Pregnancy in the underweight woman

Prepregnancy Low Body Mass Index Is Not a Predictor of Labor Complications

“…The higher incidence of low Apgar score shown by some investigators [1] was not present in this study.…”

“…In our view, it is more interesting to determine the propor tion of children who are bom with a weight below a criti cal value, i.e. 2,500 g. Only 3% of the babies in this inves tigation were below this limit compared to 15% in a study by Edwards et al [1], The trend towards fewer heavy weight children is in accordance with most studies [1,3], but the proportion in this study is much higher than pre viously shown, where it equals 3% [1,3]. This might partly be caused by the exlusion of the pathological preg nancies, but it may also reflect the excellent nutritional status in spite of the low weight for height in the investi gated women.…”

“…In former studies, underweight has been associated with premature labor [1,2], premature rupture of the membranes [ 1 ], uterine bleeding in pregnancy [3], anemia [ 1 ], endometritis [ 1 ], children small for dates [3,5,6] and low Apgar score [1], On this background, a specialist panel from the Minnesota University School of Public Health concluded that underweight women should 80 Rasmussen/Borup Low Body Mass Index and Labor Complications achieve a standard weight gain of 13-16 kg during preg nancy, and they should furthermore supply the prepreg nancy weight deficit before labor [7], Others recommend that the weight deficit should be eliminated before the conception [1,3]. Except for a study by Garbaciak et al [2], the incidence of pregnancy complications has not been taken into con sideration when evaluating the incidence of labor compli cations.…”

“…In the literature, little attention has been given to the obstetric course of this group of women, although maternal low weight seems to be associated with some adverse outcome of pregnancy, i.e. premature labor [1,2] and increased risk of uterine bleeding during preg nancy [3], To the best of our knowledge, the effect of con stitutional low BMI on labor itself has never been investi gated.The purpose of the present study was to compare the course of labor and fetal outcome in a group of women with low BMI not caused by undernourishment with the outcome in a group of women with normal BMI. Thereby, we wanted to show the effect of low BMI per se on labor.…”

Perinatal Advantages and Disadvantages of Being Underweight before Pregnancy: A Population-Based Study

“…Some of the studies were performed on hospital-based or quasi population-based datasets, used different classifications of underweight BMI, and arrived at conflicting results. For example, Edwards et al [2] were among the first to study the obstetric performance and pregnancy outcomes of underweight patients. In their case-control, hospital-based evaluation, the authors found that underweight women had significantly higher rates of cardiac/respiratory problems, anemia, PROM, endometritis, prematurity, and low Apgar scores.…”