Eat fish during pregnancy, after all?

Now fish may actually be good for your pregnant patients. A recent observational cohort study finds that the risks from the loss of nutrients found in seafood, especially omega-3 fatty acids, are greater than the risk of harm from exposure to trace contaminants like mercury in 12 oz of seafood eaten weekly during pregnancy.

The 8-year study involving almost 9,000 British mothers and their children found that the children of women who ate no seafood during pregnancy were one-and-a-half times (OR 1.48; 95% CI, 1.16–1.90) more likely than the children of women who ate more than 12 oz of seafood per week to be in the lowest quartile for verbal intelligence. Those children of women who ate some sea-food but less than 12 oz per week had an odds ratio of 1.09 (0.92–1.29; overall trend P=0.004) for being in the lowest quartile.

The children of the mothers who ate little or no seafood were also more likely to have poor social development and poor motor control compared with the children of mothers who ate more than 12 oz of seafood per week.