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Evaluation of the relation between n-3 and n-6 fatty acid status and parity in nonpregnant women from the Netherlands^1,2

¹ From the Department of Human Biology, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands.

Background: We previously observed an inverse relation between parity and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) status in pregnant women in the Netherlands. This implies that maternal DHA status may not fully normalize after a mature pregnancy.

Objective: The objective was to investigate the relation between the essential fatty acid status (in particular the DHA status) of nonpregnant women and the number of completed pregnancies and whether the number of previous pregnancies is associated with a lower DHA status in women from the Netherlands.

Design: This was a cross-sectional study of 129 healthy nonpregnant women who completed 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4 mature, uncomplicated, singleton pregnancies.

Results: The relative amount of DHA in the plasma phospholipids of nulliparous women and of mothers who completed 1–4 pregnancies (duration since last pregnancy: 3.9 ± 2.4 y) was not significantly different; a significant correlation between parity and the percentage of DHA in the phospholipids was not observed either. The percentage of DHA in the phospholipids of erythrocytes of mothers was significantly lower than the percentage in the erythrocytes of the nulliparas (P = 0.013), but no significant correlation between the percentage of DHA in the phospholipids of erythrocytes and parity was found. The time interval between the different pregnancies did not influence maternal DHA status.

Conclusions: No relation was found between DHA status and parity in the nonpregnant Dutch women whose last pregnancy was completed 1 y previously. Maternal DHA status, as reflected in plasma and erythrocyte phospholipids, probably normalized within 1 y after the last partus. Whether this is true for other tissues remains to be determined.

Key Words: Essential fatty acids • docosahexaenoic acid • DHA • phospholipids • nonpregnant women • pregnancy • parity • maternal docosahexaenoic acid–depletion phenomenon • Netherlands

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