Influence of maternal nutrition on outcome of pregnancy: prospective cohort study.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the relations of maternal diet and smoking during pregnancy to placental and birth weights at term.


METHODS
Prospective cohort study.


METHODS
District general hospital in the south of England.


METHODS
693 pregnant nulliparous white women with singleton pregnancies who were selected from antenatal booking clinics with stratified random sampling.


METHODS
Birth and placental weights at term.


RESULTS
Placental and birth weights were unrelated to the intake of any macronutrient. Early in pregnancy, vitamin C was the only micronutrient independently associated with birth weight after adjustment for maternal height and smoking. Each ln mg increase in vitamin C was associated with a 50.8 g (95% confidence interval 4.6 g to 97.0 g) increase in birth weight. Vitamin C, vitamin E, and folate were each associated with placental weight after adjustment for maternal characteristics. In simultaneous regression, however, vitamin C was the only nutrient predictive of placental weight: each ln mg increase in vitamin C was associated with a 3.2% (0.4 to 6.1) rise in placental weight. No nutrient late in pregnancy was associated with either placental or birth weight.


CONCLUSIONS
Concern over the impact of maternal nutrition on the health of the infant has been premature. Maternal nutrition, at least in industrialised populations, seems to have only a small effect on placental and birth weights. Other possible determinants of fetal and placental growth should be investigated.
Mathews
F
F
Division of Public Health and Primary Health Care, Institute of Health Sciences, University of Oxford, PO Box 777, Oxford OX3 7LF. fmathews@ermine.ox.ac.uk
Yudkin
P
P
Neil
A
A
D001724:Birth Weight; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004032:Diet; D004435:Eating; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009752:Nutritional Status; D009929:Organ Size; D010920:Placenta / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012907:Smoking