Trajectory of gestational weight gain is related to birthweight: The TAWS cohort study in China

Abstract

Abstract Few studies have reported the timing and amount of gestational weight gain (GWG) to prevent large‐for‐gestational‐age (LGA) or small‐for‐gestational‐age (SGA). This study aimed to evaluate the association of GWG velocity in each trimester with LGA or SGA based on data from the Taicang and Wuqiang cohort study (TAWS, n = 2008). We used a linear mixed model to evaluate the association of trimester‐specific GWG velocity with birthweight categories and stratified by prepregnancy body mass index category and parity. For normal‐weight pregnant women, mothers with LGA births had higher GWG velocities than mothers with appropriate‐for‐gestational‐age (AGA) births in the first trimester (0.108 vs. 0.031 kg/week, p < 0.01), second trimester (0.755 vs. 0.631 kg/week, p < 0.01) and third trimester (0.664 vs. 0.594 kg/week, p < 0.01); in contrast, mothers with SGA births had lower GWG velocities than mothers with AGA births in the second trimester (0.528 vs. 0.631 kg/week, p < 0.01) and third trimester (0.541 vs. 0.594 kg/week, p < 0.01). For normal‐weight pregnant women with AGA births, multiparous women had lower GWG velocities than primiparous women in the second (0.602 vs. 0.643 kg/week, p < 0.01) and third trimesters (0.553 vs. 0.606 kg/week, p < 0.01). Therefore, for normal‐weight women, LGA prevention would begin in early pregnancy and continue until delivery and the second and third trimesters may be critical periods for preventing SGA; in addition, among normal‐weight pregnant women with AGA births, multiparous women tend to have lower weight gain velocities than primiparous women.

Keywords

• birthweight
• cohort study
• gestational weight gain
• velocity