Tehzeeb Zulfiqar, Farwa Rizvi, Samina Jalali, Sa Shamsi, Nasira Tasnim, Sarwat Jahan, Ayesha Mohammad.
Association of maternal anthropometry with the neonatal birth weight in 3rd trimester of normal pregnancy.
Pak J Public Health Jan ;2(4):4-10.

Introduction: There is scarcity of data from Pakistan, which looks at the relationship of maternal nutritional status with the neonatal birth weight The objective of study was to investigate association of increase in the neonatal birth weight with maternal height and weight, in 3rd trimester in normal pregnancy. Methods: The study was conducted between the months of April-November 2007 at Gynecology and Obstetrics Unit of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Islamabad. This Descriptive case series included a total of 118 patients who were selected by consecutive sampling. Dietary history was taken by a semi structured Food Frequency questionnaire at the time of registration and 24 hours dietary recall was conducted at least three times from time of registration until the last visit before pregnancy and mean dietary intake for third trimester was calculated. Differences between group means were calculated by Student’s t-test. Regression analysis was used to examine the trends between neonatal birth weight and the maternal dietary intake including energy, protein, carbohydrates and lipids. Results: Energy consumption of the pregnant women was 2168.89 Kcal/day during the third trimester of pregnancy. Maternal energy intake showed a highly significant (P = 0.007) increase in the birth weight of the neonates. Neonatal birth weight was positively associated with increasing maternal height (p=0.02) as well as increasing maternal weight gain (P=0.008). No significant difference was observed between the mean maternal energy consumption (kcal/day), maternal weight gain in the last trimester (g/wk), and neonatal birth weight (g) between the pregnant women belonging to the different categories of Body Mass Index and mean upper arm circumference. Conclusion: Maternal nutritional status is positively associated with the neonatal birth weight.

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