Saturday June 21, 2014 (foodconsumer.org) -- A randomized single-blind controlled clinical trial suggests that pregnant women who take multivitamin-mineral supplements tend to have babies with increased birth weight and head circumference, compared with those born to mothers taking multivitamin supplements.

For the study which was conducted in Iran, 104 pregnant women aged 18 to 30 years were randomly assigned to take either a multivitamin or a multivitamin-mineral supplements for 20 weeks starting at week 16 of gestation.

The study found women taking multivitamin-mineral supplements gained less weight until week 28 than those taking multivitamin supplements.  Taking multivitamin-mineral supplements was associated with lower mean body mass index at week 28 and at delivery, compared with taking multivitamin supplements. 

Babies born to pregnant women taking multivitamin-mineral supplements tended to have heavier birth weight and larger head circumference, compared with those born to women taking multivitamin supplements while newborns' height and Apgar scores were not different between the two groups.  (David Liu, PHD)

Asemi Z, Samimi M, Tabassi Z, Ahmad E.  Multivitamin Versus Multivitamin-mineral Supplementation and Pregnancy Outcomes: A Single-blind Randomized Clinical Trial.  Int J Prev Med. 2014 Apr;5(4):439-46.