Objective: The objective of this study is to correlate mother’s nutritional status during pregnancy and determine the birth weight of the baby.Methods: A comparative, exploratory approach and prospective cohort study design was used to find out mothers’ nutritional status during pregnancy influences the birth weight of babies. The data were collected using structured interview schedule and dietary history by 24 h recall method from a randomly selected sample of 380 eligible mothers delivered at Krishna Hospital, Karad.Results: There was a significant correlation between birth weight and calorie intake (correlation coefficient [r]=0.595; p<0.001; Chi-square=201.3; p<0.001.) A higher proportion of low birth weight babies, i.e., 105 (32.2%) were delivered by the mothers consuming <70% of protein ([r]=0.245; p<0.001; χ2=24.033; p<0.001]). There was correlation between birth weight and calcium intake of mothers ([r]=0.525; p<0.001; χ2=10.12; p<0.001] “birth” weight and iron intake of mothers ([r]=0.250; p<0.001; χ2=13.798; p<0.001).Conclusion: The intake of calorie, protein, calcium, and iron of mother can significantly influence the weight of the newborn baby. Among all anthropometric parameters of the mother, weight gain was the strongest predictor of adequacy of the birth weight.

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BACKGROUND Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. Surgical treatment is the most common treatment of breast cancer which is mastectomy. It may have influence on the quality of life (QOL). So, this study was undertaken with the objective of evaluating the quality of life and related factors among patients operated for breast cancer. Aims and Objectives-1. To assess the quality of life of women who have undergone mastectomy. 2. To find association between quality of life and demographic variable. MATERIALS & METHODSEvaluative approach with one group test design was used. Study was conducted on 30 subjects from Karad using convenient sampling technique. The data was collected by structured questionnaire. Data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The sample size estimation was also done at our conveniences. RESULTSMost of all women had severe complaints about quality of life, psychological changes, sociological behaviour, stress level, religious thinking and fear after undergoing mastectomy. There was no statistical association found between age, educational qualification, occupation, type of family, age of menarche and any of the quality of life parameters namely QOL, psychological changes, fear, sociological behaviour, stress levels and religious behaviour. CONCLUSIONMajority of the women had severe complaints for quality of life, psychological changes, sociological behaviour, stress level, religious thinking and after undergoing mastectomy. Most of the women had very severe complaints about fear after undergoing mastectomy. KEY WORDSQuality of Life, Mastectomy, Religious Thinking, Psychological Changes. HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Bhosale TS, Shinde M, Patel R, et al. A study to assess the quality of life after mastectomy among women in a tertiary care hospital, Karad.

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With the social and economic changes in recent years, women's role has also significantly changed and with a considerable share of the job market, i.e., 42%. If the burden of pregnancy and child birth is added to it, it could be stressful to the mother and likely to affect the birth weight as well as gestational age of the baby adversely. A study to find out relationship between occupation of women and the birth weight and gestational age of the baby was undertaken at Krishna Hospital; Karad. The data was collected on randomly selected 380 pregnant women by using structured interview schedule at registration and followed them till delivery. Data was analyzed in respect to the objectives of the study by using descriptive and inferential statistics. There were 23(6.0%) heavy workers. All of them were working on road construction sites and delivered 19(82.8%) Low Birth Weight (LBW) babies out of them 06(26.1%) were preterm births. The mean birth weight and Gestational age of babies born to heavy workers were 2199.1 ± 488.5g and 262.3±18.6 days as compared to 2764.4 ± 463.7g and 274.0±13.4 days for moderate workers 2688.8± 475.5g and 275.6±13.1 days for sedentary workers respectively. The study concluded that heavy maternal physical activity had a significant deleterious effect on birth weight and gestational age.