Vitamines tijdens de zwangerschap voorkomen afwijkingen bij de geboorte.*

Volgens een onderzoek hebben vrouwen die vanaf 3 maanden voor en tijdens de zwangerschap muliti vitamines nemen 60% minder kans op een baby met de afwijking omphalocèle (aandoening in de buik). Welke vitamine beschermt is nog niet duidelijk, maar gedacht wordt aan Floiumzuur en andere B-vitamines. Verder onderzoek zal dit moeten uitwijzen.

Women who take a multivitamin supplement before conception may reduce their risk of delivering a baby with a particular, rare birth defect, preliminary study findings indicate. In the study, regular multivitamin use beginning 3 months before and continuing during pregnancy was associated with a 60% reduction in the risk of omphalocele, a defect in the abdominal wall that strikes 1 in 4,000 to 6,000 pregnancies. At this point, it is not clear which nutrients are protective, but folic acid--a B vitamin that lowers the risk for neural tube defects such as spina bifida--is a "good candidate for further study," Dr. Lorenzo D. Botto, the study's lead author, told Reuters Health. "The data do not allow us to disentangle the relative role of single nutrients," said Botto, from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia. The study, which is published in the May issue of Pediatrics, underscores the need for more research into both the apparent association between multivitamins and omphalocele, and the mechanism by which they may reduce the risk. Omphalocele often occurs in conjunction with other birth defects such as trisomy 18, also known as Edward syndrome. In the condition, the contents of the abdomen protrude through a hole at the navel, and the infant often dies to due to multiple physical defects. "The findings suggest a possible reduced risk for omphalocele among mothers who used multivitamin supplements from before conception," Botto said in an interview. "This is the first report showing these findings and should encourage further studies, particularly since few non-genetic causes of omphalocele are currently known." The results are based on an analysis of medical data from 72 infants born with nonsyndromic omphalocele and more than 3,000 healthy infants born between 1968 and 1980. Mothers were interviewed about their multivitamin use. SOURCE: Pediatrics 2002;109:904-908. (mei 2002) 

 

 

 

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