• H A Elechi, A Oduwole, H W Idris, M B Faruk, and M A Alhaji.
• Department of Paediatrics, College of Medical Sciences, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri, Nigeria.
• Niger J Clin Pract. 2021 Mar 1; 24 (3): 345-354.

BackgroundVitamin D plays a vital role in the maintenance of bone health. The fetuses and exclusively breastfed neonates depend on maternal vitamin D store to meet their need. Widespread vitamin D deficiency among pregnant women have been reported with adverse fetal outcome. Nigeria lacks guideline on Vitamin D supplementation in pregnancy and infancy due to the paucity of data. We thus determined serum vitamin D of delivering mothers and their offsprings and other indicators of bone mineral health.AimsThis study aimed to determine serum Vitamin D and other indicators of bone mineral health of delivering mothers and their offspring.Material And MethodA cross-sectional study of delivering mothers and their newborns recruited consecutively until the minimal sample size was reached. Relevant information was obtained on a questionnaire. Maternal and cord serum vitamin D, calcium, albumin, phosphate, and alkaline phosphatase were determined. Data management was done using SPSS version 16.0.ResultsOf the 84 newborn-mother pairs studied, 17 (20.2%) of the mothers were Vitamin D deficient and 23 (27.4%) insufficient. Seven (8.3%) of the mothers were hypocalcaemic and 3 (3.6%) hypophosphataemic, while 19 (22.6%) had elevated alkaline phosphatase. Only 15 (17.9%) of the neonates were vitamin D insufficient and none of them was vitamin D deficient, hypocalcaemic, hypophosphataemic nor had elevated alkaline phosphatase. There was strong positive correlation between cord and maternal blood vitamin D level (r = 0.740, P = < 0.001).ConclusionVitamin D deficiency and insufficiency is high among pregnant women in Maiduguri while insufficiency is common among the neonates. We recommend vitamin D supplementation to pregnant women and newborns in Maiduguri.

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