A case study of the influence of maternal pregnancy body composition changes on newborn outcomes (1031.16)

Studies suggest women are entering pregnancy overweight/obese and gaining excess gestational weight, both negatively associated with pregnancy outcome. This was a case study that examined the impact of gestational body composition changes of 3 pregnant women and their newborns. Maternal body composition was monitored via the BOP POD at 16, 24 and 36 weeks gestation as well as 2 weeks postpartum. Newborn body composition via the PEA POD was measured at 2 weeks after delivery. All 3 mothers were Caucasians, aged 29 yrs, 34 yrs and 37 yrs, pre-pregnancy BMI of 18.8 kg/m2, 22.1 kg/m2 and 40.5 kg/m2, respectively. All cases have college level or more education. Pregnancy weight gain was within the recommended gestational weight gain for each case. Interestingly, the obese case lost percent body fat but gained fat free mass during gestational weight gain. Although, both the normal weight and lean cases gained percent body fat during pregnancy, the gain was lower in the normal weight case compared to the lean ca...