Maternal Anthropometry and Intrauterine Growth Retardation (IUGR) - A Hospital Based Study

This was a prospective observational study conducted on 374 pregnant women who remained in the study beginning from first trimester until gave birth to singleton newborn babies selected from five maternity hospitals located at different regions in the country over a period of thirty months from July 2002 to December 2004. Objectives of the study were: (1) To find out the incidence of IUGR in the hospital based study, (2) To observe the impact of prepregnancy weight and pregnancy weight gain on IUGR, (3) To select appropriate cut off points of pre-pregnancy weight and pregnancy weight gain to identify women at risk for delivering IUGR babies and (4) To observe the association between socio-demographic factors and maternal anthropometry. Twenty one percent women delivered IUGR babies. Mothers who gained 4 kg in second trimester and 5kg in third trimester gave birth to significantly higher incidence of IUGR babies (29.1% and 35.3% respectively) in comparison to mothers gained e” 4 kg and e” 5 kg who gave birth to 14.4% and 9.3% IUGR babies (p .001) . Maternal weight for height in the lower range of normalcy at early pregnancy was associated with an increased risk of IUGR when compare to normal or over weight for height group of mothers (30.6% vs. 9.5%; p= .001). The study revealed that combination of 90 percent of standard weight for height and net weight gain per week 125gm have strong negative influence on foetal growth (39.5% IUGR babies). On the contrary, combination of e” 110 percent of weight for height and weekly weight gain of e” 150 gm have significant positive impact on foetal growth (6.7% IUGR) . For total weight gain, best cut off point for identifying risk women of delivering IUGR babies was recommended 8.5 kg and that for prepregnancy or first trimester weight was 47.5 kg.