Paper
Saturday, July 14, 2007
The effects of pre-pregnancy body mass index and gestational weight gain on birth outcomes in Taiwan
Mei-Yueh Chang, MSc, RN1, Shiow-Meei Tsai, PhD, RN1, Yan-Hsueh Chou, MSc, RN1, Kuei-Feng Chiang, MPH, RN2, and Feng-Yi Chang, RN2. (1) Nursing, National Tainan Institute of Nursing, Tainan, Taiwan, (2) Department of Nursing, Sin-Lau General Hospital, Tainan, Taiwan
| Learning Objective #1: The learner will be able to understand the pre-pregnancy BMI and prenatal weight gain are related with neonate birth weight. |
| Learning Objective #2: The learner will be able to pay attention to our suggestion that pre-pregnancy BMI and prenatal weight gain assessments are important part of prenatal care. |
AbstractAims: The purpose of this retrospective study was to determine whether the body mass index and pregnancy weight gain are associated with birth outcomes.
Methods: Two hundred and seventy women delivered at a district teaching hospital in southern Taiwan were recruited to particiate in this study. Initial data including maternity records on age, body mass index (BMI), prenatal weight gain, neonatal birth weight, and parity.
Results: The mean age of 270 women was 30.33 (range 16-42) years, mean BMI was 21.01 kg/m2 (range 15.22-32.81), mean weight gain in pregnancy was 13.83kg (range 0-29), and the mean birth weight of newborns was 3117.58gm (range 1435-4390). High weight gain during pregnancy and high pre-pregnancy BMI is connected to higher birth weight. After divided the weight gain in pregnancy into quartile, there was significant difference newborn body weight between 4group (F= 8.3, p<.001). Women with weight gain lower than 11kg resulted in mean birth weight 173.5gm, 244.33gm, 311.63gm lower than that of newborns of mothers who gained 11-14kg, 14-17kg, and more than 17kg respectively. Neonates of mothers who were within the normal weight (BMI, 19.8-26) had higher birth weigh than with overweight and underweight (F=5.09, p<.01). However, neonate birth weigh was not correlated with maternal age and not different between primipara and multipara.
Conclusion: Pre-pregnancy BMI and prenatal weight gain are related with neonate birth weight. These results suggest that pre-pregnancy BMI and prenatal weight gain assessments are important part of prenatal visits for pregnant women.