STUDY OF MATERNAL BMI AT TERM PREGNANCY AND PREGNANCY OUTCOME

Abstract

Background: The health and quality of life of a pregnant women and her baby is determined by the nutritional status. The risks of extremes of maternal nutritional status and the related pregnancy complications is a growing problem. Maternal surveillance can be done better with the knowledge of maternal BMI and it helps in the prevention of complications. Aim: To determine the association between maternal BMI at term pregnancy and its antenatal maternal complications, labour and neonatal complications and to evaluate the risk of developing adverse maternal and foetal outcomes in women with extremes of BMI. Study design: Prospective observational study. Materials And Methods: 1000 antenatal women with singleton live pregnancies within 37-42 weeks of gestational age attending ANOPD or ELR were included to study the effect of maternal BMI at term pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes. Results: Obese women had the highest incidence and highest risk of developing antenatal complications like GDM (7.6%) (p=0.02), PIH (17.6%) (p<0.0001), preeclampsia (12.8%) (p<0.01) and labour outcomes such as instrumental vaginal deliveries (9.3%) (p<0.05), LSCS (52.3%) (p<0.0001) and early puerperal outcomes such as PPH (18.1%) (p=0.0002) and delayed wound healing (10.4%) (p=0.0006). Obese women also had the highest incidence and highest risk of neonatal outcomes such as LGA babies (12%) (p=0.0002) and NICU admission (11.9%) (p=0.01). Underweight women had the highest incidence and highest risk of anaemia (57.3%) (p<0.0001) and delivering SGA babies (21%) (p<0.0001). Conclusion: The present study establishes the adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes associated with the extremes of maternal BMI. This study emphasizes the importance of the nutritional status and health of mothers which helps to reduce the adverse outcomes.