A Norwegian study has linked low levels of vitamin A in pregnant women with higher birth weight.
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The study included women who had completely normal pregnancies, and showed that more than 43% of the participants had low vitamin levels in the last period of pregnancy, and that two out of every five women had insufficient levels, while no significant cases of severe deficiency were recorded.
"We found a clear link between low maternal vitamin A levels and high birth weight, but we can't say for sure that one causes the other," says Astrid Camilla Stones, a researcher at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and the Centre for Dental Health in Trondheim. Many of the mothers who gave birth to high-birth-weight babies had below-average vitamin A levels throughout their pregnancies.
Vitamin A is important for both mother and child, but both excess and deficiency are dangerous. “Excessively high levels can cause birth defects, and severe deficiency can lead to the birth of a blind child, but reaching these limits is very rare in Norway. What is required is just the right amount,” says Stones.
Vitamin A is found in a variety of foods, including:
Stones explains that a large fetus increases the risk of birth complications, and that high-birth-weight babies are more likely to gain weight later, but the study is not sufficient to conclude that vitamin A deficiency causes childhood obesity.
The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition.
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