Tuesday 7th October 2008 News Index

Well-nourished women who take additional calcium during pregnancy may be doing it unnecessarily according to a report published by the Medical research council.

34 women were included in the research and their bone mineral content was measured before they became pregnant and two weeks after giving birth. The results showed that whilst calcium rates did vary before and after pregnancy there was not a link to the amount of calcium they were taking. So mothers who had taken supplementary calcium were no more or less likely to have bone mineral content changes.

Commenting on the report, Dr Gail Goldberg, senior research scientist at the Nutrition and Bone Health research Group said: "These results show that the substantial skeletal changes in well-nourished pregnant women can be regarded as a physiological effect of the pregnancy, and are not related to calcium intake or the amount of weight gained. This supports current recommendations that well-nourished women do not need extra calcium in pregnancy for their health or that of their baby."

The recommendation of calcium for women is 700mg per day and the researchers were quick to point that this research was conducted on women who were well nourished and that results may well not apply to those who are under nourished.

Please log in to post your comments.

Return to news index