Expectant mothers who eat fruits and vegetables may prevent premature births, a recent study indicates.
This healthy, balanced diet, which also includes consuming more whole grains and drinking water, as well as a traditional diet of boiled potatoes, fish and cooked vegetables, is linked to a lower risk of delivering preterm babies. The study does not, however, reveal a cause-and-effect relationship.
A premature baby is one born before a full 37 weeks of pregnancy, and significant short- and long-term negative health effects are accompanied with preterm delivery, which is the cause for 75 percent of newborn deaths.
An international research team from Sweden, Norway and Iceland investigated the previous notion that a mother's diet can affect her newborn while it's still in the womb. They analyzed preterm births (anything after 22 weeks of pregnancy but before 37 weeks) among 66,000 women between 2002 and 2008. Excluded were those with diabetes and who had not previously delivered a child.
After taking a food questionnaire during the first four to five months of pregnancy, researchers identified and labeled three distinct eating patterns: "prudent" (vegetables, fruits, oils, water as a beverage, whole grain cereals, poultry, fiber rich bread), "Western" (salty and sweet snacks, white bread, desserts, processed meat products), and "traditional" (potatoes, fish, gravy, cooked vegetables, low fat milk).
Out of all of these pregnant women, 3,505 - or 5.3 percent - had preterm deliveries. Overall, the "prudent" diet showed the greatest drop in premature babies, while the "traditional" diet resulted in a significant decrease as well. The "Western" diet, meanwhile, had no effect.
The findings reinforce past evidence that indicate diet, especially one high in fruits and vegetables, plays an important role during and after pregnancy.
The authors suggest that "diet matters for the risk of preterm delivery, which may reassure medical practitioners that the current dietary recommendations are sound but also inspire them to pay more attention to dietary counseling," according to a public statement.
