Objective To test the postulated preventive effects of dietary n-3 fatty acids on pre-term delivery, intrauterine growth retardation, and pregnancy induced hypertension.Design In six multicentre trials, women with high risk pregnancies were randomly assigned to receive fish oil (Pikasol) or olive oil in identically-looking capsules from around 20 weeks (prophylactic trials) or 33 weeks (therapeutic trials) until delivery. Setting Nineteen hospitals in Europe.Samples Four prophylactic trials enrolled 232,280, and 386 women who had experienced previous preterm delivery, intrauterine growth retardation, or pregnancy induced hypertension respectively, and 579 with twin pregnancies. Two therapeutic trials enrolled 79 women with threatening pre-eclampsia and 63 with suspected intrauterine growth retardation.Interventions The fish oil provided 2.7 g and 6.1 g n-3 fatty aciddday in the prophylactic and therapeutic trials, respectively. Main outcome measures Preterm delivery, intrauterine growth retardation, pregnancy induced hypertension.Results Fish oil reduced recurrence risk of pre-term delivery from 33% to 21% (odds ratio 0.54 (95% CI 0.30 to 0.98)) but did not affect recurrence risks for the other outcomes (OR 1.26; 0.74 to 2.12 and 0.98; 0.63 to 1.53, respectively). In twin pregnancies, the risks for all three outcomes were similar in the two intervention arms (95% CI for the three odds ratios were 0-73 to 1.40,0-90 to 1.52, and 0.83 to 2.32, respectively). The therapeutic trials detected no significant effects on pre-defined outcomes. In the combined trials, fish oil delayed spontaneous delivery (proportional hazards ratio 1.22; 1.07 to 1.39, P = 0-002).Conclusions Fish oil supplementation reduced the recurrence risk of pre-term delivery, but had no effect on pre-term delivery in twin pregnancies. Fish oil had no effect on intrauterine growth retardation and pregnancy induced hypertension, affecting neither recurrence risk nor risk in twin pregnancies.

The authors evaluated the association between alcohol intake during pregnancy and risk of stillbirth and infant death in a cohort of pregnant women receiving routine antenatal care at Aarhus University Hospital (Aarhus, Denmark) between 1989 and 1996. Prospective information on alcohol intake, other lifestyle factors, maternal characteristics, and obstetric risk factors was obtained from self-administered questionnaires and hospital files, and 24,768 singleton pregnancies were included in the analyses (116 stillbirths, 119 infant deaths). The risk ratio for stillbirth among women who consumed > or =5 drinks/week during pregnancy was 2.96 (95% confidence interval: 1.37, 6.41) as compared with women who consumed <1 drink/week. Adjustment for smoking habits, caffeine intake, age, prepregnancy body mass index, marital status, occupational status, education, parity, and sex of the child did not change the conclusions, nor did restriction of the highest intake group to women who consumed 5-14 drinks/week (risk ratio = 3.13, 95% confidence interval: 1.45, 6.77). The rate of stillbirth due to fetoplacental dysfunction increased across alcohol categories, from 1.37 per 1,000 births for women consuming <1 drink/week to 8.83 per 1,000 births for women consuming > or = 5 drinks/week. The increased risk could not be attributed to the effect of alcohol on the risk of low birth weight, preterm delivery, or malformations. There was little if any association between alcohol intake and infant death.

Study objective-The aim was to explore whether maternal consumption of seafood is a determinant of birth weight in a dose dependent manner. Design-A population based survey of lifestyle factors in pregnancy was linked with information from antenatal and obstetric records. Setting and participants-Seventy five per cent of all 1362 women who delivered in the Faroe Islands during the study period 1986-87 who gave a structured post partum interview on lifestyle factors. Main results-Altogether, 2, 6, 16, 33, 26, 14, and 3% of women had consumed approximately 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6+ respectively seafood (fish or whale) dinner meals per week during pregnancy. The average birth weight (p=0.02) and birth length (p=0002) varied significantly between the seven groups, and increased by about 0-2 kg and 1 cm, respectively between women who ate 0 and those who consumed 3 seafood meals per week. Mean birth weight and length tended to level offwith further fish consumption: when fitting a second degree polynomial, the quadratic terms were negative and significant for both birth weight (p=O 005) and length (p=0.001). Analogous analyses for pregnancy duration were not significant, but exhibited similar trends. All analyses were adjusted for maternal height, weight, parity, age, marital status, and smoking. Conclusions-The weight and length of the newborn increased with the frequency of seafood dinner meals consumed in pregnancy but only up to a consumption level of about 3 meals per week.3 lIpideniol Communnity Health 1993; 47: 436-440

No abstract

Study objective-To assess the agreement between four diVerent measures of alcohol intake in pregnancy. Design and setting-Danish speaking pregnant women referred to the Midwife Centre in Aarhus, Denmark, for routine antenatal care were contacted at their first visit at approximately 15-16 weeks gestation from October to December 1998. The women were interviewed about current average alcohol intake and intake within the previous week, and subsequently filled in a two week diary on alcohol intake. When booking for delivery at the end of the first trimester the women were also asked to complete a questionnaire including a one item question on current average alcohol intake. Participants-Participants were 441 pregnant women. Main results-Per cent agreement ± 1 category ranged between 73 and 82. Mean (SD) intake ranged between 1.09 (1.35) drinks/week for diaries, and 0.69 (0.85) for questionnaires. Mean diVerences between methods were all close to zero. Three of the four measures yielded comparable distributions of average alcohol intake, but reports of intake within the past seven days seemed to be an inappropriate measure of average intake, yielding three times as many abstainers as expected when combining the methods. Conclusions-When assessing the distribution of alcohol intake in pregnancy or when studying adverse pregnancy outcomes that are probably caused mainly by sustained exposure it seems that for pregnant women with low to moderate alcohol intake diaries or an average measure from interviews or a simple one item questionnaire may be applied. A measure of intake for the previous week seems to be a relevant measure only when studying adverse pregnancy outcomes that are most probably caused by binge-like exposure. (J Epidemiol Community Health 2001;55:738-745)