Low maternal vitamin D level and spontaneous preterm labour: are they related?

ObjectiveTo assess the possible association between low maternal vitamin D level and risk of spontaneous preterm labour. Patients and Method: This prospective case control study includes 160 pregnant female admitted to labour room at Al -Fallujah teaching hospital for maternity and children/ Iraq who are further subdivided into two group, 100 female with term pregnancy and 60 female with spontaneous preterm labour. Blood samples were collected from pregnant womenand serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-OHD) concentrations were measured by chemiluminescence method. Results: The mean level of vitamin D in the women presented with preterm labour was 19.12 and 26 of them (43.3%) suffer from sever deficiency of vitamin D(serum level less than 10ng/ml), while the mean level of vitamin D in the control group(term pregnancy) was 21.59 and 25 of them (25%) suffer from sever vitamin D deficiency. A statistically significant difference was found between term and preterm labour groups regarding sever deficiency of vitamin D (P value 0.028), while there was no statistically significant difference between them regarding insufficiency of vitamin D(serum level less than 30ng/ml) (P value 0.824).ConclusionOur data showed that only sever maternal vitamin D deficiency (serum level less than 10ng/ml) is significantly associated with increased risk of spontaneous preterm labour.