Do reproductive patterns affect maternal nutritional status?: An analysis of maternal depletion in Lesotho

Miller, Jane; Huss‐Ashmore, Rebecca

doi:10.1002/ajhb.1310010403

Cited by 47 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Three cross-sectional studies have evaluated effect on MNS of time since delivery among non-pregnant women; these women may have still been breastfeeding during part of the observation period. Among women in Lesotho, a negative association was found between time since delivery and BMI for the period until 12 months postpartum; thereafter a positive association was found (Miller & Huss-Ashmore, 1989). Predicted BMI was thus highest for women 12 -17 months postpartum.…”

Section: Changes In Mns During Period Of Non-pregnancy=non-lactation mentioning

confidence: 75%

Associations between reproduction and maternal body weight: examining the component parts of a full reproductive cycle

2003

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Objective: Many transitional societies currently face both extremes of nutritional status, undernutrition and overnutrition. Women of reproductive age are at high risk of these conditions. The purpose of this review is to consider evidence for relationships between reproduction and nutritional status in women from societies of varying economic development, using body weight or weight-for-height as indicators of maternal nutritional status. Design: The conceptual framework guiding this review is that the duration of the reproductive cycle varies as a function of its component parts, which include (i) pregnancy, (ii) lactation, (iii) the non-pregnant=non-lactating (NP=NL) interval or, possibly, (iv) an overlap between lactation and next pregnancy. All component parts of the complete cycle vary in length and are associated with changes in nutritional status. A variety of factors ('proximal and distal determinants') influence the duration of the component parts of the reproductive cycle. This framework is used to examine current knowledge of changes in maternal nutritional status during each of these parts. Results: Women in affluent societies retain some weight with each pregnancy, beyond that of non-pregnant women. Women in less affluent societies retain less weight with each pregnancy. During lactation, women in both affluent and less affluent societies experience only modest weight loss. During the NP=NL interval, women in affluent societies tend to gain weight, whereas weight of women in less affluent societies is likely to fluctuate. Conclusions: We conclude that there is a dearth of information on certain parts of the cycle, particularly the periods of overlap of lactation with pregnancy and the NP=NL interval.

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Section: Changes In Mns During Period Of Non-pregnancy=non-lactation mentioning

confidence: 75%

Associations between reproduction and maternal body weight: examining the component parts of a full reproductive cycle

2003

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“…They are not choosing between having another baby and helping daughters; their only option is helping. To me the mother hypothesis is more compelling, given Hamilton's 134 rule, low life expectancies in the environment of evolutionary adaptedness, 80,123,124 the likelihood of male philopatry, 133,135,136 as well as the expediency of overlapping child care and the logical inference that when fertility ceases a woman is still likely to have a lastborn to care for.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Menopause: Adaptation or epiphenomenon?

Peccei

2001

Evolutionary Anthropology

124

122

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Evolutionary biologists consider all complex design features of organisms to be ultimately the result of natural selection. As such, menopause can always be considered an adaptation. At the same time, it is also recognized that an adaptation is always morphologically, physiologically, and developmentally constrained by an organism's phylogenetic heritage. 18 The question of origin is whether menopause is primarily an adaptation, in the sense that selection directly favored a postreproductive life span in human females, or whether it is an epiphenomenon of selection for efficient early reproduction or physiological constraints preventing prolongation of fertility in the presence of increases in human longevity. The distinction between adaptations, fitness trade-offs, and true phylogenetic constraints is the level of explanation. Appeals to the role of constraints without explanation of why these constraints themselves are not subject to evolutionary change constitute proximate explanations. Although it is useful for heuristic purposes to think in terms of three distinct alternativesadaptation, trade-off, or constraintthe explanations overlap and interact. For instance, a trade-off is part adaptation and part constraint. In addition, the question of menopause cannot be isolated from the question of human longevity. In all three cases, the bottom line is that selection favors early reproduction relative to life span. In this sense, reproductive senescence is always premature. In this paper I critically review the evidence for the adaptation, physiological trade-off and by-product of increased longevity explanations for the origin of menopause.

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“…Conditions in which energy reserves have shown no maternal depletion with parity or other measures of reproductive status in non-Western women are not unusual and probably represent women with adequate dietary energy intake and balance during pregnancy and lactation (Adair, 1984;Adair et al, 1983;Miller and Huss-Ashmore, 1989). In one of the most comprehensive studies of non-Western maternal health and reproduction conducted to date, women from The Gambia showed neither fat depletion with parity (Prentice et al, 1981a) nor fat depletion with stage of lactation (Prentice et al., 1981b).…”

Section: Ma L L T L E Et Almentioning

confidence: 97%

Energy reserves and parity of nomadic and settled Turkana women

Little

Leslie

Campbell

1992

American J Hum Biol

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Members of the Turkana tribe include settled and nomadic peoples who reside in the southern part of Turkana District in the semiarid region of northwest Kenya. Nomadic Ngisonyoka Turkana keep livestock (camels, cattle, sheep, goats, donkeys), subsist principally on livestock products, and move camps frequently in search of forage for the livestock; settled Turkana cultivate foods along the principal rivers. Both nomadic and settled Turkana are subject to limited food resources on seasonal and long-term bases. Protein from meat, blood, and milk is sufficient in the diet, but food energy is limited, as are body fat reserves. Previous work has documented a decline in maternal adiposity with age in a large sample of the relatively lean nomadic women, and a negative association of fat stores with parity in a smaller sample of nomadic women. The problem of maternal depletion of fat energy reserves as a function of female reproductive history is explored in this study through anthropometry in a relatively large sample (N = 312) of nomadic and settled women. Both nomadic and settled women displayed some parity-related losses in fat stores. The relationship was stronger in the nomads, even after controlling for age. © 1992 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

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Do reproductive patterns affect maternal nutritional status?: An analysis of maternal depletion in Lesotho

Cited by 47 publications

References 13 publications

Associations between reproduction and maternal body weight: examining the component parts of a full reproductive cycle

Associations between reproduction and maternal body weight: examining the component parts of a full reproductive cycle

Menopause: Adaptation or epiphenomenon?

Energy reserves and parity of nomadic and settled Turkana women

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