The mother's diet during pregnancy is associated with maternal and child health. However, there are few studies with moderation analysis on maternal dietary patterns and infant birth weight. We aim to analyse the association between dietary patterns during pregnancy and birth weight. A prospective cohort study was performed with pregnant women registered with the prenatal service (Bahia, Brazil). A food frequency questionnaire was used to evaluate dietary intake. Birth weight was measured by a prenatal service team. Statistical analyses were performed using factor analysis with a principal component extraction technique and structural equation modelling. The mean age of the pregnant women was 27 years old (SD: 5.5) and the mean birth weight was 3341.18 g. It was observed that alcohol consumption (p = 0.05) and weight-gain during pregnancy (p = 0.05) were associated with birth weight. Four patterns of dietary consumption were identified for each trimester of the pregnancy evaluated. Adherence to the "Meat, Eggs, Fried Snacks and Processed foods" dietary pattern (pattern 1) and the "Sugars and Sweets" dietary pattern (pattern 4) in the third trimester directly reduced birth weight, by 98.42 g (Confidence interval (CI) 95%: 24.26, 172.59) and 92.03 g (CI 95%: 39.88, 165.30), respectively. It was also observed that insufficient dietary consumption in the third trimester increases maternal complications during pregnancy, indirectly reducing birth weight by 145 g (CI 95%: -21.39, -211.45). Inadequate dietary intake in the third trimester appears to have negative results on birth weight, directly and indirectly, but more studies are needed to clarify these causal paths, especially investigations of the influence of the maternal dietary pattern on the infant gut microbiota and the impacts on perinatal outcomes.
Keywords: Brazil; birth weight; cohort; dietary patterns; factor analysis; infant; pregnancy.