You might disagree, but hear me out. There is a very important reason that women are now being urged to take fish oil in pregnancy. It has been discovered that deficiency in essential fatty acids can cause a myriad of problems for not only you, but form your unborn child. Omega fatty acids play a critical role in the physical, visual, and mental development of your child, so the warning to supplement you diet with fish oil should be heeded.
Being deficient in essential fatty acids can be the cause behind decreased growth in infants and children, and they can suffer an increased susceptibility to infection, and impaired wound healing. They can also develop visual problems, and sensory neuropathy. Studies have revealed that lowered levels of omega-3 fatty acids cause a significant impairment in learning ability, and memory.
There have been numerous studies conducted on the benefits of the increased intake of fish oil in pregnancy, and all of these studies noted that higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids produced positive visual and cognitive development in infants. These studies have proven that improvement in your child’s development is recognizable even in the all important third trimester of pregnancy.
Children whose mothers has supplemented their diets with omega-3 fatty acids have been shown proven to scored markedly higher than there peers that did not receive the benefit of maternal fish oil supplementation in several areas. They regularly perform better when it comes to mental processing, display better hand and eye coordination, and possess better problem solving skills.
While much research has been done on infant requirements for DHA for development, there has been precious little research into the requirements of mothers when it comes to fish oil in pregnancy. This is odd, because the mother is the sole source of omega fatty acids for the fetus, and the exclusively breast fed infant. There have been a few studies done however.
These studies have suggested that maternal omega-3 fatty acid supplementation does not decrease the incidence of gestational diabetes, pregnancy induced hypertension, or preeclampsia. It has also been shown that supplementing your diet with fish oil leads to moderate increases in gestational time, and considerably reduces the risk of premature delivery.
It is often recommended that the way you should supplement fish oil in pregnancy is too increase the amount of oily fish that you eat. Depending on which region of the world your source fish was taken from this could lead to a very serious problem for you and your baby. The meat of oily fish found in certain areas contains dioxins, mercury, PCBs, and lead, which could affect the health of you both.
This is why a better recommendation would be to obtain your fish oil in pregnancy through the use of a high quality nutritional supplement. The level of contaminants is carefully controlled by the manufacturers, who must meet rigorous standards of purity. This is the only way that you can guarantee your child all of the benefits of fish oil, with none of the dangers involved with eating fish.
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