• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.132-137
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• 2012

The objective of this study was to examine the influence of anthropometric measurements of pregnant women, gestational weight gain, fundal height, and maternal factors, namely age, education, family income, parity along with maternal hemoglobin, on birth weight of neonates. A cross sectional study was performed in Khoy City in north west of Iran. Four hundred and fifty healthy pregnant women in the age between 16-40 years were selected for this study from seven health urban centers and one referral hospital. Findings showed that the mean age, height, fundal height, maternal weight, and gestational weight gain during pregnancy were 26.1 years, 159.1 cm, 32.9 cm, 72.0 kg, 11.8 kg respectively. The mean birth weight of neonates was 3.2 kg and 11% of neonates showed low birth weight. Age, family income, maternal height, weight, gestational weight gain and fundal height were significantly associated with birth weight of neonates. Using binary logistic regression analysis, fundal height, maternal hemoglobin, family income and gestational weight gain of pregnant women could be considered as predictive factors of birth weight of neonates.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.135-142
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• 1998

Maternal weight gain during pregnancy has been consistently associated with infant birth weight and pregnancy outcome. Our purpose was to determine the relationship between maternal weight gain pattern and birth weight. Consequently, maternal weight gain is monitored carefully and is encouraged during prenatal care in order to improve pregnancy outcome. Our study group included both 424 uncomplicated women and infant delivered at the Yeungnam University Hospital between 1993-1996. All recorded prenatal weight gain measurements were used to estimate maternal trimester weight gain, pattern of gain (based on low versus not-low gain at each trimester), and total gain at delivery. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to assess the relationship between these weight gain measurements and fetal birth weight. Each kilogram of maternal gain in the first, second, and third trimesters was associated with statistically related to the increase in fetal birth weight by 31.3, 19.0, and 24.5g, respectively. When compaired with the pattern of gain that was not low in any trimester, patterns with low gain in the first trimesters were associated with significant decreases in birth weight, but no important change in birth weight was seen for the group whose gains were not low in the first trimester. The results suggest that specific patterns of maternal weight gain, particularly weight gain during the first trimester, are related to fetal birth weight.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.805-817
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• 2008

The aim of this study was to determine the predictors of desirable pregnancy outcomes. The subjects were 795 pregnant women participating in the 2007 Mom and Baby Expo. They were grouped by gestational age: group I (3-12 wk: n = 95), group II (13-25 wks: n = 263) and group III (26-42 wks: n = 437). We collected data for general characteristics, sociocultural factors, life styles and nutrient intakes. We also collected pregnancy outcome data of 634 pregnant women including birth weight, maternal weight gain and gestational age. Dietary intakes of the subjects were estimated by Food Frequency Questionnaire. folate, iron and calcium intakes from foods of pregnant women were 88%, 79% and 58% of KDRIs, respectively. Bivariate analysis showed that birth weight was significantly associated with pre-pregnancy BMI, maternal weight gain, maternal age, gestational age and intakes of iron, potassium, $vitaminB_1$, $B_6$, fatty acids, MUFA. And also, bivariate analysis showed that maternal weight gain was significantly associated with pre-pregnancy BMI, maternal age, gestational age and intakes of energy, potassium. Further multivariate analyses suggest that vitaminB6 may be a significant predictor for low birth weight and energy intake and maternal age for maternal weight gain. Our findings suggest that dietary and lifestyle interventions during pregnancy can improve maternal and infant pregnancy outcomes. Prepregnancy weight control and intakes of energy and vitamin $B_6$ need to be taken into considerations in developing strategic prenatal care programs to promote desirable pregnancy outcome.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.1057-1065
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• 1998

