Mums not getting message

Only just more than a third of Kiwi mums surveyed properly follow Ministry of Health (MOH) guidelines on boosting folic acid and iodine intake before, during and after pregnancy, new research shows.

Out of 535 women who were pregnant or had been in the past two years, only 38 per cent had followed the recommendations, according to University of Otago research.

Iodine was important for optimal foetal and infant brain development, including their IQ later in life, and folic acid helps prevent neural tube defects in babies.

More of the women followed the iodine recommendations alone – 52 per cent.

Fifty per cent were taking folic acid alone.

Associate Professor Sheila Skeaff, co-author on the research paper, said bigger efforts to promote the recommendations and increase access to iodine and folic acid supplements were needed.

‘‘We want communities to know about these nutrients, and why they are important,’’ she said.

Eighty per cent had accessed iodine using a prescription from a GP or midwife, according to the research.

The MOH subsidised the cost of supplements through a prescription, she said.

Dr Andrew Reynolds, research fellow at Otago’s Department of Human Nutrition and lead author of the study said prescriptions cost about $5 each.

The ‘‘next big question’’ was how to get more women to take the recommended supplements.

Doctors and midwives should be informing women planning a pregnancy they were important, Reynolds said, as it was possibly not common knowledge among women that such supplements were necessary.

He hoped the research would help increase awareness of the need to take them.

Of those who participated, 64 per cent were from the North Island, 28 per cent were from Auckland, 18 per cent from Otago and 10 per cent from Wellington.