Use of Nutritional Supplements before and during Pregnancy

Stefanie Becker, Daniela Schmid, Ulrike Amann-Gassner, Hans Hauner, Munich

A retrospective survey was carried out in three hospitals in the Munich region on 522 women who had just given birth. The survey covered the intake of nutritional supplements before and during pregnancy.

The results were analysed on the basis of sociodemographic data. 97.1 % of the women took at least one nutritional supplement during pregnancy. Even before the pregnancy, the rate of supplementation was 63.0 %. 33.7 % of the women had already taken folic acid supplements before their pregnancy and 85.6 % took folic acid supplements during the first three months of pregnancy. 77.2 % of the women took iodine and 65.3 % iron preparations. Supplementation behaviour was only slightly influenced by factors such as level of education, age and ethnic origin. The final evaluation was that pregnant women take supplements of many different micronutrients. Although folic acid supplementation is still suboptimal, many micronutrients are taken unnecessarily, some at very high doses. Unambiguous recommendations on supplementation would be desirable.

Keywords: Supplementation, pregnancy, iron, folic acid, iodine, DHA, magnesium

Sie finden den Artikel in deutscher Sprache in Ernährungs Umschau 01/11 ab Seite 36.