"During pregnancy what happens is that a large amount of ascorbic acid goes across the placenta to the baby. The level rises in the infant and drops in the mother. People say, well, drink more orange juice. But there isn't that much in there. So I urge my patients to use more vitamin C. We start them slowly with one gram two or three times a day and increase the dose as tolerated until we get them up to five grams or more.

"There is a high level of problems associated with infants born in this country and we don't know why. We are beginning to think that nutrition and lifestyle may have a great deal to do with it. Although we are a rich country, we have developed some poor dietary habits. That's why I feel it is important to put my patients on a well-balanced diet along with supplementation and the large doses of vitamin C. I want to have as many factors working for the mother - and the baby inside - as possible.

"After childbirth, I urge the patients to continue on high doses. When they begin to notice the good effects like better healing and fewer colds, they become real believers if they haven't been totally convinced already.”

It is not surprising to hear Dr. Klenner say that vitamin C is the best pregnancy vitamin. Over a 40-year period, he has discovered many and wondrous powers of ascorbic acid and used it to successfully heal cases that failed to respond to ‘standard’ medical treatment."It's more effective than any drug in the Pharmacopeia" he says of vitamin C.

During his career, Dr. Klenner estimates he has handled about 2,500 pregnancies, of which about 1,000 included varying degrees of vitamin C supplementation.

"This gives me the basis for comparison," he says. "In the very beginning, I was not into vitamin C but as I began using more and more of it I found it is definitely a significant factor in pregnancy. Vitamin C has both health-producing and anti-fatigue power. It assists in the metabolism of protein in both mother and baby. It's a prime element in the building of collagen, the connective tissue in our bodies.

"During pregnancy and childbirth, the vitamin C maintains the elasticity of the connective tissue of the perineum. That's the region around the womb that has to stretch enormously for the emerging infant. The perineum gives much more easily and more safely when the patient has been on the higher doses of vitamin C. As a result, most of the times I have had women in labour only three or four hours. That's cutting usual labour in half. When you reduce the time and increase the elasticity of the perineum, you effectively decrease the pain."

Dr. Klenner noted that among his vitamin C mothers the perineum returned to a ‘virginal-like condition’ after delivery. And what mother wouldn't be pleased about that, he comments.

Dr. Klenner also found that vitamin C eliminated the stretch mark problem. Again it is a matter of the vitamin C making the connective tissue of the abdominal and rectal muscles more elastic. They don't break. And it's the breaking that causes the stretch marks.

"One of my patients was a woman for whom I delivered 10 babies," he recalls. "Her first two deliveries produced stretch marks but she wasn't on the vitamin C program. We convinced her to try the program and the result was that she didn't get any more stretch marks. In fact, she actually improved her abdominal looks.”