Healthy Diet Before Pregnancy: Good for Baby's Heart?

Better maternal diet in the year prior to conception was associated with lower risk of serious congenital heart defects, according to the results of a large retrospective case-control analysis using data from the National Birth Defects Prevention Study.

In adjusted analyses, Lorenzo D. Botto, MD, of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, and colleagues found a reduced risk of all conotruncal defects (aOR 0.76, 95% CI 0.64 to 0.91), as well as a 37% reduced risk in tetralogy of Fallot (aOR 0.63, CI 0.49 to 0.80) associated with the highest quartile of Diet Quality Index for pregnancy (DQI-P).

The authors also observed diet quality was associated with a slightly lower risk of overall septal defects (aOR 0.86, 95% CI 0.75 to 1.00), including atrial septal defects (aOR 0.77, 95% CI 0.63 to 0.94). They published their results in Archives of Disease in Childhood: Fetal and Neonatal Edition.

John P. Breinholt, MD, division director of pediatric cardiology at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston/Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital, said that population studies are always difficult as they require sifting through a lot of factors that can influence the outcome, the authors were meticulous in their process in demonstrating that there appears to be a nutritional component to the development of congenital heart disease. Breinholt was not involved with the study.

"This emphasizes more than ever the need to educate women to prepare themselves nutritionally for childbirth (in addition to during pregnancy), as well as further identify the dietary factors that can prevent these significant birth defects," he told MedPage Today via e-mail.

Researchers adjusted for maternal energy intake, race/ethnicity, folic acid supplement use, smoking, maternal education, maternal BMI, and study center.

Botto told MedPage Today that birth defects are a significant clinical and public health issue, with one in four infant deaths from birth defects caused by a heart anomaly, but that little is known about how to prevent them. He added that the National Birth Defects Prevention Study had looked at diet as a factor for structural malformations, such as spina bifida and cleft lip and palate. So, his team wanted to test the hypothesis that diet would also help with congenital heart anomalies.

Improve your diet

The sooner you start eating well, the more likely you are to get pregnant. For both men and women, food and fertility are linked. You need to stick to a balanced diet to boost your chances of conceiving and of having a healthy baby.

Eat several servings of fruit, vegetables, grains such as whole wheat bread, and calcium-rich foods such as yogurt, cheese, and milk every day. Certain vitamins and nutrients - such as vitamins C and E, zinc, and folic acid - are important for making healthy sperm. Not getting enough nutrients can affect your periods, making it difficult to predict when you ovulate. And you may not ovulate at all if you've lost a drastic amount of weight or are obese.