TY - JOUR T1 - Body Mass Index and Prenatal Weight Gain TT - شاخص توده بدنی و اضافه وزن دوران بارداری JF - gums-med JO - gums-med VL - 15 IS - 57 UR - http://journal.gums.ac.ir/article-1-474-en.html Y1 - 2006 SP - 15 EP - 20 KW - Body Mass Index KW - Pregnancy KW - Weight Gain N2 - Abstract Introduction: Weight gain during pregnancy is variable and depends on mother’s diet status before pregnancy. Based on medical resources, there is an inverse relationship between mother’s Body Mass Index(BMI) and prenatal weight gain. Objective: The aim of the study was to investigate mothers’ BMI before pregnancy and prenatal weight gain. Materials and Methods: In a cross – sectional study, we analyzed retrospectively prenatal and obstetrical reports of 480 women attended health centers of rural areas in Rasht, who delivered during year 2002. The selection of them was done by cluster and random selection in ten health centers. Maternal characteristics including age, job, education, pre pregnancy weight, height, body mass index, pregnancy weight gain, parity, and main outcome including birth weight were recorded. Student t-test, Chi-square, One-way Anova and correlation were used to analyze data. Results: On the basis of body mass index (BMI), 7.9% 0f women were thin, 45.4% of them had normal BMI and 46.7% were overweight. The mean of BMI was 26.2 ± 5.2. The mean of pregnancy weight gain was 9.2± 4.1 kg (min=0.5, max=21kg). An inverse relationship between BMI and pregnancy weight gain was showed (r=-0.26, p =0.01). Although the mean of pregnancy weight gain in thin women was higher than obese ones but, about most of them didn’t gain expected weight during pregnancy. Rate of low birth weight was about 11% Conclusion: This study shows an inverse relationship between BMI and pregnancy weight gain. Pregnancy weight gain is lower than recommendations and also rate of LBW is higher than expected in these rural regions. Use of appropriate nutritional model for pregnant women, could contribute to increased pregnancy weight gain and improved birth weight. M3 ER -