Impact of Maternal Essential Fatty Acid Intake on the Birth Weight of Infants

Abstract

Background: Increased uptake of essential fatty acids during pregnancy through seafood and supplementation has been shown to positively correlate with gestational age and increased infant birth weight. We aimed to evaluate the effect of maternal dietary intake of essential fatty acids, supplementation on gestational period and infant birth weight.

Materials: A literature search with the help of various databases such as PubMed, Google Scholar, Web of Science and Scopus was conducted.

Methods: Original research articles and intervention-based studies, which involve an association between dietary intake and supplementation of essential fatty acids during full-term pregnancy on human infant birth outcomes and published from 2011 to 2021, were included.

Results: In total, there were 21 intervention-based studies, including full-term pregnant women with or without existing comorbidities, which compared essential fatty acids in the form of dietary sources and supplementation with dietary counseling and with or without placebo. The intervention trials included in this review were conducted in developed and developing countries. Half of the pregnant women who enrolled in the study had comorbidities such as diabetes and hypertension, which might increase their risk of adverse maternal and infant birth outcomes. Most of the studies included in the review have reported a positive association between improvised dietary and supplementation intake of essential fatty acids with increased length of gestation, infant birth weight and other parameters such as head circumference, infant birth length and growth velocity.

Conclusion: Positive correlations were found between increased consumption of essential fatty acids in food sources and supplements with improvised infant birth weight and gestational period.

Keywords: Essential fatty acids; birth outcomes; infant birth weight; maternal nutrition; omega-3 fatty acids; omega-6 fatty acids.