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Maternal nutrition has a vital influence on
the long term health prospects of the foetus.
Many expectant mothers are often advised to eat
"enough for two." This advice has for many
years been accepted as correct and the extra nutrition
was assumed to contribute to the growth and development
of the foetus. Recently however with the me-dical
profession becoming increasing-ly concerned over the
growing tenden-cy towards obesity this advice has been
questioned and even opposed.Maternal
Malnutrition
While it is
obviously unwise for an already overweight mother to
consume additional quantities of food, most Indian women,
especially in rural areas, are in need of nutritional
supple-mentation during pregnancy. Most Indian women
suffer from chronic mal-nutrition which starts during
childhood and extends through their life. This fact has
been documented by numerous studies. They also suffer
from anaemia and other micronutrient deficiencies. It is
for this reason that nutritional supplementation becomes
so important for pregnant Indian women.
The
consequences
The
importance of maternal nutrition and the consequences of
low birth weight are only now being recognised. Studies
by David Barker and his team at the University of
Southampton General Hospital U.K., have shown that low
birth weight is associated with an increased risk of
hypertension, non insulin dependent diabetes and
endocrine disorders.
The study published in the British Medical Journal1 found
that men with low weight at birth had high death rates
due to coronary heart disease. The explanation offered by
the researchers for such high death rates is that
coronary heart disease and its biological risk factors
such as hypertension, non insulin dependent diabetes
mellitus, abnormalities in lipid metabolism and blood
coagulation are associated with low birth weight. The
hypothesis as to how these diseases occur, is that, the
inadequate nutrition for the growing foetus forces it to
make changes and adaptations in organ structure which
later lead to coronary heart disease. This hypothesis has
also been confirmed by studies in laboratory animals.
Prevention
The study
suggests that mothers’ health should be improved
before and during birth for the long standing welfare of
the child. The cost of improving the nutrition of a
pregnant mother is far less than the cost of correcting
the malnutrition in the child and helping it to grow into
a normal adult, who then carries the added risk of
developing coronary heart disease and all its associated
risk factors.
Reference
British Medical Journal1
(Vol 315, No. 7114)
| Attention! During pregnancy the need
for energy (calories), proteins, vitamins, and
minerals increases. A pregnant woman needs about
2300 calories, and 60g of protein a day. Cereals
and pulses give you all the calories, and a part
of the proteins. Green vegetables supply iron and
vitamin A, B and some amount of C. Although wheat
germ, lentils and green leafy vegetables contain
substantial quantities of iron, its availability
is limited by the other substances present.
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