Low maternal birth weight—an association with impaired glucose tolerance in pregnancy

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Abstract
Summary Summary A survey of maternal birth weights of 592 pregnant women undergoing glucose tolerance tests at Liverpool Maternity Hospital during a 2 year period from 1992 to 1993 was performed to test the hypothesis that poor in utero growth of the mother may predispose to impaired glucose tolerance during her pregnancy. Plasma glucose concentrations at 2 hours fell with increasing birth-weight and. overall, the women at highest risk of developing glucose intolerance or gestational diabetes were those with a low birth weight and a high body mass index as an adult. The results show a similar trend to those found in older non-pregnant subjects, and are thought to reflect poor development of the endocrine pancreas as a result of in utero growth retardation. The long term effects of intra-uterine growth retardation on adult health are not fully understood, but it is becoming more probable that the physiological adaptation to placental insufficiency may not only affect the growth of the fetus in utero, but alterations in development occurring as a consequence of vascular shifts to maintain the cerebral circulation may permanently affect organ development, and thus its structure and function in the adult. This may alter the way that we manage cases of growth retardation in the future.
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