Vitamin B6 during pregnancy

Women who experience morning sickness during pregnancy often find relief in taking a B6 supplement. No one knows for sure why this works, but the supplementation of B6 has stood the test of time for effectiveness at treating pregnancy-related nausea. Doctors first started prescribing B6 as a morning sickness remedy in the 1940s. Numerous studies since then have shown that taking a higher dose of B6 does have a lessening effect on nausea and vomiting during pregnancy.

In a 1991 trial of 59 women B6 proved to be effective at reducing symptoms of morning sickness. Thirty-one patients received a 25 mg dose of B6 every eight hours for a total of three days. The other 28 patients received a placebo on the same schedule. Before the trial 15 of the 31 patients who received the B6 treatment suffered from nausea and vomiting. After the three day trial, only 8 patients still vomited. Of the 28 on the placebo 10 vomited as a result of morning sickness. After three days on the placebo, 15 had vomiting as a symptom of their morning sickness. [source]

A study performed in China also proved that higher levels of B6 can increase the chance on conception and lower the risk of early term miscarriage. The results were published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

The study found that women with B6 levels above 30 nanomoles per liter had a 40% greater chance of conception and lowered their early miscarriage rate by 30%. Women with lower levels of B6 were negatively impacted by their deficiency. Alayne Ronnenberg, author of the study explains

“We found that poor preconception vitamin B6 status was associated with increased risk of early pregnancy loss and reduced probabilities of conception and clinical pregnancy in a prospective cohort of young Chinese women.”

These two studies confirm the ideas that taking a B6 supplement during pregnancy can reduce morning sickness and its symptoms, and taking B6 before conception can improve both the chance of conception and the health of the pregnancy. Many prenatal vitamins contain B6. Look for a vitamin that contains a high dose of B6. Promise Prenatal vitamins contain 19 mg of B6, an ideal level for both women in the preconception stage and women who are pregnant.

Sources:

Better B6 Status Linked to Better Pregnancy Outcomes

Vitamin B6 is effective therapy for nausea and vomiting of pregnancy: a randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled study

Promise Prenatal Vitamins with B6