Heavy with child women who lack vitamin D may face a greater risk of having a Cesarean delivery, U.S. researchers said. 

The risk of Cesarean delivery may be up to 4 times higher for pregnant women with a low level of vitamin D during childbirth than those who have a sufficient amount of the vitamin, researcher Michael Holick, MD, PhD, and colleagues from the Boston Medical Center reported.

For the study, researchers looked at 252 expectant women in order to determine the link between vitamin D levels in such women and Caesarean section. Of all participants, 43, (or 17 percent) gave birth by C-section.

"In our analysis, pregnant women who were vitamin D-deficient at the time of delivery had almost four times the odds of Caesarean birth than women who were not deficient," said study author Dr. Holick, a professor of medicine, physiology and biophysics.

The 2-year study that found this strong connection between vitamin D deficiency and the chances of delivering a baby by surgery was published online in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

Earlier research showed another link between mothers’ vitamin D intake during pregnancy and babies. It seems that a low level of the vitamin in expecting women leads to an increased risk of tooth decay early in the infant’s childhood, as well as a higher probability of developing cavities at an early age.