| |
NEWSLETTER 5ext2 : A STUDY of 35 PREPARED PREGNANCIES (Edited 9/14/03, Updated 8/20/08)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IN THE NEWS:
Februari 8, 2008 : Maternal micronutrient supplements boost baby weights
- "Supplements of micronutrients during pregnancy may result in bigger and heavier babies, relative to babies born to mothers taking only iron and folic acid, suggests a new study.
The research, published in this week's The Lancet, is of particular importance since an estimated 20 million children worldwide are born with low birth weight, defined as less than 2,500 grams (5.5 pounds), with over 95 per cent these in developing countries." From:Nutra ingredients.com/Europe
It is indeed of very particular importance.
It is, however, nothing new. It has been described previously. Hereunder see a summary of the original research.
Februari 20, 2008 : About one out of every 733 children born in the United States has Down Syndrome.
- 50 years ago Down syndrome (DS) was considered a disease almost exclusively of children born from mothers 40 years of age or older. Today 80% of children with DS are born to women under the age of 35 . What causes this shift? What has changed dramatically over the last 50 years? Our food has become increasingly deprived on minerals and vitamins.
Several publication link DS to mineral and vitamin deficiency in the mother. A good reason to prepare your pregnancy well in advance by taking supplements of minerals and vitamins. |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary of the lecture:
"Low Body Temperature, Prematurity and Intra-Uterine Growth Retardation"
presented in 1984 by Edmund Devroey MD
at the 8the International Congress of Perinatalogy. Page Map
Prematurity
Introduction
Treated and Untreated Pregnancies
Other Publications
 |
 |
 |
  |
Treated and Untreated Pregnancies
 |
35 Treated Pregnancies
The chart at the top of figure 1 indicates the outcome of 35 pregnancies in women that were taking
minerals and vitamin supplements during a period of time of at least three months before becoming
pregnant.
Figure 1, top :
The horizontal line indicates the duration of the pregnancy expressed in weeks. 31 deliveries
occurred after 40 weeks pregnancy, and 4 deliveries after 39 weeks.
The vertical line indicates the weight in pounds of the babies at birth. There are no premature
infants. Two babies are underweight.
35 Untreated Pregnancies
The chart at the bottom of the figure 1 indicates the outcome of 35 pregnancies in women that were
not taking minerals and vitamin supplements before becoming pregnant.
Figure 1, bottom :
The horizontal line indicates the duration of the pregnancy expressed in weeks. In contrast to the
first group, in the control group there are 4 deliveries after 39 weeks, 5 after 38 weeks, 1 after
34 weeks, and 3 after 41 weeks.
The vertical line indicates the weight in pounds of the babies at birth. 5 babies are
underweight.
|
The Selection of the Control Group
A few words about the selection of the control group. For the control group, I selected the files of each patient giving birth
immediately after the delivery of a patient from the first group.
Most if not all the patients of the control group had been
taking supplements during their pregnancy. It is important to notice that they had started to take supplements only after knowing
they were pregnant and did not take supplement before, in contrast to the patients of the first group.
|
More Interesting Information
More interesting is the fact that in the group of the 35 prepared pregnancies, there were 19 women that already had
children. Together the 19 mothers had 24 children born from a previous unprepared pregnancy. The chart on the top of
the figure 2 indicates the outcome of the 19 prepared pregnancies.
Figure 2, top :
The horizontal line indicates the duration of the pregnancy expressed in weeks. 16 deliveries occurred after 40 weeks
pregnancy, and 3 deliveries after 39 weeks. The vertical line indicates the weight in pounds of the babies at birth.
There are no premature nor underweight newborns.
The chart on the bottom of the figure 2 indicates the outcome of the 24 unprepared previous pregnancies, from the same
mothers.
Figure 2, bottom :
The horizontal line indicates the duration of the pregnancy expressed in weeks. The deliveries occurred after 41 weeks
pregnancy, 13 deliveries occurred after 40 weeks pregnancy, 3 after 39 weeks, and 5 after 38 weeks. The vertical line
indicates the weight in pounds of the babies at birth. There are 3 underweight newborns.
|
 |
I have to add that all the 19 mothers that had children of previous unprepared pregnancies, have noticed that their last baby -- the one
from the prepared pregnancy -- was in better condition than the sibling or the siblings.
Babies from well prepared pregnancies
are easier to handle.
They eat better,
sleep better,
and have less health problems.
|
 |
|
[ Top ]
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Publications on the Topic
Older Publications
The above results were the subject of a publication at the 8the International Congress of Perinatalogy held
in Aachen, Germany, in 1984.
At that time, there were only two publications in the medical literature to strengthen the hypothesis of a
link between the nutritional condition of the mother before and during pregnancy and prematurity.
One paper published by Deckers in 1977 describes thyroid hormone defect in premature babies and a paper
published by Blumenthal in 1980 assumes that premature babies present a copper deficiency.
165 other papers about prematurity published around that same period of time only focuses on the diseases
occurring in premature infants with no indication of any deficiency.
More Recent Publications
At the time of the first edition of this page there were more publications describing deficiencies in premature babies.
Deficiency in Iodine (Rooman, 1996) (Krassas, 2000) , Iron (Yeo, 2001) (Bader, 2001), vit B12 and folate
(Rosenblatt, 1999), selenium (Winterbourn, 2000), magnesium (Villar 1998), copper (Beshgetoor, 1998), and
calcium (Bakstroom, 2000), in premature newborn are the subject of recently published papers.
Today In The News
Today we have two large studies, both published in the Lancet confirming the initial lecture 24 years ago of the usefulness of supplements, minerals and vitamins to avoid prematurity and intra-uterine growth retardation.
|
 |
|
[ Top ]
|
 |
 |
 |
|
A |