NEW DELHI: Improving Vitamin B12 supplementation during pregnancy in vegetarian women can benefit early brain development in babies, a new study has found.
The study, published in BMJ Paediatrics Open, was conducted at two centres in India and Nepal by a joint team of researchers from these countries and the UK.
According to Dr Jitender Nagpal, Deputy Medical Director at the Sitaram Bhartia Institute of Science and Research in Delhi, who led the study in India, the findings provide strong evidence that improving Vitamin B12 intake during pregnancy in vegetarian mothers can support early brain development in babies while substantially reducing maternal Vitamin B12 deficiency.
Vitamin B12 deficiency is common in populations with limited consumption of animal-source foods and has been linked to delayed infant neurodevelopment and adverse pregnancy outcomes, the study said.
However, evidence on the benefits of maternal Vitamin B12 supplementation for improving infant neurodevelopment remains mixed, particularly in low- and middle-income countries where deficiency is prevalent.
Dr Nagpal noted that Vitamin B12 deficiency affects a large proportion of women in South Asia, especially in predominantly vegetarian communities.
"Despite this high burden, Vitamin B12 remains poorly addressed in routine antenatal care, which continues to focus largely on iron and folic acid. Routine Vitamin B12 supplementation is not currently included in government antenatal guidelines or expert body recommendations in India. As a result, many women enter pregnancy with unrecognised and untreated B12 deficiency, at a time when early brain development is highly sensitive to maternal nutrition," he said.
In a multicentre, double-blind, randomised controlled trial, vegetarian women in their first trimester of pregnancy were enrolled. They received either a higher daily dose of Vitamin B12 (250 micrograms) or a lower dose (50 micrograms) from early pregnancy until six months after delivery.
Among 531 mother–infant pairs followed up, women in the higher-dose group showed markedly greater improvement in Vitamin B12 status, with a relative reduction in biochemical deficiency exceeding 30 per cent compared with the lower-dose group, Dr Nagpal said.
Crucially, these maternal improvements were accompanied by developmental benefits in infants.
"Babies born to mothers receiving the higher dose scored significantly higher on early mental development assessments at 9–12 months of age, while motor development was similar between the groups," Dr Nagpal said.
Although the individual effect size was modest, even small gains in early cognitive development can translate into substantial population-level benefits in learning potential, educational attainment and long-term human capital, he added.
Together, the findings suggest that optimising Vitamin B12 intake during pregnancy could be a simple, safe and low-cost improvement to antenatal nutrition strategies, helping reduce deficiency and enhance long-term developmental outcomes.