Skip to main content
PMC home page
Archives of Disease in Childhood. Fetal and Neonatal Edition logoLink to Archives of Disease in Childhood. Fetal and Neonatal Edition
. 2004 Sep;89(5):F431–F435. doi: 10.1136/adc.2003.036970

Maternal nutritional risk factors for small for gestational age babies in a developed country: a case-control study

E Mitchell, E Robinson, P Clark, D Becroft, N Glavish, N Pattison, J Pryor, J Thompson, C Wild
PMCID: PMC1721755  PMID: 15321964

Abstract

Aims: To assess the effect of maternal diet during pregnancy on the risk of delivering a baby who is small for gestational age (SGA).

Methods: Case-control study of 844 cases (SGA) and 870 controls (appropriate size for gestational age (AGA)). Only term (37+ completed weeks of gestation) infants were included. Retrospective food frequency questionnaires were completed at birth on the diet at the time of conception and in the last month of pregnancy.

Results: At the time of conception, mothers of AGA infants ate significantly more servings of carbohydrate rich food and fruit, and were more likely to have taken folate and vitamin supplements than mothers of SGA infants. There was some evidence that mothers of AGA infants also ate more servings of dairy products, meat, and fish (0.05 < p < 0.1). However, after adjustment for maternal ethnicity, smoking, height, weight, hypertension, and occupation, fish intake (p  =  0.04), carbohydrate-rich foods (p  =  0.04), and folate supplementation (p  =  0.02) were associated with a reduced risk of SGA. In the last month of pregnancy, only iron supplementation was associated with a reduced risk of SGA (p  =  0.05) after adjustment for potential confounders.

Conclusions: This study suggests that small variations in maternal diets within the normal range during pregnancy in developed countries are associated with differences in birth weight.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (65.3 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Allen M. C. Developmental outcome and followup of the small for gestational age infant. Semin Perinatol. 1984 Apr;8(2):123–156. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Barker D. J., Gluckman P. D., Godfrey K. M., Harding J. E., Owens J. A., Robinson J. S. Fetal nutrition and cardiovascular disease in adult life. Lancet. 1993 Apr 10;341(8850):938–941. doi: 10.1016/0140-6736(93)91224-a. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Ek J. Plasma and red cell folate in mothers and infants in normal pregnancies. Relation to birth weight. Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand. 1982;61(1):17–20. doi: 10.3109/00016348209156944. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Godfrey K., Robinson S., Barker D. J., Osmond C., Cox V. Maternal nutrition in early and late pregnancy in relation to placental and fetal growth. BMJ. 1996 Feb 17;312(7028):410–414. doi: 10.1136/bmj.312.7028.410. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Gonzalez-Gross Marcela, Prinz-Langenohl Reinhild, Pietrzik Klaus. Folate status in Germany 1997-2000. Int J Vitam Nutr Res. 2002 Dec;72(6):351–359. doi: 10.1024/0300-9831.72.6.351. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Kramer M. S. Determinants of low birth weight: methodological assessment and meta-analysis. Bull World Health Organ. 1987;65(5):663–737. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Lumey L. H. Compensatory placental growth after restricted maternal nutrition in early pregnancy. Placenta. 1998 Jan;19(1):105–111. doi: 10.1016/s0143-4004(98)90105-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Mathews F., Yudkin P., Neil A. Influence of maternal nutrition on outcome of pregnancy: prospective cohort study. BMJ. 1999 Aug 7;319(7206):339–343. doi: 10.1136/bmj.319.7206.339. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Olsen S. F., Olsen J., Frische G. Does fish consumption during pregnancy increase fetal growth? A study of the size of the newborn, placental weight and gestational age in relation to fish consumption during pregnancy. Int J Epidemiol. 1990 Dec;19(4):971–977. doi: 10.1093/ije/19.4.971. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Olsen S. F., Secher N. J., Tabor A., Weber T., Walker J. J., Gluud C. Randomised clinical trials of fish oil supplementation in high risk pregnancies. Fish Oil Trials In Pregnancy (FOTIP) Team. BJOG. 2000 Mar;107(3):382–395. doi: 10.1111/j.1471-0528.2000.tb13235.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Olsen Sjúrdur Fródi, Secher Niels Jørgen. Low consumption of seafood in early pregnancy as a risk factor for preterm delivery: prospective cohort study. BMJ. 2002 Feb 23;324(7335):447–447. doi: 10.1136/bmj.324.7335.447. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Rasmussen K. Is There a Causal Relationship between Iron Deficiency or Iron-Deficiency Anemia and Weight at Birth, Length of Gestation and Perinatal Mortality? J Nutr. 2001 Feb;131(2S-2):590S–603S. doi: 10.1093/jn/131.2.590S. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Rolschau J., Kristoffersen K., Ulrich M., Grinsted P., Schaumburg E., Foged N. The influence of folic acid supplement on the outcome of pregnancies in the county of Funen in Denmark. Part I. Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol. 1999 Dec;87(2):105–104. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Spencer N., Logan S. Social influences on birth weight. Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed. 2002 Jan;86(1):F6–F7. doi: 10.1136/fn.86.1.F6. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Thompson J. M., Clark P. M., Robinson E., Becroft D. M., Pattison N. S., Glavish N., Pryor J. E., Wild C. J., Rees K., Mitchell E. A. Risk factors for small-for-gestational-age babies: The Auckland Birthweight Collaborative Study. J Paediatr Child Health. 2001 Aug;37(4):369–375. doi: 10.1046/j.1440-1754.2001.00684.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Thompson J. M., Mitchell E. A., Borman B. Sex specific birthweight percentiles by gestational age for New Zealand. N Z Med J. 1994 Jan 26;107(970):1–3. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Archives of Disease in Childhood Fetal and Neonatal Edition are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES