Pregnant women of normal weight who were taking a multivitamin four weeks prior to and eight weeks after their last menstrual cycle had a 20 percent lower risk of delivering a preterm or small-for-age baby. Those are the results of a study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition of 36,000 Danish women conducted by researchers from the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. The authors also took into account other known risk factors for prematurity and low-birth weight, such as smoking, weight, and age of the mother.
Women who are thinking of becoming pregnant are already advised to take folic acid in order to prevent neural tube defects, but the study authors are also suggesting that some other nutrient(s) in multivitamins may reduce the incidence of other birth complications as well though more research needs to be conducted. They do not actually recommend that women who wish to become pregnant start a daily multivitamin regimen, however.
If these results are independently replicated, they suggest a simple means of increasing the likelihood that babies will be healthier at birth, says ACSH's Dr. Ruth Kava.
