[Design of a weight gain chart for pregnant women].
BACKGROUND
A low weight for height of pregnant women at the start of pregnancy and a low weight gain during pregnancy has a negative impact of fetal growth.


OBJECTIVE
To report the design of a weight gain chart for pregnant women that allows to classify mothers according to their nutritional status and to monitor weight gain during gestation.


METHODS
Data from 1745 Chilean mothers who delivered their newborns in 1983 and 1984 were used to build this chart.


RESULTS
The instrument could diagnose, from gestational week 10 onwards, mothers at risk of delivering babies with birth weight under 3000 g and set weight gain goals for each individual mother based on her nutritional status. Similarly, mothers at risk of delivering babies with birth weight over 3999 g could be early diagnosed during pregnancy and guided to have a prudent weight gain.


CONCLUSIONS
The chart can be easily used in prenatal clinics of developing countries and is currently applied in several Latin American countries.
Mardones
F
F
Departamento de Salud Pública, Santiago, Chile.
Rosso
P
P
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001724:Birth Weight; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D015596:Nutrition Assessment; D009752:Nutritional Status; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012015:Reference Standards; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D015430:Weight Gain
Desarrollo de una curva patrón de incrementos ponderales para la embarazada.