The phrase
"maternal supplementation" refers to providing additional nutrients or vitamins to pregnant women or mothers to ensure they have a healthy pregnancy and can provide proper nutrients to their babies.
Full definition
Early
maternal supplementation of folic acid has also been shown to improve other attention, social and behavioral outcomes in the developing child.
However,
maternal supplementation of fish oil is seen to improve visual development in infants as well as reduce the risk of allergies (44, 45).
More recent research should be considered that
recommends maternal supplementation (Taylor S.) so that a variety of policy options can be proposed to parents in their decision making on infant and young child nutrition needs.
In fact, some research shows that a whopping 50 % of all newborns are deficient in vitamin K, mostly due to maternal vitamin K deficiencies.3 While vitamin K travels poorly across the placental barrier and is mostly lacking in breast milk, studies have found that
maternal supplementation with vitamin K can help improve their newborn's vitamin K status.4, 5
Maternal supplementation, for some micronutrients, when needed benefits fetal development and is a much safer approach to micro nutritional needs than supplementing new born and young infants.