Web edition: March 4, 2013 Pregnant women taking DHA, an omega-3
fatty acid in fish oil, give birth to babies that score slightly
better on several health measurements than those born to women
who don’t take the supplement, a study has found. DHA, or
docosahexaenoic acid, is a nutrient that promotes brain
development (SN Online: 1/13/2009). Susan Carlson of the
University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City and her
colleagues randomly assigned 350 women to take daily capsules of
either a placebo or DHA starting midway through pregnancy.
Babies born to the women who took DHA were slightly longer and
heavier than the other babies and were less apt to spend time in
the intensive care unit.Overall rates of preterm birth, defined
as birth before the 37th week of gestation, didn’t differ
substantially between the groups. But among preterm babies,
those in the DHA group spent an average of nine days in the
hospital compared with 41 days for those in the placebo group.
While only one of 154 babies in the DHA grou