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

This was a prospective observational study conducted on374 pregnant women who remained in the study beginningfrom first trimester until gave birth to singleton newbornbabies selected from five maternity hospitals located atdifferent regions in the country over a period of thirtymonths from July 2002 to December 2004. Objectives ofthe study were: (1) To find out the incidence of IUGR in thehospital based study, (2) To observe the impact of prepregnancyweight and pregnancy weight gain on IUGR,(3) To select appropriate cut off points of pre-pregnancyweight and pregnancy weight gain to identify women at riskfor delivering IUGR babies and (4) To observe theassociation between socio-demographic factors andmaternal anthropometry.Twenty one percent women delivered IUGR babies. Motherswho gained <4 kg in second trimester and <5kg in thirdtrimester gave birth to significantly higher incidence ofIUGR babies (29.1% and 35.3% respectively) in comparisonto mothers gained e” 4 kg and e” 5 kg who gave birth to14.4% and 9.3% IUGR babies (p<.001) . Maternal weightfor height in the lower range of normalcy at early pregnancywas associated with an increased risk of IUGR whencompare to normal or over weight for height group ofmothers (30.6% vs. 9.5%; p=<.001). The study revealedthat combination of <90 percent of standard weight forheight and net weight gain per week <125gm have strongnegative influence on foetal growth (39.5% IUGR babies).On the contrary, combination of e” 110 percent of weightfor height and weekly weight gain of e” 150 gm havesignificant positive impact on foetal growth (6.7% IUGR) .For total weight gain, best cut off point for identifying riskwomen of delivering IUGR babies was recommended 8.5kg and that for prepregnancy or first trimester weight was47.5 kg.Key words: Low birth weight; intrauterine growthretardation; AnthropometryDOI: 10.3329/jbcps.v28i2.5366J Bangladesh Coll Phys Surg 2010; 28: 73-80