Known as the “sunshine” vitamin, vitamin D is one of the essential vitamins everyone needs. It plays an important role in helping the body to synthesize it from the exposure to sunlight.
No wonder, the best source of vitamin D comes from the sun. It is beneficial for every single part of our body, including the brain, bone, cardiovascular, immune system, metabolic and respiratory health. Isn’t that amazing?
Vitamin D is also essential for pregnancy so that it is a must for every pregnant woman to obtain the right amount of it. There are some researches showing that vitamin D may benefit certain types of complications during pregnancy. Not only good for the women, vitamin D is also beneficial for the infants.
Proceed to the next part to see how incredible vitamin D is for pregnant women.
1. Prevent preeclampsia
Preeclampsia is known as one of the top causes of maternal death. It occurs in 3 to 6% of pregnancies. Vitamin D deficiency is one of the factors that increases the risk of this complication.
Even though there is no evidence yet, there is nothing wrong of getting sufficient amount of vitamin D in order to prevent this kind of complication.
2. Prevent gestational diabetes
There is a report showing that 14% of pregnancy cases in the US are affected by blood sugar complications. Fortunately, there’s research which suggests that vitamin D deficiency may play a role.
The low amount of vitamin D may affect the blood sugar balance during pregnancy. It’s reported by a recent study that blood sugar balance can be easily achieved when the amount of vitamin D in the blood is sufficient.
There’s even another study which reported that when a pregnant woman was given 50,000 IU of vitamin D once every three weeks significantly improved her metabolic status. Furthermore, her fasting blood sugar and insulin levels were also improved.
If you’re suffering from diabetes, find some solutions in health benefits of coconut oil for diabetes and health benefits of beetroot for diabetes.
3. Prevent preterm birth
Preterm birth is one of the causes of infant mortality. One of the top causes is vitamin D deficiency which leads to pregnancy complication. There are some studies which showed that when the amount of vitamin D increase, the case of preterm birth can be prevented.
4. Maintain the size of the infants at birth
Pregnancy complications can lead to low birthweight, birth length and head circumference. However, there’s research which shows that higher vitamin D levels are associated with higher infant birthweight and larger head circumference. On the other hand, vitamin D deficiency may lead to lower birthweight, smaller head circumference, and low birth length. ‘
5. Healthier infants
Every pregnant woman must want to have her infants healthy after birth. Do you know that vitamin D plays a really important role in maintaining the infant’s health, including the bone mass and respiratory health? When the mother experience insufficient amount of vitamin D during pregnancy, her infants might have a reduction in bone mass, which can persist for at least 9 years after birth.
Besides, insufficient amount of vitamin D during pregnancy may affect the infant’s respiratory health too. So, in order for your babies to be healthy without any problems, make sure to get sufficient amount of vitamin D during pregnancy.
How to get vitamin D?
There are several types of food that are rich in vitamin D, such as eggs, oily fish (salmon and sardines), red meat, breakfast cereals, some fruits (oranges and banana), and vegetables (spinach, mushrooms, broccoli and many more).
Besides from the food, pregnant women can get the amount of vitamin D from sunlight. Make sure to have the right and proper sun exposure to get the best vitamin D supplementation.
How much vitamin D should a pregnant woman get?
All pregnant women should get around 400 IU supplement of vitamin D every day. This amount will be enough for your infants for the first few months to live.
Make sure to consult with your doctor so that you will get the right amount of vitamin D. Remember that vitamin D deficiency may cause your infants to get rickets (a disease which affects children’s bone development).
Vitamin D is very vital for everyone, including pregnant women, children and everybody else. Read more about vitamin D in health benefits of vitamin D for kids and benefits of vitamin D for women. It’s a beneficial vitamin for everyone!
Furthermore, if you are pregnant and looking for some tips about pregnancy, make sure you read these health benefits of consuming plums during pregnancy.
Not only consuming the right and healthy food, make sure to do some exercises during pregnancy, such as having aerobic. Read more about how amazing aerobic is in health benefits of aerobic during pregnancy.
Who says that being pregnant makes you lazy? You should be active in order for your infants to be active too!