Anthropometric and body compositional changes and the outcomes of the pregnancies of 90 healthy Korean women were investigated in a longitudinal study. Their weight increased from 51.3$\pm$5.9kg to 65.1$\pm$7.8kg during their pregnancies. The total weight gain was 13.8$\pm$4.5kg, and therefore, weekly weight gain was 340$\pm$110g during the entire period of the pregnancy. The weight gain was composed of approximately 50-60% fat mass and 40-50% fat-free mass. Skinfold thicknesses, both of triceps and subscapular, increased during the pregnancies. The fat mass calculated from skinfold thickness and that measured with bioelectrical impedance analysis went on increasing during the pregnancies. Although there was a considerable difference with respect to the fat mass observed using the three methods, fat mass gain was 5.0-6.1kg and fat-free mass gain was 4.0-5.3kg from the first trimester to the third trimester of pregnancies. There were significant correlations between maternal anthropometric parameters and indices of pregnancy outcomes. Especially, the infant's birth weight was associated with maternal pre-pregnancy weight and weight gains during the pregnancies. The infant's birth length was related to the maternal weight observed at term(p<0.05) and weight gain during the entire pregnancies (p<0.05) . Neither increase of fat mass nor fat-free mass affected the outcomes of pregnancy. These results show that maternal weight gain during pregnancy is led by increments of approximately above 50% fat mass. The fat mass increase seems to be larger in central areas than in subcutaneous areas. Maternal weight gain during pregnancy, especially during late pregnancy, is a factor affecting the birth weight and length of infant. On the basis of the body compositional changes, it can be predicted that the additional energy requirement for pregnancy in Korean women is more than 200-230 MJ (64,500-76,250kca1). (Korean J Nutrition 31(6) : 1057-1065, 1998)

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.182-188
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• 1999

A study was conducted on a group of 107 women, attending the three peripheral community clinics in Seoul and Kyunggi area for their prenatal care, to ascertain the relationship between maternal serum zinc concentration measured in pregnancy and several pregnancy outcomes. The serum zinc concentration was adjusted for estimated gestational age at the time of drawing blood. Mean daily zinc intake of the pregnant women estimated by a 24-hour recall method was 7.68$\pm$3.70$\mu\textrm{g}$/dl, 51% of RDA. and mean serum zinc concentration of the women was 94.03$\pm$36.99ug/dl. Adjusted maternal serum zinc level was significantly related to gestational maternal weight gain(p<0.05) and infant birth weight(p<0.05). Pregnant women with tgreater than 9kg weight gain during the gestation period had higher adjusted serum zinc levels than the subjects with less than 8kg weight gain. Adjusted serum zinc levels of mothers who delivered 3.0-3.5kg and greater than 4.0kg birth-weight infants were higher than those of mothers of low-birth-weight infants. Any association between maternal serum zinc level and gestational length, complications and morning sickness was not observed. There results suggest that the maternal serum zinc level may predict perhaps the author could be none specific.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.90-98
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• 2019

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify the association between maternal feeding practices and excessive weight gain in infants. Methods: This study adopted a cross-sectional design and included 240 pairs of mothers and their infants (129 boys and 111 girls) in public healthcare centers in the Daejeon area in South Korea. Via multivariate analyses, the association between maternal feeding practices and excessive weight gain in infants was identified. Results: Among 240 infants in this study, 39 (16.3%) infants gained excessive weight during 12 months after birth. Using multivariate logistic regression with adjustment for covariates, more than 7 months of exclusive breastfeeding was associated with a reduced likelihood of excessive weight gain in infants during the 12 months after birth (adjusted odds ratio: 0.39, 95% confidence interval: 0.02~0.81, p=.029). Conclusion: Based on these results, nurses in communities and clinics should educate mothers on the importance of longer durations of exclusive breast feeding and develop strategies for encouraging such behavior. Furthermore, support for exclusive breast feeding should be provided in various settings.

• Korean Parent-Child Health Journal
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.147-156
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• 2005

Purpose: The purpose of this study was the influencing variables of maternal weight gain and neonatal birth weight in full term pregnancies. Method: The subjects were 136 mothers in full term pregnancies(38-42 weeks) and her babies who were selected from 2 general hospital in Pusan. The data were collected from June 14th to October 14th in 2004. Data were obtained by questionnaires. Results: The maternal weight gains was lesser that the pregravid weights was the lower (F=3.410, p=.011). The volumes of weight gains of mothers that had alcohol drinking(t=6.259, p=.014), caffeine consumption (t=4.137, p=.044) were lesser than not. And the birth weight were influenced by passive smoking(t=4.017, p=.047), caffeine consumption (t=5.954, p=.016). Conclusion: The results of this research confirm that the maternal weight gains were influenced by pregravid weight, alcohol drink, caffeine consumption. And the birth weight were influenced by passive smoking, caffeine consumption.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.467-475
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• 2006

