Time your pregnancies

HEALTHy BONES

Bone depletion is a natural part of ageing in both men and women. In fact, it is estimated that adults lose their bone density by 0.3 to 0.5 per cent per year after the age of 35. Known as osteoporosis or brittle bones disease, the degenerating condition of bones results from decrease in bone mass due to loss of minerals.

However, women find themselves at a higher risk of bone loss, not just in old age, but throughout their lifetime. In fact, as they touch the age of 30, a consequence of which is a peak in their bone densities, the gradual process of bone loss has already kicked off. Women are often prone to osteoporosis during pregnancy. While bone loss occurs continuously throughout life, it is exacerbated during pregnancy when the foetus starts feeding on the woman’s body’s resources. During pregnancy, the foetus receives all the
nutrition from the mother’s diet. However, if calcium and other nutrients are not sufficiently provided for in her diet, the child will start absorbing minerals from her bones. With calcium being one of the most crucial minerals needed for the growth of a foetus, this deprives pregnant women of a lot of their own body reserves.

In women who do not take conscious care of their nutritional status, this can be dangerous for both short-term and long-term health. In most cases, women recover their bone calcium after they have delivered and breastfed. Yet, many are left with depleted bones for life. This can be prevented if proper care is taken in terms of calcium intake and bone health from the early years. The risk for a woman developing osteoporosis gets higher if she undergoes back-to-back pregnancies.

Experts say that women having subsequent pregnancies less than a year apart are exposed to a greater risk for osteoporosis later in life than those who have substantial gap between pregnancies.

Although women tend to regain the loss in calcium during pregnancy once the breastfeeding is completed, shorter subsequent pregnancy prohibits this regaining of the mineral. Notably, women undergoing their first pregnancy before the age of 27 also have higher chances of developing osteoporosis.

Brittle bones

During pregnancy, women with osteoporosis often complain about back pain, loss of height and vertebral fractures. Sometimes, even a minor fall can result in a fracture, indicating weak bones. Experts believe that the majority of women (56 per cent) suffer from osteoporosis in their postpartum period, while 41 per cent have it in the third trimester. Pertinently, the degenerative condition usually occurs during the first pregnancy and is a temporary state. However, a gap of less than a year between the subsequent pregnancy can make the degeneration worse, making it a permanent condition.

Besides pregnancy, breastfeeding also causes loss of calcium from a woman’s body. As per studies, the loss of bone density during lactation is temporary and tends to be recovered within six months after weaning. However, in case of subsequent pregnancies occurring in the ‘less than a year’s gap’, the mother conceives while breastfeeding the first child. Therefore, her bone density loss is compounded — one, due to breastfeeding and two, due to the foetus.

Progressive loss of calcium over the years can lead to dangerous osteoporosis. This condition accelerates after menopause. Since osteoporosis is a progressive syndrome that takes years, its effects show up when we are older.
However, the condition begins much earlier in life. There are also no symptoms to identify that you are suffering from osteoporosis until a bone fracture actually occurs.So, taking care of bone health by ensuring sufficient consumption of calcium, Vitamin D and performing weight-bearing exercises is important throughout our lives. Also, maintaining a gap of at least two years between two pregnancies to enable your bones to regain and restore the lost calcium is essential.

(The author is consultant, orthopaedics, Indian Spinal Injury Centre, New Delhi)