Question

• Identify recommended weight gain ranges for women who enter pregnancy underweight, normal weight, overweight, and obese.

• Identify three examples of relationships between nutritional status during pregnancy and long-term health outcomes in offspring.

Answer 1

Ans) Women who are pregnant with twins are given provisional guidelines. Those in the normal BMI category should aim to gain 37-54 pounds; overweight women, 31-50 pounds; and obese women, 25-42 pounds.

- Relationship between nutritional status during pregnancy and long term offsprings:

- Indicates that emerging evidence from randomized controlled maternal micronutrient intervention trials suggest some protective effects of antenatal vitamin A, iron and folate supplementation on fetal kidney health in humans. However, further high-quality intervention and longitudinal studies with follow-up periods beyond childhood are warranted to better characterise relationships with offspring renal function. With increasing knowledge regarding the vital contribution of optimal maternal health, dietary intake and nutritional status during pregnancy in developmental programming and their transgenerational effects, identifying at-risk populations and implementing locally adapted public health interventions prior to and during pregnancy are key to developing future preventative strategies. This has the potential to reduce the long-term disease risk for the individual and for subsequent generations, and also has substantial long-term economic benefits on health care costs worldwide.