Nutricion materna durante el embarazo: Estudio de mujeres de una zona rural de Costa Rica

Abstract

From 1979 to 1980 a prospective nutritional study was carried out in pregnant women living in the scattered rural settlement of Puriscal, Costa Rica, in order to determine the effect of the mothers' intake of nutrients on weight gain during pregnancy and on the weight of the child at birth. The study included 46 pregnant women, who were visited in their homes on three consecutive days during each trimester of pregnancy in order to record their dietary intake, weight gain, and environmental factors; 12 of them were followed from the first trimester up until delivery and 34 only during the second and the third trimesters. The average weight gain in the women of the first group was 5.1 kg between the first and second trimesters and 2.8 kg between the second and third, with and average overal gain for the pregnancy of 7.9 kg. The 34 second group had an average gain of 4.1 kg. None of the newborn of the women studied had low birthweight. Although it was found that the energy intake of the women was relatively low (6.95 Mj/d or 1,662 kcal/d), the data indicate that their need for supplementary energy intake was met and that their energy intake was sufficient to support the intrauterine development of the fetus. It was also noted that what is more fundamental for this development is an increase in energy intake from one trimester to the next, rather than the overall energy intake for the entire pregnancy