Relationship between the maternal nutritional status and the newborn cephalic perimeter

Abstract

A significant number of studies have shown the relationship of a nutrient deficit and the excess or lack of mother´s weight with the appearance of fetal malformations, premature birth, new born low weight, increased cesarean sections and difficulties in the newborn evolution. Objective. To Evaluate the relationship of the maternal nutritional status with the newborn cephalic perimeter. Materials and Methods. Non-experimental, clinical, analytical, cross-sectional study that included 150 women of any age with full-term pregnancy, with indifferent number of gestations, regardless of fetal sex who are in labor, who have a care card and that they are admitted to “José María Benítez” Hospital at gynecology and obstetrics service. Results. In relation to weight gain, 37% of the population corresponds to a normal increase of weight gain, 43% to mild increase, and 20% obtained an excessive ponderal increase. Also, with respect to the pregestational weight 54% had a normal weight, 21% underweight and 23% overweight. In the nutritional state at the end of pregnancy, 44% normal weight, 29% low weight and 27% overweight. The correlation index between the cephalic perimeter and the weeks of gestation is 0.2019, and respect to the total weight increase is equal to -0.0666, with p values over 0,05 Conclusion. There is a tendency of the head circumference to be lower in newborn babies whose mothers were in low weight before pregnancy, also in those mothers who had an exaggerated weight increase during gestation or that culminated the pregnancy located in the nutritional group of obesity, but not demonstrable in our results by non-significant p values. This trend is also observed in the Pearson correlation, but the dispersion of the data does not allow correct causal association. We recommend more extensive studies with more individuals as well as cohort designs to verify the findings obtained association. We recommend more extensive studies with more individuals as well as cohort designs to verify the findings obtained.

Keywords

• Underweight
• nutritional status
• cephalic perimeter