The relationship between maternal and offspring birth weights after maternal prenatal famine exposure: The Dutch Famine Birth Cohort Study

We examined the impact of famine-induced changes in maternal birth weight ( MBW) on the association between MBW and offspring birth weight (OBW), Women born before, during, and after the Dutch Famine of 1944-1945 were intervie wed at ages 41 to 46 years. Women (n = 582) and their children (n = 1111) w ere included in the analysis if both mother and child were singleton and th e child was not delivered preterm. Mean birth weight (BW) of women with fir st-trimester exposure (n = 110) was 154 g higher(p = 0.008), and mean BW of women with third-trimester exposure (n = 138) was 251 g lower (p < 0.001) than mean BW of unexposed women (n = 302). First-born offspring of women wi th first-trimester exposure were 72 g heavier (95% confidence interval [CI] , -57 to 201; p = 0.27), and offspring of women with third-trimester exposu re were 43 g lighter (95% CI, -170 to 79; p = 0.47) than offspring of unexp osed women. Among unexposed women, each 100 g increase in MBW was associate d with 25 g (95% CI, 12 to 37) increase in OBW (adjusted for maternal age, smoking, weight, and height and offspring sex). This association was attenu ated in famine-exposed women (first-trimester change in OBW = 20 g per 100 g MEW; 95% CI, -1 to 41; third-trimester change in OBW = 14 g per 100 g MEW ; 95% CI, -9 to 37). When MBW and trimester of maternal famine exposure wer e considered in a joint model, there was no independent effect of trimester of maternal famine exposure on OBW. Associations were less consistent for later-born offspring. We conclude that maternal prenatal famine exposure do es not affect the association between maternal and offspring BW, Trimester of exposure was not a determinant of OBW, other than through its effect on MEW. Nevertheless, acute famine may impact on second-generation BW distribu tions indirectly, through its effect on the distribution of MEW.