What expectant dads eat during their partner's pregnancy has a lasting effect on the future health of their unborn children, a Queensland-based study suggests.
Researchers studied the self-reported eating habits of almost 200 couples, recruited during pregnancy, finding women were more likely to meet the recommended daily dietary guidelines if their partners also did.
The couples all received antenatal care at the Mater Hospital, Australia's largest maternity hospital based in Brisbane, and were recruited as part of the Queensland Family Cohort (QFC), which researchers hope to track across 30 years.
Mater Research's QFC principal investigator Vicki Clifton said behaviours during the first 1,000 days of life, starting from conception, were known to influence chronic disease in adulthood.
"Healthy eating during pregnancy provides the unborn child with an important foundation for future good health, but many pregnant women aren't meeting the recommended Australian dietary guidelines," Professor Clifton said.
"The research suggests better education and support for partners could help improve the eating habits of expectant mums, which in turn will make the foetus healthier and lower their future risk of disease."
Previous research has found a man's diet can influence the quality of his sperm, which in turn may affect the health of his children.
Discrepancies in 'disappointing' diets
Lead author of the latest Queensland diet-in-pregnancy research, Shelley Wilkinson, said the pilot study looked at whether an expectant father's diet also impacted on what his partner ate, thereby affecting the baby's wellbeing.
"While it's known that education, income and body mass index influence how women eat in pregnancy, this study addresses the gap in knowledge in how a partner's eating habits influence mums-to-be," Associate Professor Wilkinson said.
"We found that there was an association between what the partner ate and what the mums consumed, which hasn't really been looked at before.
Associate Professor Wilkinson, from the University of Queensland's School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences, said the study showed women with a higher pre-pregnancy body mass index were far more likely to exceed the recommended maternal weight gain ranges.
Only 41.4 per cent of women met the daily fruit intake recommendations compared with 31 per cent of the men in the study.
About 28.4 per cent of the expectant mums were eating enough vegetables compared with 15 per cent of the dads, while less than one per cent of women and 20 per cent of partners complied with the recommended intake of serves for breads, cereals and grains.
Healthy choices from partner 'essential'
Parents Vicki and Thomas Holohan joined the study while Vicki was pregnant with their youngest child, Hannah, who turned one in February.
They also have three boys — Jack, eight, Joseph, six, and Hugh, four.
Mrs Holohan said she always considered the health of the baby was up to the mum's choices — until she took part in the research.
"When I was pregnant, I did put a lot of pressure on myself that it was me that was making the meal choices for my baby," she said.
"It's interesting to see that actually, no, it's your environment and your situation and your support around the house and what your partner is doing does have that influence on decisions.
"My husband is a big part of meal prep and meal choices. He loves to cook.
Mrs Holohan admitted the family was not perfect in its eating habits.
"We do sometimes have a quick, convenient dinner — there's definitely scope to improve," she said.
The Holohans, including baby Hannah, have provided samples of blood, hair and nail clippings for the researchers and will be followed up over time.
Mrs Holohan urged other pregnant women and their families to consider joining the Queensland Family Cohort research, which will probe genetic and other factors that drive disease risk in pregnancy, in childhood and later life.
Associate Professor Wilkinson hopes to repeat the diet study with a much larger sample of expectant couples.
Her pilot study was a collaboration between Mater Research, UQ, the University of Newcastle, the University of Wollongong and the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom.
It is published in the peer-reviewed journal, Nutrition and Dietetics.
