Association of Maternal Third Trimester Weight Gain with Birth Weight among Nulliparous Women in Two Nigerian Tertiary Hospital

Background: Considering the high rate of maternal and infant mortality in Nigeria, effort is shifting towards preventive measures. Also, with the epidemic of obesity worldwide and the increase in maternal pre-pregnancy weight, it becomes important to find out how maternal weight gain in third trimester affects neonatal birthweight.

Aim: This study therefore aims to determine the association of maternal third trimester weight gain with birth weight Among in two Nigerian Tertiary Hospital.

Methods: It was an observational study done at Lagos University Teaching hospital and 68 Nigerian Army Reference hospital Yaba, Lagos. Serial weight of the women in third trimester were measured at the antenatal clinic and subsequently compared with the birth weight of the newborns at delivery in the labour ward of both hospitals. Data was collected using a spreadsheet, which was later exported to SPSS for analysis.

Results: A total of 260 antenatal women within the age range of 20 and 39 years, were recruited for the study. Their mean gestational age at delivery in weeks was 39±1. They had preponderance of male babies at delivery accounting for over half (55.2%). All in all, less than one-fifth of the babies were low birth weight (17%). A significant proportion of our cohorts (28.5%) had less than <1kg additional weight gain between 30 and 34 weeks, among which 22.7% also had low birth weight newborns. In addition, at 34-38 weeks’ gestational age, 21.6% of our cohorts also added <1kg to their pre-pregnancy weight 30% of which also had low birth weight babies.

Conclusion: In conclusion, it has been shown that there is an association between maternal weight gain in 3rd trimester and the neonates birth weight at delivery.