Evaluating the Impact of a Pragmatic Nutrition Awareness Program for Expectant Mothers upon Birth Weight of the Newborn

Abstract

Poor maternal nutritional status and substandard antenatal care, which result in increased women's risk, low birth weight and stillbirth, afflict many countries with weak or emerging economies even today. Studies that address the effect of extending nutrition awareness among pregnant women to the net outcome of pregnancy remain scarce. We aimed to compare and contrast the effect of a pragmatic nutrition awareness program for expectant mothers (NAPEM) on birth weight of the newborn with a control group who received no such nutrition awareness activity. The effect of variables of mode of newborn delivery, associated complications at birth, and APGAR score of the newborn were also assessed. A pragmatic intervention trial of an antenatal care (ANC) program that consisted in nutrition awareness was conducted involving 53 pregnant women. Awareness was given through one-to-one interview and through informational literature provided to the participants in the local language. A hospital registry for deliveries undertaken during the study period was screened for identification of variables. A control group of matched pregnant women (n = 53) was obtained from the same hospital registry from preceding years, when the nutrition awareness program was not executed. A statistically significant improvement in birth weight of the newborn was observed in the intervention group, where expectant mothers were made aware about desired nutrition during pregnancy. A reduced incidence of complications associated with pregnancy was also observed in the intervention group. Providing awareness about nutritional requirements during pregnancy and suggesting the pragmatic ways to meet them was shown to be one possible effective measure to deal with pregnancy-related undernutrition. We show the efficacy of the intervention for underprivileged regions of India marked by inadequate health care delivery and lower socio-economical standards. We discuss our findings in the context of available evidence-based guidelines.

The role, mechanism and potentially novel biomarker of microRNA-17-92 cluster in macrosomia

“…Multiple factors have been identified that can affect fetal birth weight, such as genetic factors, various growth factors, hormones, nutrition and placental factors 7 . As an important interface between the fetal and maternal environments, placenta mediates the efficient maternal-to-fetal transfer of gases, nutrients and waste products.…”

Association of SLC38A4 and system A with abnormal fetal birth weight

“…Over the years, a large number of clinical studies have shown that fetuses with abnormal BW are more susceptible to adult diseases (fetal programming) (4,5,12). Currently, it is believed that the factors that affect fetal BW mainly include maternal factors, nutrition and placental factors (1,13). However, the placental factors may play an even greater role in BW, since placenta is the only bridge between the fetus and the extracellular matrix.…”

“…Birth weight (BW) refers to the body weight within 1 h of birth. Full-term newborns can be divided into three categories based on their BW: i) Low birth weight (LBW), with a BW of <2,500 g; ii) normal birth weight (NBW), with a BW of 2,500-4,000 g; and iii) fetal macrosomia (FM) with a BW of ≥4,000 g. A number of factors, including pregnancy nutrition, various growth factors, hormones, and the regulatory role of the placenta, affect BW through various mechanisms, leading to abnormal fetal BW (1). Over the years, a number of investigators have found that abnormal BW is closely related to the pathogenesis of numerous adult diseases (2)(3)(4).…”

“…Currently, studies on abnormal BW are focusing on nutrition during pregnancy, a variety of growth factors, hormones, and the regulatory role of the placenta (1). It is worth noting that there are genes expressed in the placenta that control resource utilization (6).…”

Prakriti-based research: Good reporting practices

“…This is, especially true when it comes to the fulfillment of the research requirements, where a reliable, validated, and reproducible method becomes essential. Although there have been several attempts at designing the reliable tools and protocols for this purpose, each of these suffers from its own limitations [12] , [13] , [14] , [15] , [16] , [17] , [18] , [19] , [20] . The common problems that are encountered in these protocols can be listed as follows: (a) Discrepancies related to the adherence to the textbooks, (b) ambiguities in assessing the characters, (c) inadequate attention given to inter-rater variability, (d) inadequate attention paid at the scoring pattern and weightage assignment, (e) ambiguities in assigning the criteria followed to express the final “ Prakriti ” type, (f) nondisclosure of the complete protocol used to identify Prakriti , etc.…”