By Jim Kean 

In recent decades, research into melanoma and the decreasing ozone layer have scared our generation into staying indoors and slathering on sunscreen whenever we venture out the few yards to our cars. At the same time we are bombarded with advertisements and articles about the necessity of vitamins, particularly vitamin D. Yet for centuries there has been a much more cost effective and efficient way of getting this essential vitamin into our systems: sunlight. 

Sufficient levels of sunlight are necessary for everyone, making it all the more important for pregnant women to get their dosage of the sun's rays.  In one study conducted in Pittsburgh, pregnant women with vitamin D deficiency were much more likely than those without to develop preeclampsia, a pregnancy related form of high blood pressure. 

It has also been shown that there is a link between the amount of vitamin D in the system of the mother and her baby's, which means that the mother is the child's primary source of vitamin D.  The fetus draws from the mother's own reserves of vitamin D and continues to get it from the mother's breast milk.  Mothers without sufficient levels of vitamin D must give supplements to their infants in addition to their breast milk.  Asthma and rickets, the softening of bones in children, has been linked to vitamin D deficiency. 

While some sources say that pregnant women should stay out of the sun, but the greatest danger to mothers is developing dark patches on their skin which either disappear after the pregnancy or can easily be treated.  As for their fetus, no findings have proven that sun exposure in pregnant women harm their infants, aside from overheating, which can be kept in check by proper fluid intake and regulated exposure.