Stories of impact: When the Sun is Not Enough, My Journey with Vitamin D Deficiency after childbirth

When people find out you're pregnant everyone talks about a happy healthy baby.

You go in, lay on a table or squat or sit in a pool, birth your child and this wonderful chapter begins. There are no conversations about what if your child needs a little bit more care in the beginning. What if it’s ongoing? What if I need care? If I seek out care while my child needs care, does that make me a bad mom?

Many times in the early stages of new motherhood people would tell me that I had to put my oxygen mask on before tending to my child. Yet when I tried to do that, I was shamed for it.

That tension lived quietly in me.

Because my son did need more care in the beginning. There were hospital visits. Overnight stays at the children’s hospital. Follow-up appointments that I carried mostly on my own when his father couldn’t stand tall in those moments. I did all the follow-up care for him.

But no one did follow-up care for me. As a first born daughter of Caribbean immigrant parents I was nurtured into thinking this was normal.

During my pregnancy, I don’t remember a single conversation about vitamin D. Not one. My obstetrician never mentioned it. My labs never flagged it because the test had to be requested. I didn’t know to ask. My diet was never reviewed through the lens of my melanin-rich skin and its unique requirements living in Canada where the sun is not always available.

After my son was born, I was told something that sounded maternal and almost poetic at the time:

“Your baby doesn’t need vitamin D. He’s taken all of yours. It will replenish.”

Now I hear the quiet danger in that sentence.

Around 2010, there was messaging circulating that vitamins were unnecessary. That supplements “did nothing.” So I listened. I paid it no mind for myself. I assumed if I was eating normally and sitting in the sun when I could, I was fine.

I wasn’t.

What I didn’t know then is what I know now: darker skin filters sunlight in a way that protects the skin but also reduces how much vitamin D the body can absorb, even in summer. I didn’t know that winter in Canada quietly compounds this. I didn’t know vitamin D supports mood regulation, energy levels, immune function, bone health, and postpartum recovery.

I just knew I was tired. Foggy. Not quite myself. I thought that was just motherhood.

I found out that my vitamin D was critcally low from my sons doctor. They were running genetic tests trying understand my sons illness and my tests flagged the issue. I will never forget when my sons doctor said to me ’you need to get to your doctor now becacuse your vitamin D is dangerously low’.

My doctor who I met for the first time 6 months after my sons doctor’s warning, was not in shock as I explained my situation. She told me I needed 3000 IU in Winter and 2000 IU of Vitamin D in the summer

One of the biggest lessons I carry from that season of my life is the importance of what I now call a care village.

A care village is the group of people and professionals who help hold your health with you: a primary care provider who listens, a pharmacist you can ask questions, a friend who reminds you to book your bloodwork, someone who can sit with you in appointments when you’re overwhelmed, and mental health support when “tired” is more than tired.

Because when you are postpartum, overwhelmed, and sleep-deprived, you are not in the best position to advocate for yourself. And you shouldn’t have to.

Now, vitamin D is part of my annual rhythm. I test before winter. I test after winter. I supplement when needed. I pay attention to how I feel when my levels are low versus when they’re supported.

And I talk about it. A lot.

What happened to me was negligence. There is enough research and data to support the need for free vitamin D testing where I live in Ontario Canada.

It’s a gap. A gap in conversation. A gap in education. A gap in understanding how bodies like mine move through Canadian seasons and life stages.

And gaps can be closed.

You don’t have to wait until you’re pregnant, postpartum, or depleted to care about this nor should you. Ask your provider to check your vitamin D levels so you have a better understanding of what your baseline is.

Sometimes the answer is a blood test, a supplement, and mind full of ethno-cultural health knowledge.