Local 12: Benefits of DHA supplements in pregnant women

“However, we suspected that a higher dose of DHA would provide additional health benefits to pregnant women and help protect them from delivering early,” says DeFranco. “Preterm delivery is defined as giving birth at less than 37 weeks, with the due date being at 40 weeks. Preterm birth is a major public health burden, with the worst outcomes occurring in infants who deliver early preterm at less than 34 weeks. In this study, we wanted to see if women who took a higher dose of DHA during pregnancy would be less likely to deliver early preterm compared to women who took the standard recommended dose of 200 mg.”

The study included 1,100 women in a randomized trial conducted at the University of Kansas, the University of Cincinnati and Ohio State University. The study participants were healthy pregnant women who were randomly assigned to take a daily DHA supplement of either 200 mg or 1000 mg. 

“Our goal was to determine whether taking a higher dose of DHA during pregnancy resulted in a reduced risk of having an early preterm delivery at less than 34 weeks of pregnancy,” says DeFranco, a co-author of the study. “Pregnant women should take DHA. This study tells us that many women benefit from taking a higher dose of DHA supplement in pregnancy, especially those who don't eat a lot of foods high in DHA like fish and eggs.”

A second segment on the study is also available from WKRC online.

Featured image courtesy of Unsplash.