Gregory Chandler - Vitamin levels in pre-term births

Pre-term births is a major health concern. Medical doctors inform that one in eight U. S. babies is born prematurely--before 37 weeks--and in one study wanted to see if taking multi-vitamins just before or after becoming pregnant could reduce underweight babies and pre-term babies.

In the study, 35,897 women reported the multi-vitamins they took during the six weeks before and six weeks after becoming pregnant.

Compared to women who did not take multi-vitamins, women with pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) scores no higher than 25 who took multi-vitamins regularly before and after becoming pregnant were 16 percent less likely to have a pre-term birth, and 20 percent less likely to have pre-term labor.

Women of any BMI who took multi-vitamins before and after becoming pregnant were 17 percent less likely to have babies that were small for their gestational age.


GREGORY CHANDLER