Nutritional status of pregnant women and birth outcome

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to determine whether nutritional status of pregnant women influences the birth outcome. METHODS: A prospective study, conducted in Krakow, in 382 non-smoking, no obese pregnant women between the ages of 18 - 35. The course of pregnancy was uncomplicated, finished with natural labor, in biological time limits. The impact of mother's nutritional status before pregnancy and weight gain on newborns weight, length and head circumference was estimated by multivariate linear regression. RESULTS: The infant birth weight depended on mothers nutritional status before pregnancy and was lower in the group of underweight subjects (3381.6 g vs. 3479.9 g, p = 0.022). Women with low increase in body mass during pregnancy delivered newborns with lower anthropometrics parameters. The increase in body weight of one category resulted in statistically significant increase of birth weight by 140.9 g, increase of length by 0.51 cm and in head circumference by 0.27 cm. CONCLUSIONS: Increase in body mass during pregnancy is particularly important in the group of women underweight before pregnancy. Change of nutritional habits before and in the course of pregnancy may have beneficial effects for intrauterine fetal development.