Preliminary results, in a study conducted by Dr. Donald Mock and his team, indicate that a significant percentage of pregnant women may be vulnerable to biotin deficiency in the first trimester, increasing their risks of having a child with birth defects. However, Dr. Mock suggests that more research needs to be done to correlate babies born with birth defects and biotin deficiency in the cord blood or study the effects of widespread biotin supplementation and the number of babies born with birth defects.