared to the status later in pregnancy.
“If somebody feels they might be at risk for deficiency, it is a great idea to have their doctor test them and be able to find out what their vitamin D status is, what their levels are,” Beck said.
Those who may be at risk of deficiency include people with darker skin tones, people who live in areas that get less sunlight and people who don’t eat a lot of vitamin D-rich foods, like fatty fish and milk.
Beck said she hopes this research sparks conversations within the clinical community and contributes to a pool of research about the importance of nutrition screening during early pregnancy.
“It’s so important that we take care of ourselves during pregnancy, as well as our growing babies, and just having conversations like this and helping mothers everywhere to be aware of ways in which they can be proactive in bringing up these conversations with their health care provider, in recognizing steps that they might need to consider and think about for their health and the health of their baby,” Beck said. “I’m just really happy that we’re having this conversation and hopefully moving in the right direction to promote more of these conversations.”
Click here to listen to the full podcast episode.
