Fetal Heart Abnormalities Linked to Diet: Lower In Babies Of Women Who Have Healthier Diets

You are what you eat and that's even more true during pregnancy when it comes to a baby's health.

New findings published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood reveal that a relatively healthy diet before pregnancy is linked to a lower rate of certain heart abnormalities in babies at birth.

In this recent study, the female participants were all part of the National Birth Defects Prevention Study, half of whom had given birth to healthy babies, with the other half having babies with major heart abnormalities at birth between 1997 and 2009.

Researchers assessed diet quality based on two validated scoring systems: the Mediterranean Diet Score; and the Diet Quality Index for Pregnancy (DQI-P).

Findings revealed that mothers in the top 25 percent of diet quality as assessed by the DQI-P, had a significantly lower risk of having a baby with certain heart defects than those in the bottom 25 percent. Better diet was also associated with a 37 percent lower risk of tetralogy of Fallot and a 23 percent lower risk of atrial septal defects.

The study noted that "atrial septal defects refer to holes in the wall of the septum, which divides the upper chambers (atria) of the heart and that tetralogy of Fallot is a complex abnormality which can lead to dangerously low oxygen levels in the blood going to the rest of the body," according to a news release.

As this is an observational study, no definitive conclusions can be made regarding cause and effect. However, similar associations have been found regarding diet before pregnancy and certain birth defect, such as cleft palate and neural tube defects.

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