Objective: To establish the prevalence of vitamin A deficiency during pregnancy and lactation in a group of urban Mexican women.
Material and methods: A group of pregnant women who attended a prenatal care program were invited to participate. Subjects had no added pathologies and were less than 20 weeks pregnant. Evaluations were performed 3 times during pregnancy until 24 weeks post-partum. Vitamin A levels were determined in serum by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The cut-off point to consider retinol deficiency was < 1.05 mumol/L.
Results: During the 3 gestational evaluations, vitamin A levels were 2.34 +/- 0.70, 2.41 +/- 1.03 and 1.86 +/- 0.66 mumol/L, respectively, which shows a significant decrease. However, only 1/30 was situated below the accepted cut-off point to consider risk of deficiency, and none for deficiency. During post-partum, concentrations remained relatively constant, approximately 2.10 mumol/L. Lactation had no impact on serum retinol levels, while weight loss did.
Conclusions: No cases of vitamin A deficiency were found in the studied population during the perinatal period. Maternal weight loss affects post-partum retinol levels.