Nutrition study in pregnancy: Dietary analyses of seven-day food intake records of 514 pregnant women, comparison of actual food intakes with variously stated requirements, and relationship of food intake to various obstetric factors

Abstract

1.1. The diets of 514 pregnant women were analyzed with the result that only 10 could be termed good, 109 fair, and 295 poor. They fell much below the standard in all elements when compared with the recommended dietary allowances of the National Research Council.2.2. Caloric, carbohydrate, and fat intake were found to be unaffected by income. The intake of vitamin A, vitamin B1, ascorbic acid, and riboflavin rose with the income. Protein, calcium, and iron showed a slight rise with increased income.3.3. This small series did not show any positive relationship between dietary adequacy and the occurrence of certain complications of pregnancy and childbirth. (a) There was no evidence that toxemia occurs in the presence of insufficient protein, vitamin A or vitamin B1 intake. (b) There were not enough cases of abortion, hemorrhage, pyelitis and cystitis, and intercurrent infections to justify any conclusions. (c) Protein deficiency did not seem responsible for the production of premature labor in a short series of cases. The same may be said for vitamin A. (d) The number of neonatal deaths and stillbirths was too small to show any positive relationship to dietary inadequacy. (e) The diets of those women who were morbid after delivery did not differ markedly from the remainder of the group with respect to protein, vitamin A, or vitamin C intake. (f) Protein intake apparently had no bearing on the ability of the women to nurse their babies during the hospital stay.4.4. Eighty-four per cent of a group who presented a history of nausea and vomiting in early pregnancy had an intake below the pregnancy standard of 600 units of vitamin B1.5.5. Two hundred and fifty women in the series experienced an apparently normal reproductive process. Their food intake showed no variation from that of the entire group of 514.