Consuming Omega 3 pre- and post-pregnancy reduces cases of preterm births

Omega-3s in pregnancy may help decrease the risk of premature birth and underweight birth of the baby. This is shown in a study of 350 women who were given 600mg of DHA, or the same amount of a placebo substance, from before the 20th week of gestation. The researchers found that there was a close correlation between gestation duration and unborn baby weight with the intake of docosahexanoic acid (DHA) found in Omega 3.

Giving birth before the 34th week or bringing an infant into the world with a very low birth weight often results in major complications for his or her health.

The study: result of the first 5 years 

The mothers-to-be who took DHA during the research, unlike the subjects who were given the placebo substance, had longer pregnancies and the babies born to these women had a higher weight and larger size in both length and skull circumference.. To be precise, pregnant women who had taken Omega 3 during pregnancy had fewer deliveries under 34 weeks gestation resulting in shorter hospitalization times for mother and infant.

The long-term benefits of DHA

This first phase of the research comes from the first 5 years of the study (in total, the trial will last 10 years) and involves not only mothers-to-be but also unborn children. From 18 months to 6 years of age , babies will be screened semiannually to see if the implementation with Omega 3 can bring long-term benefits, improving intellectual gifts school performance. Previous studies show that Omega 3 has positive effects on learning and growth, but since DHA is deposited faster in the brain in the fetus, this investigation will lead to new findings on the positive effects of Omega 3 intake during growth. 

Source: Susan E Carlson, John Colombo, Byron J Gajewski,Kathleen M Gustafson, David Mundy. "DHA supplementation and pregnancy outcomes" American Journal of Clinical Nutrition Published online ahead of print, doi: 10.3945/ajcn.112.050021