![]() ![]() Only women carrying singleton pregnancies who delivered between 37 and 42 completed weeks were included. The current delivery averages 100 annually. The Hospital offers specialist services in Medicine, Surgery, Paediatrics and Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Patients come from various private enterprises including mining companies, financial institutions and non-governmental organizations as well as local residents. This private hospital is situated in a busy cosmopolitan area close to the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology campus. This study was conducted in Bomso Specialist Hospital in Kumasi, Ghana. Using a population parameter of 34% for overweight and obese pregnant women, a sample size of 1755 was estimated at 95% confidence interval with 5% error margin and 80% power. The records of all patients who started their antenatal care in the first trimester, attended for antenatal care on at least four occasions and delivered in the hospital between 1st January, 1992 and 31st December, 2009 were retrieved. 14 This study was done to find out the effects of pregnancy weight gain in different BMI groups on maternal and neonatal outcomes in women delivering singleton babies at term. 13 The studies conducted so far are from Western developed countries and there is a paucity of data from developing countries. 12 More recently, the waist-hip ratio has been used to study the effects of obesity on pregnancy, but data relating to this parameter are seldom available. In earlier research the relationships between maternal height and weight with pregnancy complications were extensively explored, but in recent times, BMI is widely accepted as a better measure of over or underweight. and for BMI > 29.0 kg/m 2 total weight gain of 7.0kg. 11 These recommendations are for BMI 26.0 to 29.0 kg/m 2 total weight gain between 7.0 to 11.5kg. ![]() 8, 9, 10 The Institute of Medicine (IOM) published recommended weight gains by pre-pregnancy BMI which have been the standard for subsequent research. 6, 7 These have led to suggestions for optimal weight gain to ensure the best outcomes. 2, 3, 4, 5 Obesity and excessive weight gain on the other hand can lead to adverse maternal and foetal outcomes. 1 Inadequate prenatal weight gain is a significant risk factor for intra-uterine growth restriction, pre-term delivery and low birth weight in infants. Maternal weight gain in pregnancy can offer a good means of assessing the wellbeing of the pregnant mother and, by inference of her baby. ![]()
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