Maternal and neonatal anthropometry

Anthropometric measurements were assessed in 434 Brazilian mother-baby pair s (263 appropriate-for-gestational-age [AGA] and 171 intrauterine growth-re tarded [IUGR]) to compare their distribution and to evaluate associations i n AGA and IUGR pairs. Mothers who delivered IUGR babies were thinner and sh orter than mothers of AGA babies; the cut-off points of risk for delivering an IUGR baby were 50 kg for weight (OR = 3.8, p < 0.001) and 150 cm for he ight (OR = 3.6, p < 0.001). IUGR mothers also tended to gain less weight in pregnancy than AGA mothers, presenting a risk 6.1 times higher for weight gain less than or equal to 7 kg (p < 0.001). There were weak though statist ically significant correlations between AGA mother-baby pairs, and a few we ak correlations between IUGR mother-baby pairs. The larger number of statis tically significant correlations between anthropometric measurements in AGA mother-baby pairs than in IUGR pairs shows that in this region of the coun try, where maternal malnutrition has a low prevalence, probably other facto rs are associated with IUGR. It seems that the influence of maternal nutrit ion on a baby's size at birth is more important in populations with moderat e-to-severe malnutrition. In Brazil, as in some other developing countries, overweight is becoming an important issue and the prevalence of malnutriti on has decreased. In this study, there were few mothers (n = 17) with a bod y mass index (BMI) less than or equal to 20. On the other hand, there were many (n = 209) overweight (BMI 25-30) and obese (BMI > 30) mothers. We advi se further large epidemiological studies to assess the diet of pregnant wom en and its relationship to maternal weight, weight gain and low birthweight (particularly IUGR) in countries with a considerable prevalence of materna l undernutrition and maternal overweight/obesity.