Pregnant women who are vegetarians have increased levels of a hormone called free beta-hCG, which may lead to an incorrect diagnosis of Down’s syndrome in their developing baby, Taiwanese researchers report. This suggests that higher beta-hCG test values need to be established for such women. The test differences between non-vegetarian and vegetarian mothers largely disappeared when the latter had normal serum levels of vitamin B12, according to the report published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
