Scottish women may need encouragement to seek out sunshine during pregnancy, experts say.
A tiny fraction of women in Scotland are taking recommended amounts of supplements of the sunshine vitamin, vitamin D, according to a new study.
Researcher Professor Paul Haggarty, of Aberdeen University, says that part of the answer may be to encourage "safe sun" use among women.
The supplements are recommended because of low levels of sunshine in the country – but this is not working, according to Professor Haggarty.
The study of some 1,200 pregnancies in the city over a six year period raised questions about the effectiveness of supplements.
Just one per cent of women were taking recommended amounts of vitamin D, researchers found.
But even when women took supplements, the vitamin was found in their blood but there was little evidence of it being transmitted to their babies through cord blood.
Instead the researchers found massive seasonal variations in levels of the vitamin – with the highest levels reported from May to September when Scotland has long hours of daylight.
And overall levels of vitamin D were lower in Scotland than England.
Professor Haggarty said: “We need to do more to encourage women to take vitamin D supplements during pregnancy, particularly women from more deprived backgrounds.
Realistically however, if every pregnant woman in the study followed the advice perfectly about eight per cent would still be deficient in vitamin D.
"We suggest that, in addition to guidance on supplement use, encouraging safe sun exposure and getting out into green spaces in summer may help to improve vitamin D status in pregnancy, even in the north of Scotland.
"We need to investigate this further through a trial of safe sun advice in the critical summer months at northern latitude to assess the impact on the vitamin D status of the mother during pregnancy and while breastfeeding, and of the baby, in pregnancies commencing in different seasons of the year."
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