Tehzeeb Zulfiqar, Farwa Rizvi, Samina Jalali, Shami S A, Nasira Tasnim, Sarwat Jahan.
Effects of maternal macronutrient intake in 3rd trimester of normal pregnancy on the maternal weight gain and neonatal birth weight of full term neonates.
Rawal Med J Jan ;36(2):137-42.

Objective: To determine effects of maternal macronutrient intake in 3rd trimester of normal pregnancy on the maternal weight gain and neonatal birth weight of full term neonates. Patients and Methods: The study was conducted from April, 2007 to November 2007 at Gynecology and Obstetrics Unit of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Islamabad. This hospital based Descriptive study was 2 carried out on pregnant women registered at 26 weeks of pregnancy by employing consecutive (non-probability) sampling technique. Dietary history was taken by a semi structured Food Frequency questionnaire and 24 hours dietary recall at the time of registration. Written informed consent was obtained. Results: Mean energy and protein consumption of the pregnant women was 2168.89 Kcal/day and 65.71 g/day respectively in the last trimester of pregnancy. Fat and carbohydrate intake was 73.26 g/day and 306.14 g/day respectively. Maternal energy intake more than the National Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for Pakistan showed a highly significant (P = 0.007) increase in the birth weight of the neonates but no increase was seen (P = 0.93) in the maternal weekly weight gain. Maternal fat consumption had a significant positive relation with both the neonatal birth weight (P = 0.005) as well as maternal weekly weight gain (P = 0.03) but carbohydrate consumption was only significantly related to maternal weight gain (P = 0.01). Conclusion: This study suggests a strong role of maternal diet during pregnancy for optimal newborn weight.

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