Ultraviolet light (like Vitamin D) is great, especially while pregnant – Aug 2018

Ultraviolet radiation and its effects on pregnancy: A review study.

J Family Med Prim Care. 2018 May-Jun;7(3):511-514. doi: 10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_311_17.
Botyar M1, Khoramroudi R1. Department of Midwifery, Tehran, Iran.

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Seasons and Vitamin D are factors that are directly and indirectly related to ultraviolet (UV) radiations and can affect pregnancy. Therefore, the present study aims at investigating the effects of being exposed to direct UV radiation during pregnancy period and its effects on fetal growth, premature birth, and high blood pressure. This study was conducted by searching different websites such as Medline, Embase, ProQuest, Global Health, Google Scholar, and Scopus. Of the 430 papers found, between 1985 and 2017, seventeen related articles were used. The results showed that being exposed to UV radiation during the first 3 months of pregnancy is associated with improved fetal growth and causes high blood pressure during pregnancy. The literature shows that being women exposure to UV radiation had beneficial effects on fetal growth and blood pressure during pregnancy period. However, since this issue has not been extensively studied in the past, the results from previous studies should be generalized with extreme care and caution. Therefore, it is suggested that further studies be carried out in this area.

Conclusions

The present study is a review of the effects of UV radiation on birth consequences and pregnancy complications. Despite the importance of such a study, few studies were available to be able to extract more general results. Despite the scarcity of studies in the area, the studies showed that exposure to UV during the first 3 months of pregnancy is beneficial for the growth of the fetus. On the other hand, UV radiation causes pregnancy blood pressure to increase. In the present review, the effects on fetal growth due to exposure to UV are not contradictory, but methodological limitations force us to apply the results with extreme care and caution. Fetal growth may be affected by exposure to UV radiation, and the review studies by Pérez-López et al. and Wei et al. lend support to the conclusion. In their review studies, the data for Vitamin D and pregnancy showed similar relationships between early and mid-pregnancy defects and fetal growth limitations.[16,26] The two studies conducted in New Zealand showed beneficial effects for exposure to UV in the first 3 months of pregnancy, while neither Elter (2004) nor Pereira et al. reported these beneficial effects in areas with low altitudes in the two countries of Turkey and Australia.[20,21,22,23] Regarding cardiovascular complications and diseases in adults, the effects of UV have been identified. Less exposure to UV causes high blood pressure in people.[11,27,28,29] High blood pressure in common among 10% of pregnant women, and it is an important and significant factor in infants and mother mortality rates.[30] Nitric oxide path has been identified by Liu (2014). During exposure to UV, nitric oxide is released from the skin, and nitric oxide is a central signal for vascular compatibility and also causes the growth of the fetus during pregnancy.[31,32] Nitrate donors such as L-arginine, sildenafil, and isosorbide mononitrate are used in clinical cases to prevent preeclampsia in fetal growth limitation.[33,34] Less exposure to in the third 3 months of pregnancy is associated with pregnancy high blood pressure.[24,25]

Optimizing pregnancy conditions is vital to the health of future generations. Sunlight is considered an important environmental variable in eliminating public health worries since Vitamin D supplement tests during pregnancy continue to show negative effects on pregnancy. This review study showed the effects of UV radiation on pregnancy consequences in 7 studies, and exposure to UV radiation was found to be an explanatory variable. Few studies and little evidence exist in support of the effects of UV exposure on pregnancy. Therefore, it is suggested that further studies be conducted, so that their results can be used with a higher degree of certainty.

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