Eating fish during pregnancy helps children, seminar hears

Women who eat fish regularly during pregnancy have children with better developmental outcomes, a seminar on mother and baby health has been told.

The benefits of fish consumption for pregnant women outweigh any negative effects from contamination of fish by mercury or other substances, according to Dr Emily Oken of Harvard Medical School.

Dr Oken suggests women eat fish at least twice a week during pregnancy in order to benefit from the omega-3 fats it contains.

“Our research shows that moderate fish consumption during pregnancy showed no detrimental effects on the offspring and can actually benefit their language and visual motor skills in the early years of life,” she said.

However, she recommends the consumption of a variety of fish and advises against overconsumption of predatory fish that tend to have the highest levels of mercury, such as shark, tuna or swordfish.

Nutrition

The nutrition a baby receives in the womb has a lasting effect on cognitive development and risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and stroke in later life.

Long-term studies of mothers and their children conducted by Dr Oken in Boston showed that higher fish consumption among expectant mothers was associated with improved vocabulary, attention levels and visual motor skills in their young children, she told the First 1,000 Days seminar in Dublin.

Research also shows children’s risk of becoming obese or diabetic is increased where their mothers were obese themselves or smoked, she says.

According to Prof Michael Turner, HSE clinical lead in obstetrics, women's pre-pregnancy weight has a far greater influence on her child than weight gained during pregnancy and contributes to the chances of developing diabetes.