Background: Maternal characteristics during pregnancy affect offspring weight and future risk of obesity and its metabolic consequences. The study aim was to determine the relationships between maternal pre-pregnancy weight status, pregnancy weight gain and physical activity and neonatal body composition, which confers additional information than weight alone.
Methods: Skinfold measurements were performed in 101 healthy postpartum women and their neonates born at Sheba Medical Center, in order to assess neonatal body composition. Maternal data collected included demographic factors, pre- and late-pregnancy height and weight, and physical activity during pregnancy. Newborn data included gestational age, sex, birth weight, birth length, and measurements of skinfold thickness for assessing body composition. Correlation analyses were performed.
Results: Seventy-three percent of mothers had a normal weight status before pregnancy. The rate of overweight and obesity was 21% and 6%, respectively. One-third of mothers reported performing the recommended amount of physical activity during pregnancy.
Weak positive correlations were found between maternal gravidity/parity and newborn weight percentile (r=0.27 and 0.29, respectively, p<0.01). Negative correlations were found between maternal age and neonatal fat percent (r=-0.22, p= 0.02), and between the amount of exercise performed in pregnancy and neonatal fat percent (r = -0.20, p = 0.05). No significant correlation was found between maternal pre-pregnancy weight, overweight status or weight gain during pregnancy and various neonatal anthropometric measures or body fat.
Conclusion: Few maternal factors were found to correlate with neonatal fat percent, though correlations were weak: gravidity and parity, maternal age, and only one modifiable factor- the amount of physical activity during pregnancy.
The study was supported by a research grant from Materna research institute, Israel
