The Report on Maternal Micronutrient Deficiencies.

The report on Maternal Micronutrient Deficiencies
The report on Maternal Micronutrient Deficiencies
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1The report on Maternal Micronutrient Deficiencies
Introduction
Part 1
To maintain a healthy brain, muscles, bones and nerves our body requires an adequate
amount of macro and micro nutrients. The nutrient helps in maintaining a strong immune system
and improving the function of the body parts. Almost 30 micro nutrient consisting of vitamins
and minerals are required sufficiently by the body. The body is not designed to produce this
amount of nutrients by itself thus regular intake of food containing these nutrients is essential for
the functioning of the body. The intake of this micro nutrient increases when a woman is
pregnant (Bailey, West & Black, 2015). The diet taken by the lady should consist of minimum
amount of daily micro nutrient requirement.
The same goes for the Vitamin D micro nutrient, a minimum dose of 15 μg/d of vitamin
D is required daily by an expecting mother. A regular daily dose of the entire essential micro
nutrient is recommended to woman before and after conception. During pregnancy Vitamin D
deficiency becomes very common among 76% of the woman (Haider, & Bhutta, 2017). Vitamin
D is a fat soluble vitamin that is found in milk, juice, green leafs vegetables, eggs and fish. The
kidney in the body requires vitamin D to absorb calcium from the intestines for appropriate bone
mineralization and growth. Severe vitamin D deficiency can result in congenital rickets and
fractures and less developed and week body structure of the baby. It has been seen that if vitamin
D deficiency is found pregnant women, then supplements at level 1000-2000 IU per day should
be given (Schüpbach et al., 2017).
During pregnancy a women should gain weight instead of losing weight. The most
common weight gain is 8-9 kgs at the end of the gestational period. This accounts for fetus,
placenta tissues and amniotic fluid. Pregnancy is also the period of accelerated starvation, when
the body is starving to eat more than regular intake (Kallioinen et al., 2017). It is associated with
number of negetive maternal and child health outcomes. Which include pre-eclampsia,
gestational diabetes mellitus, an increased maternal inflammatory cytokines, and increased
insulin resistance. Incase of the offspring the risk of preterm birth increases, leading to neonatal
hypocalcaemia, rickets in infancy, asthma and increased BMI during childhood.

2The report on Maternal Micronutrient Deficiencies
According to a data the low and middle income group country has seen a huge rise of
vitamin d deficiency in expecting mothers and off springs. But the main reason for VDD is
subject to what kind of life style is followed including the daily dietary intake. Women living in
countries of Asia, Africa and middle east are found to be unable to meet their daily micronutrient
demands during pregnancy due to poor diet (Chen et al., 2019). Low income group women do
not have access to eggs, milk and oily fishes leading to VDD. Specially in major region of Asia
the population is dependent on the vegetarian diet the chances of VDD increase affecting their
health and the health of their offspring (Keats et al., 2019). This is just one micronutrient the
large amount of population in LMIC nation are suffering from multi nutrient deficiency which
can be sometimes fatal, which has gone unnoticed through centuries. According to research done
by NCBI the insufficiency of vitamin D is prevalence (>90%) in Chinese women, which is the
highest. Women from Iran and Pakistan (89.0%) and 80% for the Indian women. The study
conducted in Nigeria resulted in defining that sun is an important factor in synthesizing vitamin
D, only 39.4% of maternal women were found to be vitamin D deficient (Paganini, &
Zimmermann, 2017). The main reason for the VDD is lifestyle and daily food intake. The
regular sun bath and vitamin sufficient food can minimize the birth defects in new born and also
improve the life expectancy of the maternal women.
Part 2
Pregnancy is a time of internal growth and physiological changes in the women and her
developing fetus. The presence of every single nutrient in the body is essentially important. If
any nutrient is not present in an adequate amount in the body then the whole process of
pregnancy and birth can go wrong inviting complications. The mother can experience pregnancy
complications as preeclampsia and infections. A normal intake level of compound vitamin D or
cholecalciferol should be in its metabolite 25-hydroxy-vitamin D or 25(OH)D, this is what a
pregnant women should be maintained throughout the pregnancy. According to a study at
Namibia (Africa) a sample size of 340 individuals inclusive of male and female where check for
the vitamin d level (Omotayo et al., 2018). Only 17.4% of the individuals showed a balanced
level of 25(OH) D level of < 20 ng/ml in the body where as rest of the sample turned positive for
vitamin D deficiency (World Health Organization, 2015). The test where done by collecting
blood samples in serum clot activator tubes for total calcium, inorganic phosphate and albumin.

3The report on Maternal Micronutrient Deficiencies
A 4000 rpm Centrifugation for 5 min was done. Namibia being close to equator gets whole year
adequate sunlight and sunlight is a producer of vitamin d in the skins. But the dark complexion
of the African population makes the vitamin D synthesis difficult for them. The poor diet and
low sun light benefits can be a major reason for the deficiency. Even the blame can be put on the
sun scream as SPF 30 and above sun scream prevents the production of vitamin D by 95% .
Over many years there has seen several interventions in places of Africa. This time the
intervention was done by its government with the support of WHO. The target group population
was Namibia and target sample was pregnant women and their off springs (Mwangi et al., 2015).
The intervention was aimed to rising awareness and cause of case of vitamin D defiance
pregnant women. The intervention first recorded the sample size and then tested it for the VDD.
As much as 80% of the population was found VDD. The objective of the intervention was to
treat people with VDD and specially as much as pregnant women and children of Nairobi.
Namibia is a country in LMIC nations that suffers with a huge amount of financial,
medical and other food shortage problems. Namibia is not having all basic amenities along with
health of its people it lacks tremendously. World health organization with the help of the local
government planned a survey to understand the level of deficiency of multi nutrients in the
pregnant women of Namibia. It was found out that about 70% of the population was at the risk of
micronutrient deficiencies. The sample also included school going kids and kids as young as 1
year (Omotayo et al., 2018). The population is at risk of deficiencies of folate, thiamin, vitamin
B12, and vitamin D. With a specifically developed program to control the increasing case of
Vitamin D deficiency birth the governmental body followed certain planned steps.
The intervention was developed taking all major considerations of minimizing the impact
of vitamin D deficiency in women and child. The program was dived into three major parts. The
health education and promotion, The fund raising, and vitamin and multi nutrients
supplementation.
Time frame
The planning of the intervention -3 months
Forming of the body -1 months