Adolescent maternal weight gain and low birth weight: a multifactorial model

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Maternal weight gain is one of the most important independent predictors of infant birth weight and interacts with other maternal characteristics, including age, so that infant birth weight reaches a plateau at a higher level of maternal weight gain for young adolescents than for adults. It has been suggested that encouraging young adolescents to gain larger amounts of weight during pregnancy may be one way to decrease their risk of low-birth-weight deliveries. This recommendation may be premature because the mechanisms underlying the interaction between maternal age and weight gain are incompletely understood and may include such diverse factors as incomplete maternal growth, reproductive immaturity, diminished maternal body size, nutritional deficiencies, socioeconomic and behavioral factors, and maternal emotional stress. This review summarizes the literature on adolescent maternal weight gain and infant birth weight and discusses the importance of considering a multifactorial model in reformulating the weight-gain recommendations for pregnant adolescents. Maternal weight gain is one of the most important independent predictors of infant birth weight and interacts with other maternal characteristics, including age, so that infant birth weight reaches a plateau at a higher level of maternal weight gain for young adolescents than for adults. It has been suggested that encouraging young adolescents to gain larger amounts of weight during pregnancy may be 1 way to decrease their risk of low-birth-weight deliveries. This recommendation may be premature because the mechanisms underlying the interaction between maternal age and weight gain are incompletely understood and may include such diverse factors as incomplete maternal growth, reproductive immaturity, diminished maternal body size, nutritional deficiencies, socioeconomic and behavioral factors, and maternal emotional stress. This review summarizes the literature on adolescent maternal weight gain and infant birth weight and discusses the importance of considering a multi-factorial model in reformulating the weight-gain recommendations for pregnant adolescents. More must also be learned about the relationship between the pattern of maternal weight gain and fetal growth and development. The pattern of tissue growth during gestation suggests that the effect of nutritional supplementation may change during gestation. The history of neonatal intensive care is punctuated by therapeutic misadventures. If similarly devastating complications are to be avoided in the futrue, the risks of cephalopelvic disproportion, cesarian section, and birth asphyxia associated with augmented fetal growth must be clearly defined and contrasted with the risks associated with low-birth-weight delivery in adolescent pregnancy.

This publication has 57 references indexed in Scilit: