Healthy Mom & Baby
Vital Information for Pregnant and Nursing Women

We named our company Vital Choice in part because of the profound importance of the nutrients in wild Salmon and Seafood for pregnant and nursing women and their children. After all, what choice could be more vital than one that may impact the health of a child?

While omega-3 fatty acids are profoundly important to everyone, we remain especially committed to providing moms and moms-to-be with reliable access to foods necessary for a happy, healthy pregnancy and optimally developed child.

As Andrew Stoll, M.D., wrote in The Omega-3 Connection, "When maternal blood is rich in oxygen and nutrients, the unborn child can thrive. But thousands of research studies document the consequences when maternal blood is deficient ..."

Pure wild seafood – especially fatty fish like Sardines and wild Alaska Salmon or Sablefish – are superior sources of these vital nutrients. During pregnancy, omega-3 fatty acids in a mother's diet contribute to healthy, optimal development of her baby's eyes, brain and nervous system.

Studies also indicate that omega-3 fats may reduce the risk of premature and underweight births and the incidence of post-partum depression.

Seafood in Pregnancy, Nursing, and Infant Nutrition
While babies, infants, toddlers, and even teens clearly benefit from getting omega-3s in abudance, parents are naturally concerned about the risks of mercury and so called persistent organic toxins like PCBs and dioxin, which occur in many animal foods.

Experts now agree that the risk-reward ratio leans heavily in favor of seafood, because the rewards of omega-3s far outweigh the risks of minuscule amounts of mercury or PCBs.

Better yet, all of the fish and shellfish sold by Vital Choice are extraordinarily pure in this regard, according to

Cmdr Joe Hibbeln, MD of NIH with Harvard's Dariush Mozaffarian, PhD at the 2005 Seafood & Health Conference The Feburary 17, 2007 issue of Newsweek magazine featured this interview with Dr. Joe Hibbeln, concerning his landmark 2007 Lancet study on the rewards of seafood for mothers and children: Newsweek: You found that women needed to eat more than 12 ounces of seafood per week to see beneficial effects on their children's development. Isn't that a lot of fish? Dr. Hibbeln: It depends on where you live. If you're in Iceland, that's lunch. Newsweek: But for many American women, doesn't 12 ounces sound huge? Dr. Hibbeln: That would be two or three fish meals a week. Newsweek: What about taking omega-3 supplements instead of eating an actual fish? Dr. Hibbeln: This study looks only at seafood. Now there is separate data from other studies that have fairly consistently and uniformly showed benefits when pregnant women take supplements. Newsweek: Is the actual fish better than any supplements? Dr. Hibbeln: It's likely to be better. Newsweek: How did the FDA and EPA get it so wrong? Dr. Hibbeln: That's not really something that is part of this manuscript. I think it is best said that these data indicate that the toxic effects of mercury may have been overestimated in relationship to the nutritional benefits of seafood. Newsweek: Will the FDA and EPA change their guidelines? Dr. Hibbeln: We as scientists at the NIH aren't trying to get them to do anything. … We've assessed the advisory, and we've concluded that the advisory causes the harm it intended to prevent.

government, academic and private tests.

Following a series of similar findings, the authors of a landmark epidemiological study, published in the leading medical journal Lancet, came to this comforting conclusion: "The dangers of fish-eating in pregnancy have been misrepresented and are misleading and are not based on any evidence of harm." (Lancet 2007; 369:537-8)

Research into children's behavior and intelligence demonstrates that pregnant and nursing women who only eat as much fish as the U.S. government recommends for them–or who cut fish out of their diet altogether – unwittingly hinder optimal brain and visual development in their children.

The findings are taken from a study of almost 9,000 British families taking part in the Children Of The 90s project at the University of Bristol. Cmdr Joseph Hibbeln, MD from the U.S. National Institutes of Health and British scientists compared the amount of fish eaten by pregnant mothers with the development and behavior of their offspring up to the age of eight.

Women from socially advantaged backgrounds were more likely to include fish in their diet but even after adjusting for 28 different factors – such as social class, or whether the mother breastfed – there were significant differences apparent in the children's development.

Mothers who ate more seafood than was considered to be safe according to U.S. guidelines had children who were more advanced. They had higher IQs, better social skills, were more communicative and more physically accomplished. Those children whose mothers had eaten no fish performed worse on all the same measures.

As Dr. Hibbeln wrote in their report:

• "We have found that when women had low levels of seafood consumption, the outcome is exactly the opposite of what was assumed by the United States Advisory. Unfortunately, the advice appears to have had the unintended consequence of causing harm in a specific developmental domain – verbal development – where protection was originally intended.
• "We recorded no evidence to lend support to the warnings of the U.S. advisory that pregnant women should limit their seafood consumption.
• "In contrast, we noted that children of mothers who ate small amounts, 340 grams per week, of seafood were more likely to have suboptimum neurodevelopmental outcomes than children of mothers who ate more seafood than the recommended amounts."

