Background: Unhealthy weight has an adverse impact on a person's general health, this is more serious for pregnant a woman as it can affect her baby as well. Nutrition is an important element of antenatal care. Nutrition must be optimum to avoid problems of being underweight, and that of overweight. This study aims to assess the impact of maternal body mass index on maternal and neonatal outcomes among Sudanese women.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out at Saad Abu El Ella Hospital and Soba University Hospital in December 2017. The maternal weight and height were measured for 159 women to calculate BMI. The impact of maternal BMI on maternal and neonatal outcomes was tested using the chi-square test and logistic regression. P-value = or <0.05 was considered as statistically significant.
Results: Fourty-two (26.4%) of studied women were of normal weight, two (1.3%) were underweight, 61 (38.4%) were overweight and 54 (33.9%) were obese. Increasing parity was associated with higher BMI, this was more significant among the obese group with an odds ratio of 3.1 (95% CI = 1.099-8.866, p=0.033). There was a relative increase in the risk of delivery by caesarean section among the obese group with an odds ratio of 1.7 (95% CI =1.079-2.737, p=0.023). No significant association between maternal BMI and preterm or post-term delivery was found. The incidence of macrosomia was more among overweight and obese mothers. There was no association found between maternal BMI and low birth weight, admission of the baby to neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), or low Apgar score at 5 minutes.
Conclusion: This study shows a high incidence of being overweight among Sudanese pregnant ladies. Increased risk of caesarean section as maternal BMI increases. Overweight and obese mothers are more likely to have macrosomic babies.
Keywords: bmi; complications; neonate; nutrition; pregnancy.
Copyright © 2021, Eltayeb et al.