In Vietnam, nutrient deficiency in pregnancy women is at alarming rate, said a nutritional expert from Ho Chi Minh City.
DoctorDo Thi Ngoc Diep, Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Nutrition Centregave out the warning at a seminar on pregnancy nutrition held in HoChi Minh City on Oct. 30.
She added that the deficiency ofblood, iodine, vitamin A and zinc among pregnancy women in Vietnam ,particularly Ho Chi Minh City , is serious.
Blood deficiencyis the most serious in the northwestern and southern central regions. Asurvey of 400 women in the age of childbearing in HCM City showedmost of them knew little about nutrition during pregnancy and theimportance of nutrient to the development of foetus and infants.
Meanwhile,Dr. Carol L. Cheatham from the nutritional research institute of theUniversity of North California cited a global research paper that 42percent of pregnant women in the world had blood deficiency due to lackof iron. Blood deficiency due to lack of iron killed 115,000 pregnantwomen a year.
Participants stressed the need to strengthen the dissemination of knowledge on nutrition during pregnancy for women./.