Fish Oils in Pregnancy/Vitamin Supplements

[jonquil]

I am 19 weeks pregnant and have been taking the Boots Mum to Be vitamin supplement which contains fish oils since before conceiving. I have recently been reading about the levels of mercury and PCBs in fish (particularly farmed fish, salmon etc and tuna which I love although am trying to stick to the recommended weekly portions of these) and i am now starting to worry that what i thought were healthy supplements, must be tainted with pcbs and mercury. Anyone have any information on this?

I got some info on this when pregnant with dd. any supplement that's on the shelf has to pass EU and World Health Organisation guidelines so they are all safe to take. Make sure you pick ones specifically for pregnancy as they won't be able to say that unless completely safe.

I took mumomega from Boots and Pregnacare, there is loads of info about mumomega and why you need certain fish oils on www.equazen.com

i'm the same stage of pregnancy as you - and i take mumomega fish oil supplement and pregnacare. i take them because i am wary of eating too much tuna etc. but i want the benefits of omega 3's and 6's without the contamination.

have you tried the Food Standards Agency website?

jonquil - I noticed your comment about sticking to the recommended intakes of farmed fish, including salmon, and just wanted to say that many midwifes, including mine, are recommending NO farmed salmon during pregnancy. There are always several MNers who will argue this point with me, particularly as the FSA website doesn't make any mention of it, but as it sounds like you are trying to be extra cautious, I thought that I would mention this.

Fish oils designed for pregnancy are, as far as I am aware, ok to take. Ones not designed for pregnancy should be avoided as many are made from parts of the fish including the liver, which is not recommended for usual liver reasons.