Preterm birth (PTB), defined as delivery before 37 completed weeks’ gestation, represents one of the greatest burdens to perinatal health. For babies born preterm, increased rates of respiratory, cardiovascular, metabolic, and neurodevelopmental complications have been observed in the short-, medium-, and long-term.
Over the last three decades, there is growing consensus that omega-3 (n-3) supplementation may reduce the rate of PTB. The greatest benefits of n-3 supplementation on PTB risk reduction have been observed in pregnant women with low n-3 status or intake. In contrast, n-3 supplementation in pregnant women replete with omega-3 may increase their risk of PTB.
Literature has suggested that the effect of n-3 supplementation may vary between mothers based on their baseline omega-3 status. As such, a broad-based approach to n-3 supplementation may not be appropriate. Instead, evaluation of maternal omega-3 status prior to initiation of n-3 supplementation is likely to be of value.
Limitations in current methods of evaluating maternal n-3 status demonstrates the need for the development of non-invasive and affordable prediction tools to identify mothers with low or sufficient n-3 status to ultimately guide clinical decision making around n-3 supplementation in pregnancy. In addition, future research should determine the optimum regime for n-3 supplementation to maximise the reduction of preterm birth. If n-3 supplementation could be optimised for Australian women, there is the potential to save up to $100M per year by preventing up to 856 early preterm births.