Data published in Frontiers in Nutrition also indicated that the combination of omega-3 supplements with a standard prenatal multivitamin may decrease the odds of the baby being small for its gestational age (SGA).
“The present study contributes to the growing evidence that omega-3 fatty acid supplementation in addition to prenatal vitamins during pregnancy is associated with a reduced risk of preterm birth and SGA,” wrote researchers from Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Indiana University, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, University of Pennsylvania, University of Utah and Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.
“However, given the potential of residual confounding in observational studies, randomized controlled trials are needed to determine whether omega-3 supplementation can robustly promote healthy pregnancy outcomes.”
Kudos
Clinical trials of the potential impact of omega-3 supplements and preterm birth have already been reported in the scientific literature. The Kansas University DHA Outcomes Study (KUDOS), perhaps the most high-profile of these trials, found that universal supplementation with DHA (600 mg per day) during the last two trimesters of pregnancy led to significant reductions in early preterm birth.
An economic analysis by the KUDOS team revealed that this would result in cost savings of $1,678 per infant. Taking out the $166.48 cost of the DHA supplements for 26 weeks and a $26 increase in maternal care costs, the net saving came to $1,484.
For the nearly 4 million live births in the United States every year, this woul equate to an annual cost savings of nearly $6 million, reported the researchers in Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes and Essential Fatty Acids.
Commenting independently on the findings, Harry Rice, PhD, vice president of regulatory and scientific affairs at the Global Organization for EPA and DHA Omega-3s (GOED), told NutraIngredients: “Findings from the present study align with previous evidence showing that prenatal omega 3 supplementation lowers the risk of preterm birth. Although this study has certain limitations, the results of prior high quality intervention trials independently provide compelling support for the clear benefits of supplementation and justify recommending a high DHA supplement for pregnant women.”
Study details
The new study is a secondary analysis of data from the Nulliparous Mother-to-be (nuMoM2b) cohort study, a prospective study of 9,461 nulliparous individuals. The researchers compared birth outcomes between women talking a prenatal multivitamin and women taking the prenatal and additional omega-3 supplements.
Results showed that women in the omega-3 plus multivitamin group had a rate of preterm birth of 5%, compared to 8.4% in the prenatal-only group.
Moreover, the rate of small for gestational age in the omega-3 plus multivitamin group was 2.8%, compared to 4.5% in the prenatal-only group.
“We found that omega-3 supplementation in addition to prenatal vitamin use (PNV-OM) was associated with a significantly lower risk of preterm birth and SGA compared to use of prenatal vitamins without omega-3 (PNV), with the odds of preterm birth and SGA reduced by 36% and 35%, respectively,” the researchers wrote. “Although the observed reduction in preterm birth exceeds effect sizes reported in prior literature, such as the approximately 11% reduction in meta-analytic evidence, these comparisons should be interpreted with caution, as observational designs may be more strongly influenced by unmeasured confounding and selection bias than randomized trials.”
Source: Frontiers in Nutrition. Volume 12. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1693844. “Omega-3 supplementation in addition to prenatal vitamins during pregnancy is associated with lower rates of preterm birth and small for gestational age”. Authors: W. Yakah, et al.