The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) welcomed the research. The RCM's education and research manager, Sue Macdonald, said: "Midwives are very aware of the importance of advising pregnant women and their families about the added benefits of eating fish."

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Nutrition in Child Development: Vital Readings
We believe you will find time spent reviewing the information below well worthwhile. Please share it with others who may benefit.

The Omega-3 Connection – Includes a beautifully written passage on fetal development by Andrew Stoll, M.D.

The Vital Role of Essential Fatty Acids for Pregnant and Nursing Women – John Finnegan
EPA and FDA Fish Advisory for Those who are Pregnant or May Become Pregnant – Which fish are safe to consume and which should be avoided? NOTE: As we note above, recent research indicates that the consumption guidelines set by the EPA and FDA may be too low to ensure optimal child development, and that higher levels are both safe and desirable. We provide this information because it is official.

Fish May Help Deter Depression in Moms – Pregnant women might be able to lower their risk of becoming depressed before or after giving birth by eating fish, a study suggests.

Diet and the Unborn Child – “[T]he amount of omega-3 in a pregnant woman's diet helps to determine her child's intelligence, fine-motor skills (such as the ability to manipulate small objects, and hand-eye coordination) and also propensity to anti-social behavior the benefits of eating such fish vastly outweigh the risks from the mercury in them. Indeed, in the Avon study, it was those children exposed to the lowest levels of methyl mercury who were at greatest risk of having low verbal IQ.”

Midwifery Today – "Pregnant women should consider the intake of omega 3 oils and evening primrose oil throughout pregnancy in order possibly to prevent preterm delivery, promote an easier birth, assist the baby's brain and eye health and preprogram the baby's cell membranes for optimum lifelong wellness."

Mouse mothers' prenatal and lactational diets protect their daughters from breast cancer – The excess of omega-6 fatty acids and shortage of omega-3s in average American diets may predispose our daughters to develop breast cancer. In an experiment by Elaine Hardman, Ph.D., all the young exposed only to omega-6 fatty acids, in utero, in nursing and after weaning, showed mammary gland tumors by six months of age. Conversely, fewer than 60 percent of the female offspring who ate richly of high omega-3 fatty acids either maternally or post-weaning formed mammary tumors by the age of eight months. Those exposed to omega-3 fatty acids both maternally and after weaning had a tumor incidence rate of just 13 percent.

Maternal Fish Diet Boosts Baby's Language Learning – "Women who ate fish regularly during pregnancy had children with better language and communication skills by the age of 18 months, shows a new study, which supports previous evidence that fatty aids found in the food boost children's neurological development."

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Scientific Research Papers
These are selected citations stem from the vast and fast-growing body of peer-reviewed scientific literature that supports the value of omega-3s and in maternal and child health.

Maternal seafood consumption in pregnancy and neurodevelopmental outcomes in childhood
"...Maternal seafood consumption of less than 340 g per week in pregnancy did not protect children from adverse outcomes; rather, we recorded beneficial effects on child development with maternal seafood intakes of more than 340 g per week, suggesting that advice to limit seafood consumption could actually be detrimental." (Hibbeln, et al, 2/2007)

Omega-3 Deficiencies in Neurodevelopment
"...Deficiency in long-chain essential fatty acids during critical periods of prenatal and childhood neurodevelopment may result in a residual predisposition towards aggressive and depressive behaviors, possibly by impairing neuronal migration, connectivity, timed apoptosis [programmed cell death], and dendritic arborization [brain development], such that there is an irreversible disruption in the neuronal pathways that regulate behavior." (Hibbeln, et al, 4/2006)

The Omega 3 Story: Nutritional Prevention of Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes
Technical but fascinating research paper that should be required reading for anyone considering having a baby.

Essential Fatty Acids in Mothers and their Neonates
DHA and other Long Chain Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids (LCPUFAs) are fetal 'building blocks' whose availability is dependent upon their abundance in the maternal diet.
Omega 3s and Infant Retinal Development

Importance of omega-3 fatty acids in fetal retinal development – Dr. Martha Neuringer

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Additional Resources
Browse the archives of our Vital Choices Newsletter for many reports on research relevant to child health and development. Enter search terms like "children", "brain", "infant", and "eyes" in the Search Articles field at the top of the page.

These are some additional resources offering credible information:

Ask Dr. Sears Lamaze International La Leche League Mayo Clinic Pregnancy Center Childbirth.org March of Dimes A Natural Guide to Pregnancy and Post Partum Health

Our Healthy Mom & Baby Packs
Vital Choice is recommended by the country's leading authorities on maternal nutrition, including "America's Baby Doctor", Dr. William Sears. Did you know that the majority of pregnant women in America don't consume enough omega-3 fatty acids to ensure optimal child development ... or personal health?

Our Healthy Mom & Baby Packs provide several meals a week of safe, omega-3-rich wild Alaska Salmon.

We are delighted to have teamed up with Christiane Northrup, M.D. – the internationally recognized authority on women’s health – to create these convenient combination packages, which make great gifts for homebound new mothers, since we deliver right to their door ... satisfaction 100% guaranteed!

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