On the use of a normal pregnant women's weight curve in the diagnosis of intra-uterine malnutrition

Abstract

With the purpose of studying the influence of the maternal nutritional condition on the newborn's weight, the authors applied the ''Normal pregnant women's weight curves" to 1,347 patients. The use of these curves allowed identification of the maternal nutritional condition. These pregnant women were divided into three groups: 234 undernourished, 894 normal and 210 obese women. The newborns' weight at birth were compared in each group of pregnant women and the results showed that, the incidence of pregmaturity was twice as large in the undernourished pregnant women's newborns, as was also the incidence of post-term in obese pregnant women. The greatest incidence of children small for their gestational age was among undernourished pregnant women and in normal pregnant women whose weight gain was under the average values of the "Normal pregnant women's weight curves".