Benefits of Vitamin C in pregnancy

Vitamin C or ascorbic acid is essential to human body but available only from diet. It is known for its antioxidant and healing properties, among others. Despite its broad availability in fruits and vegetables, in many developing countries the incidence of clinical symptoms due to the vitamin deficiency is still very high. Similarly, pregnant women in the developing countries are frequently hospitalized for several preventable reasons such as anemia and the upper/lower respiratory tract infections. We investigated in a Ugandan rural pregnant women cohort, the preventive effects of high vitamin C supplementation (400 mg/day) on hospital admission. We discovered a strikingly lower rate of hospitalization among the women supplemented with vitamin C throughout their pregnancy. Thus,suggesting the inclusion of vitamin C in the guidelines of multivitamin supplementation for pregnant women. Moreover, in developing countries where seasonal availability of fruits and vegetables often result in adverse clinical outcomes for the most vulnerable population such as infants and pregnant and/or lactating mothers.