Oct 21, 2010

DHA for Preggy Mama & Unborn Child

Semalam while tengah bersiap nak pegi uni, I heard Mel and Kochie (Sunrise on 7) said that a new study have found that Dietary docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) fish oil supplement does not give effect to a pregnant mother or to the unborn child.

Wah wah..ni cukup bercanggah from what I have been educated.

Sebelum ni, we have been educated on the fact that DHA is best for to pregnant women as a way of enhancing their offspring's intelligence as well as protecting from subsequent post-natal depression.

Even many epidemiological investigations from the United States and Europe demonstrate that higher intakes of n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFA) from fish and seafood during pregnancy are associated with a reduced risk of depressive symptoms in the postnatal period, as well as improved developmental outcomes in the offspring. So from there many consumers (mainly mothers) are recommended to increase intake of DHA in pregnancy, and the nutritional supplement industry successfully markets prenatal supplements with DHA to optimize brain function of mother and infant.

So sebabkan tak puas hati, I did more reading on this issue and I finally came to understood on standing of the recent finding on this DHA issues.

Let me share my findings with you mommies.

Recently, the Women's and Children's Health Research Institute, Adelaide (Australia), published a study supporting the fact that pregnant women who take DHA fish oil capsules during pregnancy do not reduce their risk of developing post-natal depression, nor do the supplements have any effect on the baby's cognitive and language development during early childhood.

A team of researchers, lead by Maria Makrides, B.Sc., B.N.D., Ph.D. carried out a randomized, multi-centre trial to determine whether DHA fish oil supplements during the latter half of pregnancy had any effect on the risk of developing postpartum depression, as well as enhancing cognitive development of the baby during their first years.

The study involved 2,399 females less than 21-weeks pregnant were recruited at 5 maternity hospitals in Australia between October 2005 and January 2008. By the end of December 2009 a total of 726 children were followed-up. The pregnant women had received 800 mg/d of DHA fish oil capsules or equivalent vegetable oil capsules with no DHA up to the day of childbirth. 96.7% of the women completed the course of capsules.

The researchers founded that:

“Current recommendations suggest that pregnant women increase their dietary DHA to improve their health outcomes as well as those of their children. Such recommendations are increasingly being adopted with women taking prenatal supplements with DHA. However, the results of [this trial] do not support routine DHA supplementation for pregnant women to reduce depressive symptoms or to improve cognitive or language outcomes in early childhood.

Our results are at odds with the results of some large-scale epidemiological studies. It may be that even well-conducted epidemiological studies overestimate effect size and do not adequately deal with residual confounding, or that other nutrients in fish and seafood, beyond DHA, contribute to the observations from epidemiological studies. Further studies are required to determine whether there are specific benefits of DHA supplementation for women with a previous history of depression and for women at risk of preterm birth”.

Jeng jeng jeng....

What do you mommies think? Is this just another inconclusive study or have we been tricked into consuming something we don’t really need all along?

10 comments:

Mizz_Ila said...

nice info.. :)

~ As ~ said...

dua2 anak aku makan fish oil waktu mengandung...

yatie chomeyl said...

i think all this while, we have been tricked into consuming something we don’t really need all along.

Anonymous said...

as & yatie-> 1st preggy i took simple preggy vitamins tanpa fish oil. tp this time i kena paksa amik multivitamin yg ada DHA ni. doctor & midwife semua bebel suruh makan, kalau tak makan kena bebel lg panjang.

Harlinda Halim said...

from my view, the study made by those researches is correct. Mungkin kite je yang tak tahu...hmmm..sy amik neurogain time preggy 8 months..tu pun sbb mmbr beriya-iya rekemen...b4 that sy hanya mkn set salindah...

Eliss said...

makan ajer laa semua yang ada janji tidak memudaratkan kita dan anak :p eliss minum susu yang tinggi DHA ms pregnant :p

Salwa said...

i am so echo to yatie chomeyl...

Momyha said...

Hi there!

I've been following your blog, and thank you! This is awesome!

Ely Hasrul said...

fact bleh berubah ikut peredaran masa, tu yg kena buat research tuh. selama ke nih if we being told to consume bende yg kite tak perlu tu bese tuh, marketing la tu

Lissa Ahmad said...

i take provas while my pregnancy until now. recomend by my paed.. =)

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Disclaimer: I am not a medical doctor nor am I a lawyer. I am not a scientist nor am I an expert. I am just a wife and a mother, who is putting her thoughts and findings in a blog. All of the posting on this website & my blogs were written by me for educational purposes and as my sentimental library, but are not meant to diagnose nor treat any medical disorders. Any other materials that I may have quote from other published materials are for educational purposes only and not for any other manipulative reasons. Anyway, whatever weird stuff that I published are the real stuff that I believe works for me. Tips and tricks that might work for me. You are free to put it in your head if you thinks its valuable, but if you think its rubbish... Please don't mock me. Do please shut your pie hole.
 
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