Summary: Expectant mothers should pay attention to calcium supplementation during pregnancy, which is very important for the health care of pregnant women and the healthy development of the fetus. However, mothers should not forget that calcium supplements are needed during every pregnancy, so as to fully ensure the \”win-win\” of the bones of mother and baby! Pregnant mothers need 1000-1200 mg of calcium every day. When there is insufficient calcium, the mother will break down bone calcium by herself to maintain blood calcium balance and fetal development.
Doubt 1: How many months into pregnancy should you start taking calcium supplements?
Obstetricians usually recommend that expectant mothers start taking calcium supplements in the second trimester. The fetus grows rapidly during the second trimester and its demand for calcium increases. The daily requirement is 1000mg~1200mg. Pregnant women mainly eat ordinary food. Only 300-700 mg, it is difficult to meet the supply standard. Therefore, in the second trimester, pregnant women usually need to supplement calcium products. For women with long-term low calcium intake, such as white-collar women who do not like to drink milk or diet vegetarians, they should consider supplementing calcium from the stage of pregnancy preparation.
Doubt 2: Can calcium supplement be taken in late pregnancy? Will it cause placental calcification?
Will calcium supplementation in late pregnancy cause placental calcification? This rumor is widely circulated among pregnant women, causing panic. In fact, placental calcification is one of the indicators for judging the maturity of the placenta and is not directly related to calcium supplementation. Calcium supplementation in late pregnancy is of great benefit to the growth and development of pregnant women and fetuses.
Research reports show that after 33 weeks of pregnancy, more than half of women begin to experience varying degrees of placental calcification. This is due to white infarcts in the placental blood vessels and narrowing of the intervillous space, which may lead to reduced blood flow and decreased placental function. This is an inevitable phenomenon in all late pregnancy and has nothing to do with calcium supplementation. Under normal circumstances, after a full-term pregnancy, B-ultrasound examination will find I-II degree calcification of the placenta, which is an indirect sign that the fetus is full-term. Only when severe calcification is accompanied by oligohydramnios does it indicate serious placental defects and the life of the fetus is in danger, and the pregnancy must be terminated in time.
Doubt 3: Will too much calcium supplement make the baby’s bones hard and difficult to grow taller?
Will calcium supplementation in late pregnancy make the fetal skull hard and difficult to deliver? In fact, mothers don’t have to worry. It is protein, not calcium, that forms the flesh and blood of the fetus! Moreover, the fetal head is the largest part of the carcass. The fetal head is plastic. During delivery, the cranial sutures can overlap slightly to reduce the diameter of the skull and facilitate delivery. Difficult labor is usually caused by a narrow pelvis or malposition of the fetus or macrosomia. If the labor force, fetus, and birth canal are all normal and can adapt to each other, delivery can be successful.
The fetus\’s absorption of calcium is mainly through the mother\’s intake. When the needs are met, the excess can be excreted through urine, which will not affect the normal development of the fetus and will not pose a threat to pregnant women during childbirth.
Therefore, calcium supplementation will not make the baby difficult to deliver, and there is no need to worry that too much calcium supplementation will cause the baby\’s bones to be too hard, as long as the calcium supplementation is normal.
Question 4: Do I need to continue to supplement calcium during breastfeeding?
per 100 ml of breast milk provides 30-34 mg of calcium. In the first year after delivery, the mother provides her baby with about 300 mg of calcium every day through breast milk. Therefore, nursing mothers need to supplement their diet with a large amount of calcium to maintain excess expenses. One thing to note is that mothers who are deficient in calcium will have low calcium content in their milk, which we call “low calcium milk”. Feeding your baby with low-calcium milk may lead to insufficient calcium nutrition in your baby and symptoms of calcium deficiency.
Question 5: Can complementary foods replace calcium preparations?
Unless there is a very scientific and reasonable diet, the calcium in ordinary people\’s food cannot fully meet the high calcium needs of pregnant mothers. Many foods are not as rich in calcium as we think: for example, bone soup, it has been determined that one kilogram of bone soup only has 20 mg of calcium. Spinach, bamboo shoots, etc. that contain oxalic acid in the diet can easily combine with calcium to form calcium oxalate that is difficult to absorb. Although foods such as sea rice are high in calcium, their absorption rate is low and their salt content is high, so it is not advisable to eat too much. Therefore, experts recommend that pregnant mothers need to insist on scientific calcium supplementation.
Doubt 6: Will calcium supplementation during pregnancy accelerate constipation?
Pregnant women are prone to constipation. During pregnancy, the uterus expands and compresses the colon, and the secretion levels of pregnant women also change. Progesterone produced in the body reduces the tone of gastrointestinal smooth muscle. Moreover, after pregnancy, the amount of exercise is generally reduced, and constipation is prone to occur. However, reasonable calcium supplementation will generally not accelerate constipation during pregnancy, so expectant mothers should carefully check the main ingredients of the product when purchasing calcium supplementation products to see whether they contain \”sorbitol\” and vitamin D. Sorbitol can accelerate intestinal expansion and peristalsis, regulate intestinal flora, and effectively prevent constipation in pregnant women. Vitamin D can help the intestines absorb calcium, promote the deposition of calcium ions in bones, and reduce the excretion of calcium ions by the kidneys.
Does it eliminate all mothers’ doubts about calcium supplementation during pregnancy? In fact, pregnant mothers should pay attention to calcium supplementation, which is very important for the health care of pregnant women and the healthy development of the fetus. However, mothers should not forget that calcium supplements are needed during every pregnancy, so as to fully ensure the \”win-win\” of the bones of mother and baby!