A report in New Scientist magazine by Dr Fei Xue and colleagues have postulated that having excessive oily fish in pregnancy may lead to premature birth.
According to them, this is so because of the high level of mercury present in some fish.
According to the Food Standards Agency, pregnant women may eat two portions of oily fish weekly but should avoid shark, marlin and swordfish since they have higher mercury and other pollutant level.
However, oily fish are helpful for the newborns as they increase their birth weight and brainpower but the research was carried on small scale, with only 44 of the 1,024 women giving birth prematurely.
Elaborating further, they said that there is a possibility of pregnant women acquiring mercury from other sources as well and that more research was required to substantiate their conclusion.
