Taking fish oil or omega-3 fatty acids during pregnancy can benefit unborn child and increases the child’s hand-to-eye co-ordination, revealed by an Australian research study, published in the British journal Archives of Disease in Childhood.
The study was conducted by University of Western Australia researchers on 80 pregnant women who were fed half a daily four-gram dose of fish oil in the 20 weeks before birth. The other half were given olive oil capsules as a dummy substitute.
When the women were tested after two-and-a-half years, it was found that kids in the fish oil group scored more highly on measures of comprehension, average phrase length and vocabulary. Additionally, they also have better hand-eye coordination than those whose mothers had not taken the olive oil supplements.