Pregnant mothers need 1000-1200 mg of calcium daily. When calcium is not enough, the mother will break down her own bone calcium to maintain blood calcium balance and fetal development. Doubt 1: How many months of pregnancy to start calcium supplementation? Obstetricians usually advise mothers to start calcium supplementation from the middle of pregnancy, because the fetus grows and develops rapidly in the middle of pregnancy and the demand for calcium increases, requiring 1000mg-1200mg per day. Therefore, by mid-pregnancy, pregnant women usually need additional calcium products. For women who have low calcium intake for a long time, such as white-collar women who do not like to drink milk or vegetarian diet, they should consider starting to take calcium supplements from the preparation stage. Doubt 2: Can I take calcium supplements during late pregnancy and will it lead to placental calcification? Will calcium supplementation during late pregnancy lead to placental calcification? This rumor is widely circulated among pregnant women, and people are worried about it. In fact, placental calcification is one of the indicators to determine the maturity of the placenta and is not directly related to calcium supplementation. According to research reports, after 33 weeks of gestation, more than half of them start to have different degrees of placental calcification. This is caused by white infarction of the placental vessels and narrowing of the chorionic gaps, which may result in reduced blood flow and decreased function of the placenta. This is an inevitable phenomenon in all late pregnancies and is not related to calcium supplementation. Under normal circumstances, ultrasound examination will reveal placenta I-II calcification after full term pregnancy, which is an indirect sign that the fetus is full term. Only when the third degree of calcification with amniotic fluid is too little, it indicates that the placenta is seriously bad and the fetus is in danger, then the pregnancy should be terminated in time. Doubt 3: too much calcium will cause the baby hard bones and not good birth? The fetal skull will be hardened and uncomfortable if you take calcium during late pregnancy? In fact, there is no need for the mother to worry because it is protein, not calcium, that forms the fetal flesh and bones. Moreover, the fetal head is the largest part of the fetal body, and the fetal head is malleable. During delivery, the cranial sutures can overlap lightly, which will reduce the skull diameter and facilitate delivery. Difficulties in delivery are usually caused by conditions such as a narrow pelvis or abnormal fetal position or a huge baby. If the force of labor, the fetus and the birth canal are normal and adaptable to each other, labor can proceed smoothly. Moreover, the fetus absorbs calcium mainly through maternal intake, and when the need is met, the excess can be excreted through urine, which will not affect the normal development of the fetus, and will not pose a threat to the delivery of the pregnant woman. Therefore, calcium supplementation will not make the baby uncomfortable, and there is no need to worry that excessive calcium supplementation will cause the baby’s bones to become too hard, as long as the normal calcium supplementation. Doubt 4: Do I need to continue to take calcium supplements during breastfeeding? Every 100 ml of breast milk provides 30-34 mg of calcium, and in the first year after delivery, the mother provides about 300 mg of calcium to her baby through her breast milk every day. Therefore, breastfeeding mothers need to supplement their diets with a large amount of calcium to maintain their extra expenses. It is important to note that mothers who do not have enough calcium have low calcium content in their milk, which is called “low-calcium milk”. Feeding your baby with low-calcium breast milk may cause calcium deficiency in your baby, which may lead to calcium deficiency symptoms. Doubt 5: Can dietary supplements replace calcium preparations? Unless there is a very scientific and reasonable diet, the calcium in general food cannot fully meet the high calcium needs of pregnant mothers. Many foods are not as rich in calcium as we think: for example, bone broth, it has been determined that one kilogram of bone broth has only 20 mg of calcium. The diet contains oxalic acid such as spinach and bamboo shoots, which easily combine with calcium to form calcium oxalate that is difficult to absorb. And although shrimp is high in calcium, but the absorption rate is low and high salt content, should not eat more. Therefore, experts suggest that pregnant mothers need to adhere to scientific calcium supplementation. Doubt 6: Will calcium supplementation accelerate constipation during pregnancy? Pregnant women themselves are a group prone to constipation. During pregnancy, the uterus expands to compress the colon, and the level of secretion of pregnant women also changes, and the progesterone produced in the body reduces the tension of the smooth muscle of the stomach and intestines. And pregnancy generally reduces the amount of exercise, it is likely to suffer from constipation. Vitamin D can help intestinal calcium absorption, promote the deposition of calcium ions in the bones and reduce kidney calcium ion excretion.