The necessity of adequate pregnancy weight gain for optimal pregnancy outcome has been recognized. However, the specific components of pregnancy weight gain that might be critical for fetal growth and development have not been elucidated clearly. The purpose of this study was to investigate the correlation of pregnancy weight gain and birth weight with serum leptin levels in women delivered newborns. The subjects were recruited from K university hospital. The subject's characteristic data (age $32.1\;{\pm}\;4.3\;y$, gestational age $39.5\;{\pm}\;1.1wk$, pre-pregnancy weight $58.0\;{\pm}\;8.6\;kg$, pregnancy weight gain $12.7\;{\pm}\;5.5\;kg$, newborn's birth weight $3.5\;{\pm}\;0.5\;kg$) were gathered. Maternal dietary assessment was carried out at the end of pregnancy. After delivery, blood samples were collected from 20 mother-newborn pairs. Serum levels of various lipids and leptin were analyzed. Maternal daily consumption of iron, zinc, folate were lower than the RDA of each nutrient and index of nutritional quality was less than 1 showing that the quality of maternal diet was low. The levels of serum leptin of mothers and infants were $10.2\;{\pm}\;6.7\;ng/ml$ and $1.7\;{\pm}\;0.6\;ng/ml$, respectively. The serum leptin concentrations of male infants $(1.9\;{\pm}\;0.7\;ng\;ml)$ were not different from that of females $(1.7{\pm}0.5\;ng/ml)$. A negative correlation was found between the maternal pre-pregnant BMI and weight gain during pregnancy (r = -0.54, p < 0.05). There was a positive correlation between the pregnancy weight gain and the newborn's birth weight (r=0.59, p < 0.01 There were also positive correlation between newborn's birth weight and newborn's serum leptin levels (r = 0.57, p < 0.01). No correlations were found between maternal serum leptin levels and that of newborn's. Efforts should be made to attain adequate diet and weight gain during the pregnancy to reduce the likelihood of low or over birth weight of newborns.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.24 no.3 s.35
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• pp.356-362
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• 1991

This study was performed to identify the maternal risk factors for the low birth weight. During the period from February to June in 1991, the medical record review and questionnaire interview were conducted upon the 465 pregnant women who were admitted to and delivered a baby in 3 general hospitals and an obstetric hospital in Kwangju area. The health and other related information from women who bore the low birth weight infant was compared with those from women who bore the normal birth weight infant. The results obtained were as follows : 1. Maternal age, low body weight at term, illegitimate birth, and maintaining work activity during pregnancy were positively associated with low birth weight. 2. The positive association was revealed between low birth weight and the previous abortion, short gestational weeks, anemia, low maternal weight gain during pregnancy, the obstetric present illness and hypertension. 3. Some maternal working conditions were associated with low birth weight although statistically not significant. 4. In multivariate logistic regression analysis, gestational weeks and maternal weight gain during pregnancy were related with low birth weight.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.483-490
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• 2004

Elevated maternal plasma homocysteine concentrations have been associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes, including birth defects, low birth weight, preeclampsia, spontaneous abortion, placental abruption, and other maternal or fetal complications. The purpose of this study was to assess the maternal plasma homocysteine level during pregnancy and to investigate the relationship between the plasma homocysteine concentrations and pregnancy outcomes. Venous blood samples were drawn from 82 pregnant women who were grouped with gestational age, 1st trimester (n = 26), 2nd trimester (n = 27) and 3rd trimester (n = 29). The concentration of plasma homocysteine was analyzed by HPLC, and pregnancy outcomes including gestational length, maternal weight gain, infant birth weight, and Apgar score were collected with the medical records of the pregnant women. The levels of plasma homocysteine of the pregnant women at the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd trimester were 5.7 $$\pm$ 3.7\mu㏖/L,\;5.6 \pm4.1\mu㏖/L\; and\; 7.0\pm 4.5\mu㏖/L$, respectively, which had not showed any significant difference. The result of this study showed that in case of the pregnant women at the 1st trimester, the maternal plasma homocysteine level of the pregnant women whose gestational length was less than 38 weeks was significantly high (p < 0.01) compared to that of the pregnants whose gestational length was more than 38 weeks. And also, the level of homocysteine of the pregnant women at the 2nd trimester was significantly low when the maternal weight gain was high (p < 0.05). These findings suggest that maternal plasma homocysteine level at early stage of gestation will be a predicter of gestational length and maternal weight gain.