Maternal nutrition and fetal outcome

Abstract

important regulator of human fetal growth. Two major steps are required to test this hypothesis: 1) to identify a predictable relationship between fetal growth and maternal nutrition and 2) to design and test an intervention to prevent predicted fetal malnutrition. This paper deals primarily with the first step and with several elements which must be considered to achieve it successfully. Five points will be emphasized: first, that extraneous nonnutntional factors which influence fetal growth must be taken into account; second, that the leukocyte cell model is related to the nutritional status of the mother; third, that cell bioactivities are associated with the interactions between some nutrients; fourth, that a nutritional profile, rather than deficiency or excess of a single nutrient, is associated with fetal growth in the Oklahoma women of our sample; and fifth, that it is feasible to use maternal nutritional status, measured once at midpregnancy, to predict birth outcome. Finally, duration of gestation, the major determinant of birthweight, and sex of the baby also must be taken into account. We hypothesized that maternal nutrition regulates fetal growth and that both are modified by conditioning factors (1,2). The prime objective has been to determine whether a significant relationship between them can be defined in order to predict expected fetal growth using maternal nutrition-related variables measured once at midpregnancy, which is at approximately about 21 wk.