Pregnant women are getting insufficient vitamin D, claim researchers from the University of Pittsburgh Schools of Health Sciences.
Appearing in an edition of the Journal of Nutrition, the research examined levels of vitamin D among the newborns of 400 women, half of whom were African-American, and the other half, Caucasian.
At birth, 92.4 per cent of African-American babies and 66.1 per cent of Caucasian babies were found deficient in the vitamin.
"A newborn's vitamin D stores are completely reliant on vitamin D from the mother," says lead researcher, assistant professor Lisa Bodnar. "Not surprisingly, poor maternal vitamin D status during pregnancy is a major risk factor for infant rickets, which again is becoming a major health problem."
Following the publication of the study results, Bodnar and team have called for an increase in the daily recommended intake of vitamin D to cope with the demands of pregnancy. Raised awareness of the importance of vitamin D "has tremendous capacity to benefit public health", she says.