Relationship between maternal nutrient intakes in early and late pregnancy and infants weight and proportions at birth: prospective cohort study

Abstract

Experimental studies indicate that fetal undernutrition programmes life-long physiology and disease risk. The objective of this study was to investigate relationships between maternal nutrient intakes in early and late pregnancy with birth weights, placental weights, and infant proportions at birth. A prospective cohort study set in a district general hospital in the east midlands of England considered the diets of 300 pregnant women recruited from an antenatal ultrasound dating scan clinic. Estimation of nutrient intakes utilised five-day food diaries in the first and third trimesters of pregnancy. Two hundred and four diaries were returned and analysed for trimester one and 176 for trimester three. Birth weight and infant head circumference at birth were unrelated to nutrient intakes in the first or third trimester of pregnancy. Placental weight was not related to any maternal nutrient intakes. Thinness at birth was associated with low contributions of carbohydrate to dietary energy (p=0.036). The present study shows that maternal nutrition in well-nourished populations does not exert a strong influence upon fetal growth. These data suggest that reported associations between low weight, thinness or greater head circumference at birth and disease in later life are not attributable to the effects of maternal undernutrition.