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# Should pregnant women be forced to get vitamin D tests
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/pregnant_women_vitamin_d_testing_0313120555/
- Published: 2012-03-13T19:54:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-22T16:20:32.000Z
- Description: The UK Department of Health is promoting a petition to add vitamin D testing to routine antenatal blood checks, citing research that deficiency in pregnancy may cause lasting in-utero damage. The article pushes back, noting testing and supplements are a revenue source for business.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Politics, Vitamin D, Pregnancy, #vivvo-import

By David Liu PHD

Not so many people may be aware of this: UK government officials want a law that requires pregnant women to check vitamin d levels as part of routine blood test during pregnancy.

The UK Department of Health posted a message to encourage people to sign a petition for the making of the law.

Here is the message of the Department of Health cited in verbatim:

*Vitamin D has been shown as a major player in maternal & foetal health. Linked to numerous vital health issues, vitamin d deficiency is now known to be prevalent. In the last three years an increasing amount of research suggests that some of the damage done by vitamin d deficiency is done in-utero while the foetus is developing. Much of that damage may be permanent, that is it cannot be fully reversed by taking vitamin d after birth. This research indicates vitamin d deficiency during pregnancy endangers the mother's life & health & is the origin for a host of future perils for the child, especially for the child's brain & immune system. Pregnant women undergo a number of routine blood checks. It would be prudent to check vitamin d levels at the same time. This preventative care would empower women with knowledge so they can supplement for their health and that of their unborn baby. We call for ante natal screening to include the simple check of vitamin d levels known as 25 (OH)D.*

Do you agree that vitamin D is so important that pregnant women should be forced by law to undergo vitamin D testing? Certainly interest groups would like to see this to happen. Vitamin D testing can be a source of revenue for some business organizations. And following the tests, vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency can be found in high percentages of pregnant women and this finding can lead all pregant women to buy vitamin D supplements, which is another source of revenue for the vitamin D industry.

If vitamin D indeed is so important, the government should recommend that pregnant women take vitamin D supplements or expose themselves to the sun often. Using any law to force anyone to receive diagnosis and treatment or preventive medicine seems unethical. 

What people should do regardless? The one best thing pregnant women can do is get sunshine each day if possible. At hottest hours of the day, 15 or 20 minutes are considered sufficient. 

A friendly warning: Some vitamin D supplements come with lots of fillers including nanoparticles, which new research found harmful to DNA and potentially causing mutation and cancer.

If you want to use vitamin D supplements, use carlson labs's vitamin d drops. They do not have filler, no preservative and other add-on ingredients (oil as a carrier in the vitamin d drops is health-friendly and edible).

(Disclaimer: Either foodconsumer.org nor the author has any affiliation with calson labs.)