Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Body For Baby Update: Vitamin D

As I continue to prepare my body to be ready to support a pregnancy I was gently reminded by a fellow midwife that I should get my vitamin D levels checked. I am not sure if that was a tease that since I am so white and never see the sun that maybe I should get checked... or if she really just checks every pregnant patient.

Well my friends, my midwife friend does check every single patient and I guess I also need to get out in the sun a little more.  I went and had my vitamin D level checked and it is 17!  Okay, so you may not know, but 17 is LOW. We want these levels to be at least over 30ng/ml, but 50 is optimal.

When women are deficient in vitamin D they often feel fatigued, imbalanced, achy, sore, and about a million other symptoms can come along with vitamin D deficiency.  However, when pregnancy women are vitamin D deficient that can lead to problems for their babies. Babies need vitamin D to help their little bodies grow.


http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/news-archive/2009/pregnancy-and-gestational-vitamin-d-deficiency/


I found this really cool article on vitamin D, actually a whole website- yes it is not fact and it isn't peer reviewed, but it has some good information as well. They do site a lot of peer reviewed articles and studies though. So read through it and make some educated decisions on vitamin D and the importance in your life.

I guess I am off to go buy some vitamin D to add to my sunshine.

1 comment:

Michelle said...

Nope it's not a tease. It's better to know your vitamin d levels especially during pregnancy. Vitamin d is important to you and your baby's health. here's a good article about vitamin d deficiency - http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/12/16/my-one-hour-vitamin-d-lecture-to-clear-up-all-your-confusion-on-this-vital-nutrient.aspx