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Author Spotlight: Studying the Impact of Maternal Dietary Deficiencies on Long-Term Offspring Health Outcomes

Author Spotlight: Studying the Impact of Maternal Dietary Deficiencies on Long-Term Offspring Health Outcomes

Published on: June 28, 2024

Maternal vitamin D levels and the risk of perinatal death

India McGuigan¹, Christopher Flatley¹, Sailesh Kumar^1,2

¹a Mater Research Institute - University of Queensland , South Brisbane, Queensland , Australia.

The Journal of Maternal-Fetal & Neonatal Medicine : the Official Journal of the European Association of Perinatal Medicine, the Federation of Asia and Oceania Perinatal Societies, the International Society of Perinatal Obstetricians

|June 17, 2016

Objective:

To determine the association between maternal vitamin D levels and perinatal death.

Methods:

A retrospective cross-sectional study of all non-anomalous, singleton births (≥24 weeks) with perinatal death compared to a matched control group. Only pregnancies with a recorded vitamin D level at booking (8-19 weeks gestation) were included for analysis. Maternal vitamin D levels were categorized into normal, deficient and insufficient cohorts and variables compared between the three groups.

Results:

There were 31 perinatal deaths which were compared to 111 controls. Median vitamin D levels were lower in the perinatal death cohort compared to the control group (55 nmol/L versus 64 nmol/L, p = 0.43). There was no significant increase in deaths between the normal and deficient (p = 0.33) or insufficient (p = 0.09) groups.

Conclusions:

Low maternal vitamin D levels at booking were not associated with an increased risk of perinatal demise.

Keywords:

Perinatal death pregnancy stillbirth vitamin D

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