Research
Micronutrients & recovery
Preconception folic acid and multivitamin supplementation significantly reduce the risk of congenital heart defects and preeclampsia.
Taking a multivitamin with folic acid before pregnancy can lower your risk of heart defects in the baby and preeclampsia. While food is important, supplements ensure you get adequate levels during the critical early weeks.
GoodSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Pooling of two randomized trials, one cohort and one case-control trial showed a risk reduction of 42% in this analysis [congenital heart defects]... Pooling two cohort studies, the review also found a significant 27% reduction in the risk of preeclampsia... by maternal periconceptional multivitamin supplementation.
Why this rating
Based on pooled observational and experimental studies, though heterogeneity exists.
Source
Preconception care: nutritional risks and interventions
Sohni V Dean et al. · Reproductive Health · 2014
DOI 10.1186/1742-4755-11-s3-s3
Meta-analysis · 146 studiesCited 282×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Preconception folic acid supplementation significantly reduces the risk of recurrent neural tube defects by approximately 69%.Strong
- Pre-pregnancy underweight (BMI <18.5) significantly increases the risk of preterm birth by 32% and small-for-gestational age babies by 64%.Good
- Pre-pregnancy overweight and obesity significantly increase the risk of preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, and cesarean delivery.Good
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