Research Article

Pre-Pregnancy Maternal BMI as Predictor of Neonatal Birth Weight

Rafia Gul, Samar Iqbal, Zahid Anwar, Saher Gul Ahdi, Syed Hamza Ali, Saima Pirzada

PLOS ONE · Vol. 15, No. 10 · Article e0240748 · Published October 28, 2020 · DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0240748

iD ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0605-7089 · View All Publications by Dr. Rafia Gul

In Brief

A mother’s body mass index (BMI) before pregnancy can affect how her baby grows. This study looked at more than 2,700 mothers and their newborns in Lahore to see how pre-pregnancy BMI relates to the baby’s birth weight, length and head size.

Key Points

• A prospective cross-sectional study at Fatima Memorial Hospital, Lahore, of 2,766 mother and baby pairs over one year. All babies were full-term and live-born, and were checked within 72 hours of birth.
• By pre-pregnancy BMI, 4.0% of mothers were underweight, 46.6% normal weight, 32.9% overweight and 16.5% obese.
• Among obese mothers, 22.8% had diabetes, 10.1% had high blood pressure and 75.4% delivered by caesarean section.
• Average birth weight, length and head circumference rose as the mother’s BMI rose, so the authors concluded that maternal BMI has a direct relationship with neonatal birth weight.

Maternal BMIBirth WeightObesity in PregnancyNeonate

Published in PLOS ONE, Vol. 15, No. 10 (October 2020). PDF shared by the authors.