Many women who do not put on the enough weight during their pregnancy are at increased risk of delivering a premature baby, according to this latest study.
Researchers analyzed information about a group of women's weight before pregnancy and during pregnancy, and noted the week of pregnancy that women gave birth.
They calculated the women's pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI).
They also determined the number of pounds per week each woman gained leading up to the birth of her baby.
Women who had low pre-pregnancy BMIs and low weight gain during their pregnancy had a 5-fold increased risk of having a preterm birth.
Even women with a high BMI who had low or average weight gain during pregnancy showed an increased risk for a preterm delivery, although a smaller increase than the low-BMI women.
Researchers were not able to determine the underlying mechanism of this effect, but they stress that "more research is needed."
Obstetrics and Gynecology August 2000;96:194-200
During pregnancy, the amount of calories needed increase dramatically. Protein intake is especially important as most of the tissues of the fetus are constructed nearly entirely of protein. If a pregnant woman for some reason does not feel hungry enough, then this may mean that something is wrong. It may be that the diet that the woman is following is not the proper one.
Another factor in some women not gaining enough weight during pregnancy is that they may actually try to limit their intake of food in order to not gain too much weight. However, it is very dangerous for a woman to go on any type of weight-loss diet while pregnant.
Preventing premature birth is especially important in light of a just-published study from the Journal of the American Medical Association, which found adverse effects in babies born even as few as 3 weeks early, including greater rates of infant death from SIDS and other causes.
Another disadvantage for the premature infant is that they often do not get adequate levels of antibodies that would normally be present in full-term infants. For example, a just-published study from the Journal of Pediatrics showed that premature infants have significantly lower antibody levels to the varicella-zoster virus than term infants. This goes for antibodies to many other microorganisms as well.
In last week's newsletter, there was an article about the problem of anemia in premature babies, which is actually often induced by the large amount of blood drawn for lab tests.
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