Pregnacy Nutrition

Key scientists:

• Maria Makrides
• Jo Zhou
• Beverly Mühlhäusler

Optimising the diet of the mother to ensure that she has every chance of producing a healthy child is a major goal of this program. While it is well known that adequate supplies of folate are vital to prevent neural tube defects in children, other nutrients are also proving to be important. We are currently examining the benefits of omega 3 fats and iodine in the maternal diet on both pregnancy outcome and on the health and welfare of the mother and child.

There is increasing pressure from industry to convince mothers-to-be that they should buy various nutritional supplements in pregnancy but these may not be necessary and some may not be safe. Our research will help to provide answers in this area.

Please contact Foodplus if you are interested in an honours or postgraduate student project in this area of research.

	The PINK Trial Pregnancy Iodine and Neurodevelopment in Kids
	Are you less that 20 weeks gestation? We are looking for pregnant women interested in taking part in a study to determine whether increasing the amount of iodine in the diet of pregnant women will improve child development and general health and wellbeing of mothers. More information is avaliable here. If you are interested, please call us on 8161 8045 or 8161 7000 and ask for pager 20099.