International Journal of Contemporary Pediatrics | February 2020 | Vol 7 | Issue 2 Page 387 International Journal of Contemporary Pediatrics Thomas DJ et al. Int J Contemp Pediatr. 2020 Feb;7(2):387-392 http://www.ijpediatrics.com pISSN 2349-3283 | eISSN 2349-3291 Original Research Article A study on vitamin D levels in preterm and term neonates and their mothers Deepa J. Thomas, Habeeb U. Khan*, Saritha Paul, Jaidev M. D., Pavan Hegde INTRODUCTION Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin which plays an important role in the optimal functioning of vital organ systems, it has immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory effects. Vitamin D deficiency is a worldwide problem and yet, one of the most under diagnosed and under treated nutritional deficiency. There is a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in pregnant and lactating mothers. Studies have shown that mothers with vitamin D deficiency have higher rates of pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes, bacterial vaginosis, preterm birth and caesarean section, all of which could have potential adverse effects on the neonate. 1-3 In utero, the fetus is wholly dependent on the mother for vitamin D. The 25-hydroxy vitamin D crosses the placenta into the blood stream of the fetus with a half-life of approximately 2 months. Thus, vitamin D is vertically transmitted. 4 Serum concentrations of 1,25 hydroxy vitamin D increase by 50-100% over pre pregnancy levels during the second trimester and by 100% during the third trimester which is required for fetal skeletal development, thus exposing the preterm more at risk for osteopenia. 5 Hence if the mother is deficient in vitamin D, the baby will be born with vitamin D deficiency and develop symptoms in infancy. Department of Pediatrics, Father Muller Medical College, Mangalore, Karnataka, India Received: 21 November 2019 Revised: 24 December 2019 Accepted: 30 December 2019 *Correspondence: Dr. Habeeb U. Khan, E-mail: habibkhans@fathermuller.in Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ABSTRACT Background: Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin which has immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory effects. Vitamin D deficiency is a worldwide problem and yet is one of the most under diagnosed and under treated nutritional deficiency. Despite India being in the tropical zone with plentiful sunlight, there is a wide prevalence of vitamin D deficiency. Methods: Cross sectional descriptive study done in a tertiary care hospital involving 30 mother baby dyads equally divided into term and preterm babies. Maternal vitamin D levels (before delivery) and cord blood vitamin D levels (after delivery) were estimated. Results: All the mothers had low vitamin D levels, 93% having deficiency and 7% having insufficiency. The maternal vitamin D levels correlated with cord blood vitamin D levels. There was significant correlation between maternal vitamin D levels and cord blood vitamin D levels with maternal age and parity. There was no correlation between maternal vitamin D levels with gestational age, sociodemographic profile or neonatal anthropometry. Conclusions: Vitamin D deficiency is widely prevalent even in well-nourished mothers. Vitamin D supplementation may be helpful in antenatal mothers. Larger studies are needed to study the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in mothers and babies and look for effectiveness of supplementation. Keywords: Cord blood, Maternal, Preterm babies, Term babies, Vitamin D levels DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2349-3291.ijcp20200115