I . Total skinfold thicknesses (sum of seven sites) were measured in fifty-seven pregnant women with low energy and protein intake, at weeks 24,30 and 35 of gestation.2 . Women were classified in two groups (overweight and low weight), according to their weight-forheight at week 24 of gestation.3. Half of the women did not increase, or even reduced the amount of subcutaneous fat during the observation period. The lowest mean value of total skinfold thickness was found in the low-weight women who showed a reduction of the subcutaneous fat.4. This finding shows that a significant proportion of malnourished women do not follow the average pattern of subcutaneous fat accumulation seen in healthy pregnant women without food intake restriction, during the second half of pregnancy.It has been reported that the average healthy pregnant woman, without food intake restriction, deposits a fair amount of subcutaneous fat between weeks 10 and 30 of gestation and this deposition, which is greater in primiparae and in women with low initial weight, slows down after this time (Taggart, Holliday, Billewicz, Hytten 8t Thomson, 1967). However, it is not known if pregnant women from populations with a high prevalence of energy-protein malnutrition and restricted food intake show the same pattern.The present work aims to describe the magnitude and variability of the subcutaneous fat deposition during the second half of pregnacy in such a group of women of rural and urban origin.

In an attempt to detect those factors which, even in very poor families, allow good child nutrition, a comparison was made of data obtained from the families of well-nourished and of malnourished children standardized by socioeconomical level.Clear differences were found in some biological characteristics of the mother-child pair; the well-nourished children were more frequently males, they were older, their mothers had a better diet, and weaning was more gradual and involved a greater number of foods.There were also differences in family attitudes, showing that the families of the well-nourished had less prejudices and a higher degree of modernization with respect to concepts and beliefs about food.