Diet short of fish ‘is early birth risk’

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WOMEN who fail to eat enough fish early on in their pregnancy are at greater risk of having a premature baby, a study claims.

Pregnant women who had the lowest levels of omega-3 fatty acids in their blood during their first and second trimesters were ten times at greater risk of giving premature birth than women with the highest levels.

The fatty acids are found in cold-water fish such as Atlantic mackerel, anchovies, salmon and tuna and leaner species such as cod and haddock. About eight in 100 babies in the UK are born prematurely.

An American team from the School of Public Health in Boston and Danish researchers from Statens Serum Institut in Copenhagen analysed blood from 376 women who gave birth prematurely between 1996 and 2003 and 348 who went on to have their baby at full-term.

Women trying to conceive have received mixed messages about whether they should eat certain fish because they could contain high levels of mercury.

But Dr Sjurdur Olsen, adjunct professor of nutrition at Harvard and head of the Centre for Foetal Programming at the Danish institute said: “At a time when many pregnant women are hearing messages encouraging them to avoid fish altogether due to mercury content, our results support the importance of ensuring adequate intake of long chain omega-3 fatty acids.”

The study was published in the journal EBioMedicine.