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8 - Maternal nutrition and fetal growth and development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 August 2009

By
Susan M. B. Morton
Edited by
Peter Gluckman  and
Mark Hanson
Susan M. B. Morton
Affiliation:
University of Auckland
Peter Gluckman
Affiliation:
University of Auckland
Mark Hanson
Affiliation:
University of Southampton
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Summary

Introduction

There has been a great deal of literature devoted to better understanding the determinants of offspring size at birth. Over several decades the importance of maternal size has been acknowledged as a key factor in the fetal development of her offspring and from this association it has followed that maternal nutrition must also be of importance to the growth of her unborn infants. This chapter reviews the extent of the evidence for an association between maternal nutrition and reduced offspring size at birth, as characterised by low birthweight (birthweight of less than 2500 g irrespective of length of gestation). After acknowledging the complexity of the notion of low birthweight (LBW), maternal nutrition is defined in the context of its potential influence on fetal growth and the available evidence is summarised for associations between LBW and maternal anthropometry, nutritional status and diet in pregnancy. The evidence is drawn from both observational studies and from intervention studies (randomised controlled trials, RCTs), the latter of which may avoid the biases that often arise in uncontrolled trials. Where sufficient data are available the effects of nutritional interventions are quantified in terms of their demonstrated effects on fetal size and maturity at birth. The second part of the chapter discusses important limitations in our current understanding of the nature of the association and the potential implications this has for interventions to improve fetal growth.

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Developmental Origins of Health and Disease , pp. 98 - 129
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

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