Pregnant women who took daily supplements of DHA, a type of omega-3 fatty acid, had longer gestations, bigger babies and fewer early preterm births, according to a new clinical trial.
In the double-blinded study, published online in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers randomly assigned 154 healthy women to take 600 milligrams of DHA during the last half of pregnancy and 147 to take a placebo.
After adjusting for maternal education, socioeconomic status, prior pregnancy, smoking and other risk factors, they found that babies whose mothers took supplements were almost a half pound heavier than those of the mothers who took none, and they were slightly longer with larger head circumferences.
Almost 5 percent of mothers who took the placebo gave birth at 34 weeks’ gestation or less, compared with only 0.6 percent of the mothers who took DHA.
The lead author, Susan E. Carlson, a professor of nutrition at the University of Kansas, pointed out that the incidence of low birth weight and gestation shorter than 34 weeks in the placebo group is very similar to rates in the general population, while the DHA group had dramatic reductions. There were no adverse effects to taking the supplements.
Although a larger study is needed, she said, “women should be having a conversation with their doctors about whether they should be taking DHA during pregnancy.”
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