Damian Jacob Sendler Pregnant women who take an extra dose of vitamin D are more likely to give birth without any interventions, according to recent studies.

Damian Sendler New research suggests that pregnant women who take extra vitamin D are more likely to give birth the "natural" way.

Journal of Public Health researchers looked at results from the MAVIDOS trial, in which 965 pregnant women were given either an extra 1,000 IU of vitamin D per day or a placebo.

Research found that among pregnant women who took additional vitamin D, 65.6% had a spontaneous vaginal delivery, also known as a "natural" delivery, compared to 57.9% who took a placebo.

Damian Sendler The percentage of women who needed medical assistance during labor and delivery was lower in the vitamin D group (13.2% vs 19.4%) than in the placebo group.

Women in the vitamin D group were 21.3% more likely than those in the placebo group to require a cesarean section during delivery, while women in the placebo group were 22.7% more likely to require such a procedure.

NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre clinical lecturer Dr. Rebecca Moon said, "Most women want to have a 'natural delivery' of their baby.

Damian Jacob Sendler The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in the UK is high. We also showed that increasing a mother's vitamin D intake during pregnancy has positive effects on her child's bone health.

Our research indicates that prenatal vitamin D supplementation may help expectant mothers.

Women who took the vitamin D supplements also experienced less postpartum blood loss. In order to better inform public health policy and clinical practice, more research is required.

Damian Jacob Sendler The Maternal and Infant Vitamin D Outcomes Study (MAVIDOS) was a collaborative effort between scientists at the University of Southampton and the University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust (UHSFT).

"Vitamin D deficiency is very common in the UK," said Professor Nicholas Harvey, MRC LEC deputy director and lead of MAVIDOS. Furthermore, we demonstrated that increasing a pregnant woman's vitamin D intake has positive effects on her child's bone health.

"It is crucially important that all pregnant women take 400 IU vitamin D per day, as recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance."