VITAMIN C IN HUMAN PREGNANCY AND LACTATION

Abstract

There is evidence from animal experiments that the requirements for certain of the vitamins are increased by pregnancy. However, there is little precise information with respect to changes during pregnancy and lactation in women's needs for vitamins. The recent development of reliable methods for determining the amount of vitamin C in tissues and in biologic fluids has offered opportunity for studies during human pregnancy and lactation. A number of observations have appeared in the literature of the past three years concerning the ascorbic acid content of maternal blood, of fetal blood and of the placenta, although no one seems to have followed a series of pregnant women consistently through pregnancy and delivery to obtain related and comparative values. Neuweiler,1using Gabbe's technic with modifications, reported a higher content of ascorbic acid in blood from the umbilical vein than in that from the umbilical artery (1.9 to 3.6 versus 0.7