Vitamin Angels to expand prenatal multivitamin program

By Stephen DANIELLS

- Last updated on GMT

Image © Matt Dayka / Vitamin Angels. Used with permission.
Image © Matt Dayka / Vitamin Angels. Used with permission.

Related tags Pregnancy Vitamin angels

Vitamin Angels is dedicating more resources to its prenatal multivitamin program following an important publication by the prestigious Cochrane Collaboration supporting the efficacy of prenatal vitamins.

The new publication, “Multi-Micronutrient Supplementation During Pregnancy”​, concluded that multiple-micronutrient supplementation for pregnant women in low- and middle-income countries produced fewer low birth weight babies, fewer small-for-gestational-age babies, and fewer stillbirths, compared with pregnant women who only received iron, with or without folic acid.

Supplementation with iron and folic acid has, until now, been a global standard in health care for women of reproductive age, and especially for pregnant women. The new publication supports the role for multivitamin and mineral supplements for additional benefits for these groups.

“We believe every mom deserves to give birth to happy, vibrant babies. But some moms don't have that chance,”​ said Howard Schiffer, Vitamin Angels’ founder and president. “Prenatals are critical for the moms we serve to have safe and healthy pregnancies, and for their children to have healthy starts to life.”

Beyond vitamin A

Vitamin Angels has focused primarily on distributing vitamin A and de-worming treatments to at risk children under five globally in response to the tremendous evidence supporting the benefits of those interventions.

Efforts to distribute prenatal vitamins to pregnant and breast feeding mothers in areas where malnutrition is prevalent have expanded in recent years, and the organization will expand this by dedicating additional resources toward securing and distributing these supplements, and consequently, increasing fundraising efforts to meet that need.

To learn more, read the report, or make a donation visit www.vitaminangels.org​.   

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