Iodine is an essential micronutrient and a constituent of the thyroid hormones thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3). Iodine deficiency in pregnant women limits fetal brain growth and, when severe, can lead to cretinism and the pervasive intellectual, psychomotor and sensory disabilities and congenital
anomalies that accompany it.
Prenatal iodine deficiency can cause maternal goiter and hypothyroidism. Iodine deficiency disorders (IDDs) in pregnant women carry a risk of spontaneous abortion, stillbirth, perinatal death and stunted infant growth. Iodine requirements are higher during pregnancy because of greater maternal need for thyroid hormones, transfer of thyroid hormones and iodine from mother to fetus, and a probable increase in maternal renal iodine clearance…