Shedding light on the myth of the 1950s and ‘60s that vitamin D could cause birth defects, a new study has found that its intake during pregnancy is not only safe for the mother-baby duo but can even avert preterm labor/births and infections.

Presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, the study conducted a randomized controlled trial to determine the optimal dose of vitamin D supplements for pregnant women without causing harm. They randomly assigned 494 pregnant women at 12 to 16 weeks gestation to 400 IU, 2,000 IU or 4,000 IU of vitamin D per day until delivery; 350 women continued to delivery.

Subsequently, logistic regression analysis was done to determine the effects of vitamin D on preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, infections and preterm labor and birth. In the process, it was found that women who took the highest of these three daily doses had half the risk for co-morbidities than the control group.

Says Carol L. Wagner, MD, of the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, recent research supports the importance of vitamin D in promoting bone health and immune function for both mothers and babies.

“No adverse events related to vitamin D dosing were found in any of the three arms of the study,” adds Wagner.