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Vitamin D in pregnancy

Fifteen micrograms a day — EFSA does not raise the figure for pregnancy. What changes is the consequence of falling short, because the baby vitamin D status at birth is inherited directly from the mother.

EFSA note on this row: no increase in pregnancy

These are published population reference values, not a diagnosis and not a prescription. A reference intake describes what covers a healthy group; it cannot tell you your own status, and no page can. Pregnancy, chronic illness, medicines and malabsorption all change the picture — take those questions to a doctor, midwife, pharmacist or dietitian.

No increase, but no slack either

EFSA sets the same 15 microgram adequate intake in pregnancy as for other adults, and the same in breastfeeding. That reflects the evidence on maintaining maternal vitamin D status rather than a judgement that pregnancy is undemanding.

What makes pregnancy distinctive is that the newborn starts life with whatever store the mother passed on. Maternal deficiency translates fairly directly into neonatal deficiency, and severe cases produce congenital rickets and low blood calcium in the newborn.

Latitude makes this a routine question here

Between roughly October and March at the latitudes of Riga, Tallinn and Helsinki there is no meaningful vitamin D synthesis in skin. A pregnancy spanning those months has no sun contribution at all, which is why vitamin D is part of ordinary antenatal advice in this region rather than a specialist topic.

Groups at higher risk within that are the ones you would expect: darker skin, skin kept covered, and little time outdoors even in summer.

Getting the dose from the right place

Pregnancy supplement advice is set nationally and is part of antenatal care, and it belongs there rather than on a reference page. Two practical cautions do belong here. First, the adult upper level is 100 micrograms a day and vitamin D accumulates, so more is not better. Second, many pregnancy multivitamins contain vitamin A as retinol, which pregnancy guidance restricts — so check what else is in a product before adding it to one you already take.

Food, briefly

Oily fish is the effective food source, and pregnancy guidance in most countries encourages some oily fish while limiting the species highest in mercury and advising against raw and smoked fish. Those two pieces of advice interact, which is another reason to get the specifics from a midwife rather than from a nutrient table.

How this compares with every other group

Ordinary food against the 15 µg figure for pregnancy

Top of this list: Trout, 22.8 µg in a 120 g serving (a fillet) — 152% of the 15 µg figure for pregnancy. One serving covers the whole day on its own.

† US milk is fortified with vitamin D, and reduced-fat and skimmed milk also with vitamin A. Fortification of liquid milk is not universal in Europe - read the carton.

† Margarine is fortified with vitamins A and D here as well, but the amount is set by the manufacturer, so treat this figure as indicative rather than as a property of the food.

Portion sizes are ordinary household servings chosen for this table, not official reference portions, and the shortlist is an editorial one: everyday foods eaten in this region rather than the highest per-100 g entries in the database. A raw per-100 g ranking would be topped by dried herbs, drink powders and fortified breakfast cereals, which answers a different question. The composition data is American, so where US fortification practice differs from European practice the row carries a dagger and the reason. For the full per-100 g ranking of a nutrient, the food-data section of this site publishes one.

The whole nutrient, not just this group

The Vitamin D reference intake page carries the full age and sex table, the upper level, and what the value type means.

Related pages

Sources: EFSA Dietary Reference Values · Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, Annex XIII · USDA FoodData Central SR Legacy (food composition) · EFSA scientific opinion on dietary reference values for vitamin D (2016) · Nordic Nutrition Recommendations, Nordic Council of Ministers · Tervise Arengu Instituut, Estonian national nutrition guidance · Ruokavirasto, Finnish national nutrition guidance · checked 2026-09-06

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