Vitamin C may reduce pregnancy complication

If a pregnant woman’s waters break too early, her unborn baby can be put in danger of complications. The risk of this happening, however, may be reduced if she takes daily supplements of vitamin C after the half-way point of pregnancy, researchers now report.

Vitamin C is known to play an important role in maintaining the membranes that enclose the fetus and amniotic fluid. Although previous reports have linked low levels of vitamin C in the mother with an increased risk of “premature rupture of membranes” or PROM occurring, it was unclear if using vitamin C supplements helps reduce this risk.

To investigate, Dr. Ester Casanueva and colleagues, from the National Institute of Perinatology in Mexico City, assessed the outcomes of 120 pregnant women who were randomly assigned to take 100 milligrams of vitamin C or an inactive placebo daily, starting at the 20th week of gestation.

A total of 109 women completed the study, the team reports in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

They found that after the intervention began at 20 weeks, vitamin C levels decreased in the control group, but increased in the supplement group.

Vitamin C supplements were also associated with a reduced risk of PROM. It occurred in 14 of 57 pregnancies (25 percent) in the control group compared with just 4 of 52 pregnancies (8 percent) in the vitamin C group.

Because PROM may be responsible for 40 percent or more of all cases of preterm labor, vitamin C supplements may be “a valuable tool in sustaining pregnancy to term,” the authors conclude.

SOURCE: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, April 2005.

RELATED STORIES:
Eating Fish While Pregnant, Longer Breastfeeding, Lead to Better Infant Development   At last, a plus for weight gain: healthier babies   Nutrition During Pregnancy   Snoring pregnant women at higher risk for gestational diabetes   Pre-pregnancy multivitamins prevent prematurity   Seizure drug may be harmful during pregnancy   Migraines increase stroke risk during pregnancy   Kids fatter but teen pregnancies down   US study links infections in womb to asthma   67-year-old has ‘fake pregnancy’   Survey shows pregnant women forced out of jobs   Smoking during pregnancy linked to facial clefts

Comments

[ + Post Your Own ]

Now you're in the public comment zone. What follows is not Armenian Medical Network's stuff; it comes from other people and we don't vouch for it. A reminder: By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.

There are no comments for this entry yet. [ + Comment here + ]