Background

Adequate gestational weight gain (GWG) is essential for healthy fetal growth. However, in low- and middle-income countries, where malnutrition is prevalent, little information is available about GWG and how it might be modified by nutritional status and interventions.

Objective

We describe GWG and its associations with fetal growth and birth outcomes. We also examined the extent to which prepregnancy BMI, and preconception and early weight gain modify GWG, and its effects on fetal growth.

Methods

This was a secondary analysis of the Women First Trial, including 2331 women within the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Guatemala, India, and Pakistan, evaluating weight gain from enrollment to ∼12 weeks of gestation and GWG velocity (kg/wk) between ∼12 and 32 weeks of gestation. Adequacy of GWG velocity was compared with 2009 Institute of Medicine recommendations, according to maternal BMI. Early weight gain (EWG), GWG velocity, and adequacy of GWG were related to birth outcomes using linear and Poisson models.

Results

GWG velocity (mean ± SD) varied by site: 0.22 ± 0.15 kg/wk in DRC, 0.30 ± 0.23 in Pakistan, 0.31 ± 0.14 in Guatemala, and 0.39 ± 0.13 in India, (P <0.0001). An increase of 0.1 kg/wk in maternal GWG was associated with a 0.13 cm (95% CI: 0.07, 0.18, P <0.001) increase in birth length and a 0.032 kg (0.022, 0.042, P <0.001) increase in birth weight. Compared to women with inadequate GWG, women who had adequate GWG delivered newborns with a higher mean length and weight: 47.98 ± 2.04 cm compared with 47.40 ± 2.17 cm (P <0.001) and 2.864 ± 0.425 kg compared with 2.764 ± 0.418 kg (P <0.001). Baseline BMI, EWG, and GWG were all associated with birth length and weight.

Conclusions

These results underscore the importance of adequate maternal nutrition both before and during pregnancy as a potentially modifiable factor to improve fetal growth.

Bauserman, M. S., Bann, C. M., Hambidge, K. M., Garces, A. L., Figueroa, L., Westcott, J. L., Patterson, J. K., McClure, E. M., Thorsten, V. R., Aziz, S. A., Saleem, S., Goldenberg, R. L., Derman, R. J., Herekar, V., Somannavar, M., Koso-Thomas, M. W., Lokangaka, A. L., Tshefu, A. K., Krebs, N. F., … Women First Preconception Trial Study Group. (2021). Gestational weight gain in 4 low- and middle-income countries and associations with birth outcomes: a secondary analysis of the Women First Trial. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 114(2), 804–812. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqab086