Vitamin A and Pregnancy: A Narrative Review
by
Sabina Bastos Maia 1,2,*
, Alex Sandro Rolland Souza 1,3,4, Maria de Fátima Costa Caminha 1,5, Suzana Lins da Silva 1,5, Rachel de Sá Barreto Luna Callou Cruz 6, Camila Carvalho dos Santos 7 and Malaquias Batista Filho 1
Sabina Bastos Maia 1,2,*, Alex Sandro Rolland Souza 1,3,4, Maria de Fátima Costa Caminha 1,5, Suzana Lins da Silva 1,5, Rachel de Sá Barreto Luna Callou Cruz 6, Camila Carvalho dos Santos 7 and Malaquias Batista Filho 1
1
Maternal and Child Healthcare Postgraduate Program, Instituto de Medicina Integral Prof. Fernando Figueira (IMIP), Recife 50070-550, Pernambuco, Brazil
2
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Lauro Wanderley University Hospital, Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB), João Pessoa 58059-900, Paraíba, Brazil
3
Department of Maternal and Child Healthcare, Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), Recife 50670-901, Pernambuco, Brazil
4
Biological and Health Sciences Center, Catholic University of Pernambuco (UNICAP), Recife 50050-900, Pernambuco, Brazil
5
Coordination of the Nursing Mentoring Program, Faculdade Pernambucana de Saúde (FPS), Recife 51180-001, Pernambuco, Brazil
6
Department of Nursing, Regional University of Cariri (URCA), Crato 63105-000, Ceará, Brazil
7
Research Directorate, IMIP, Recife 50070-550, Pernambuco, Brazil
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Nutrients 2019, 11(3), 681; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11030681
Received: 27 February 2019 / Revised: 15 March 2019 / Accepted: 19 March 2019 / Published: 22 March 2019
Vitamin A is a crucial micronutrient for pregnant women and their fetuses. In addition to being essential for morphological and functional development and for ocular integrity, vitamin A exerts systemic effects on several fetal organs and on the fetal skeleton. Vitamin A requirements during pregnancy are therefore greater. Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) remains the leading cause of preventable blindness in the world. VAD in pregnant women is a public health issue in most developing countries. In contrast, in some developed countries, excessive vitamin A intake during pregnancy can be a concern since, when in excess, this micronutrient may exert teratogenic effects in the first 60 days following conception. Routine prenatal vitamin A supplementation for the prevention of maternal and infant morbidity and mortality is not recommended; however, in regions where VAD is a public health issue, vitamin A supplementation is recommended to prevent night blindness. Given the importance of this topic and the lack of a complete, up-to-date review on vitamin A and pregnancy, an extensive review of the literature was conducted to identify conflicting or incomplete data on the topic as well as any gaps in existing data.
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Keywords:
Vitamin A; vitamin A deficiency; pregnancy
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Bastos Maia, S.; Rolland Souza, A.S.; Costa Caminha, M.F.; Lins da Silva, S.; Callou Cruz, R.S.B.L.; Carvalho dos Santos, C.; Batista Filho, M. Vitamin A and Pregnancy: A Narrative Review. Nutrients 2019, 11, 681.
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