Daily Mail reports on a study that found pregnant women who take prenatal multivitamins have bigger babies.
Taking these vitamins on a daily basis could therefore prevent the risk of low birth weight babies. Small babies experience many problems in the years following delivery.
This is the first time a study has shown that multivitamins specially designed for pregnant women could make a difference in developing countries where food is scarcer and the food quality is often poor.
The study looked at the effect of multivitamins on 400 pregnant women with vitamin and mineral deficiencies living in East London. Half of the participants took the Pregnacare multivitamin in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy; the other half received a placebo.
The women who took vitamin supplements had babies that weighed four ounces more than the others. Only 8 out of 88 babies born to women who took vitamins were born with low birth weights, compared to 13 of 61 for those who received the placebo.
Consultant obstetrician Pat O’Brien, of University College London, said: "What happens in the womb can almost programme the baby for life."