Magnesium intake during pregnancy

Magnesium intake during pregnancy may be prescribed by a doctor in certain cases.

Pregnancy is a period when nutrition is particularly important. Your baby, growing inside your womb, will entirely derive its nutrition from your body. Magnesium supplementation is not necessary during pregnancy, but your doctor may prescribe it in certain cases. While the daily magnesium requirement is 300 mg, this amount can increase to 450-700 mg during pregnancy. All cells in our body contain magnesium. Magnesium is especially required by the heart, muscles, and kidneys for their normal functioning.

Approximately 60% of magnesium in our body is found in bones and teeth; it activates many enzymes, regulates calcium, potassium, and vitamin D levels, regulates the muscle and nervous systems, is essential for internal communication in the body, regulates muscle contractions, and plays a role in blood pressure and blood sugar regulation.Therefore, its importance increases even more during pregnancy.

Magnesium supplementation is not necessary during pregnancy, but symptoms of magnesium deficiency may include nausea, weakness, loss of appetite, fatigue, sleep disorders, muscle spasms, and weakness. Muscle spasms may wake the person up at night. In such cases, it may be necessary to add magnesium to the diet., under the supervision of a doctor, treatment is administered in the form of replacement therapy for the amount missing. In certain pregnancy-related conditions, magnesium therapy is administered.

It is used to stop premature labor contractions and to prevent seizures in patients with hypertension, a condition known as preeclampsia. These treatments are performed in hospital under the supervision of a doctor. It is administered intravenously; oral magnesium intake has not been shown to be effective. Pregnant women with heart or kidney disease should not take magnesium unless prescribed by a doctor.

Magnesium blood levels are under automatic control, but when administered intravenously, this control may not be sufficient, leading to high blood levels, which can result in respiratory depression/arrest. Caution is required in its use. We can obtain magnesium through food. Dark green leafy vegetables (spinach, broccoli, green beans), pumpkin seeds, walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, chestnuts, and grains are rich in magnesium. However, magnesium intake for therapeutic purposes is not sufficient. Magnesium is an important mineral during pregnancy for both the mother and the baby to have a healthy pregnancy; if it is to be taken, it should always be under the advice of a doctor.

Babies born between 24 and 31 weeks gestation whose mothers received magnesium had a lower incidence of moderate or severe cerebral palsy, and a lower rate of motor dysfunction. In cases of severe preeclampsia and eclampsia, high-dose magnesium administered intravenously (in the form of sulfate) is effective in preventing seizures without causing central nervous system depression in the baby or mother.

Since the risk of seizures is high during childbirth, it is also used during the labor process and in the first 24 hours afterward. The purpose here is not to treat hypertension, but to prevent seizures. Since it is excreted via the kidneys, it is almost completely cleared from the blood. If the kidneys' filtering capacity is reduced, treatment doses are reduced. Blood magnesium levels are monitored during treatment. It also reduces uterine contractions, but higher doses are required for this purpose.

Prof. Dr. Ahmet Semih TUĞRUL

Specialist in Gynecology and Obstetrics, Perinatology (High-Risk Pregnancies)

Kaynakça:

• World Health Organization. WHO recommendations on interventions to improve preterm birth outcomes. 2015.

• National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements. Magnesium – Fact Sheet for Health Professionals.

• Institute of Medicine. Dietary Reference Intakes for Calcium, Phosphorus, Magnesium, Vitamin D, and Fluoride. National Academies Press.

• Turkish Gynecology and Obstetrics Association. Hypertensive Disorders in Pregnancy and Management Guidelines.