Supplements help women give birth to bigger children

Women who take multiple micronutrient supplementation (MMN) are inclined to give birth to heavier and bigger children, according to a new study.

In an article published in The Lancet, scientists have revealed that the children of these mothers are likely to be affected by the MMN until the age of three.

Researchers from the UCL Centre for International Health in the UK and Development and Mother and Infant Research Activities in Kathmandu, Nepal, studied 1,200 pregnant women, the birth weight of their children and tracked the weight of the infants until an average age of 2.5.

The authors concluded that the use of MMN could have an effect on the foetus that "persisted into childhood, with increases in both weight and body size".

"These increases were small, however, since those exposed to micronutrients had an average of two per cent higher weight than controls," they wrote.

"The public-health implications of changes in weight and blood pressure need to be clarified through follow-up."

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