Fish oil supplements during pregnancy

[Kitmix]

I'm vegan but decided to add high quality fish oil to my pregnancy diet due to a few worries about flax oil not being adequate. The NHS advises not to use fish oils because of vitamin A/retinol content, but I think that only applies to cod liver oil? The oil I'm using is Barleans, and is made up of anchovy and mackerel oil, and has been filtered for mercury. Any advice really welcome.

fish oil is fine. fish liver oil is not ok. the label usually states clearly which kind it is. liver in general is not the best choice in pregnancy :)

What is the provenance of the information that makes you doubt the efficacy of vegetable sources of omega 3?

The original research that proved the benefit of omega 3 to brain development used vegetable sources.

Fish oil has a bigger marketing budget

maybe OP is referring more o the availability of DHA (the one that the brain uses) than to Omega-3s in general. and DHA availability is very limited in plant sources (and the human body is notoriously inefficient in converting it from EPA). there is some tentative research on algae, but mainly DHA is found in non-plant sources www.dhaomega3.org/Overview/Dietary-Sources-of-Omega-3-Fatty-Acids

Yeah fish oil capsules are ok, just not the liver ones. I was told by my midwife yesterday that if I can't eat fish twice a week then I should take fish oil.

I agree about DHA not being so bioavailable from veggie sources.