The Impact Of Maternal Zinc Supplementation On Pregnancy Outcomes And Maternal Serum Zinc : A Systematic Review

Background: Zinc is one of the important trace elements needed by the human body, because it is present in more than a hundred specific enzymes and functions as an important structural ion in transcription factors. Maternal Zn deficiency during pregnancy is associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes including abortion, preterm delivery, stillbirth, and fetal neural tube defects.Reduced placental zinc transport and fetal zinc supply could be a result of lower plasma zinc levels. Based on these findings, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) recommends that all pregnant women in impoverished countries take numerous micronutrient supplements, including zinc
Aim: to review journals on nutritional interventions through Zinc Supplementation for pregnant women on Pregnancy Outcomes and maternal serum zinc Methods: Using an online journal database that provides free articles and journals in PDF form such as: Pubmed, Elsevier, Scinapse, Plos One and Google Scholar in studies published from 2010 to 2021. A total of 11 articles were used in this review.
Results : Nine articles were obtained on the effect of supplementation on pregnancy outcome. Only 3 studies support that there is a positive correlation between zinc supplementation and pregnancy outcome, while 6 studies show no significant effect of zinc supplementation on pregnancy outcome. One study showed that maternal zinc supplementation may increase infant birth weight among malnourished women, and two studies evaluating the effect of zinc intake during pregnancy on neonatal birth length reported that zinc supplementation can increase the length of the baby's birth length. Three articles showed the effect of zinc supplementation on maternal zinc status, and overall showed that pregnant women who received zinc supplements had significantly higher serum zinc concentrations than those received the placebo.
Conclusion:There was no significant effect of zinc administration during pregnancy on pregnancy outcome but zinc supplementation can increase maternal zinc status.