Pattern and Determinants of Gestational Weight Gain an Important Predictor of Infant Birth Weight in a Developing Country

Abstract

The study aimed to determine correlates of gestational weight gain and infant birth weight of pregnant women attending antenatal clinics in public primary health care facilities in lfe Central and East Local Government Areas of Osun State, Nigeria. Over 1000 women were recruited during booking and antenatal clinic and followed up till delivery. Chi square was used in the bivariate analysis of association between gestational weight gain, pre pregnancy BMI and demographic characteristics. The correlates of gestational weight gain and infant birth weight were determined by linear regression analysis.Eight percent are underweight, 10.3% are overweight or obese, 78% had a weight gain less than 7kg and 0.5% had a weight gain above 11.5kg. Ninety seven percent gained less than recommended weight, only 3% of the women gained the recommended weight for their pre pregnant BMI mostly the obese women. Twenty eight percent of the women had infant weight within normal (2.5kg and above). The infant weight increases with the gestational age, maternal age and parity but decreases with gestational weight gain though not significant. Maternal age and parity were significant predictors of gestational weight gain and pre pregnancy BMI was a significant predictor of infant birth weight.The gestational weight gain and infant weight reduces as the pre pregnant BMI increases. Most of the women had low birth weight babies. There is a need to educate mothers on good weight before conception in order to improve birth outcome in view of other factors not looked into in the present study.

Are women in Uganda gaining adequate gestational weight? A prospective study in low income urban Kampala

“…Furthermore, our study found about three quarters of participants with a normal pre-pregnancy BMI. This is close to that reported in the Nigerian study [10], but is higher than the 65.4% that was reported in a study conducted in Vietnam [23]. …”

“…The pre-pregnancy BMI of the participants was close to what was reported in Nigeria [10] but was lower than what was reported in another study in Nigeria and also in Brazil [20, 21]. Our low BMI could be explained by the fact that our study enrolled only women who were pregnant for the first or second time and the majority were relatively young, mean age of 20.9 years.…”

“…In developing countries, inadequate GWG is more prevalence than adequate GWG in women [3, 10, 11] and the reverse is true in developed countries [9, 12, 13]. For example, a recent report from Nigeria indicated than over 96% of the pregnant women failed to gain adequate gestational weight [10] while a study in Iran found 45.9% of women failing to gain adequate weight in pregnancy [14].…”

“…For example, a recent report from Nigeria indicated than over 96% of the pregnant women failed to gain adequate gestational weight [10] while a study in Iran found 45.9% of women failing to gain adequate weight in pregnancy [14]. In developing countries, a bigger proportion of pregnant women do not receive advice from health professionals about appropriate GWG [15].…”

Ganancia de peso gestacional y retención de peso posparto en una cohorte de mujeres en Aragón (España).

“…Factores como la paridad (20)(21)(22), la edad (20,23), el nivel educativo (23), la etnia o raza (24,25), el IMC pregestacional (19,22) o el tabaquismo (4,26) han sido intermitentemente relacionados con la ganancia de peso gestacional. En nuestra muestra, la edad y el IMC pregestacional se asociaron de forma inversa a la ganancia de peso gestacional.…”