ANTHROPOMETRIC AND BIOCHEMICAL CHANGES DURING PREGNANCY IN ASIAN AND EUROPEAN MOTHERS HAVING WELL GROWN BABIES

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Abstract
At this hospital, about a third of all mothers are Asian. Although generally they have smaller and lighter babies, many Asian mothers achieve similar standards of intrauterine growth to the European mother. This paper describes the nutritional status of Asian and European mothers having well grown babies. Twenty eight European and 11 Asian mothers, who had a normal past obstetric history and a normal present pregnancy resulting in a well grown baby, were studied throughout pregnancy. At each visit, weight, skinfold thickness, and mid‐upper arm circumference were measured and biochemical measurements of nutritional status were performed (serum albumin, transferrin and alkaline ribonuclease, plasma amino acids and nitrogen partition of urine). Asian mothers were fatter than European mothers at booking and put on more fat during the second trimester. At the same time, the biochemical tests suggested that the Asian mothers had a higher plane of nutrition. It seems that if the Asian mothers are well nourished in the second trimester, they can achieve a standard of intrauterine growth comparable to the Europeans.