ESPE Abstracts

Keywords: Pre-pregnancy BMI, gestational weight gain, pregnancy outcomes, neonatal outcomes.

Background: Overweight and obesity epidemic is still expanding, and it is affecting women of childbearing age. Multiple studies have shown unmatched results concerning the effect of Body Mass Index (BMI) besides gestational weight gain (GWG) on pregnancy and neonatal outcomes.

Objectives: This study aims to determine the effect of each of the two anthropometric indicators: pre-gestational BMI and gestational weight gain on the course of pregnancy and neonatal outcomes.

Material and methods: A retrospective study was conducted at Notre Dame de Secours University Medical Center (NDS-UMC), Byblos, Lebanon. The data was collected from the NDS-UMC archive. Out of 804 deliveries during the year 2020, 583 women were included after choosing their files randomly and after eliminating those with the exclusion criteria or incomplete data.

Results: Underweight/healthy BMI mothers had a higher chance of having low GWG (45.5%), vaginal delivery (51.3%), and a baby of appropriate size (78.6%) or small size for gestational age (10.4%). Obese women had a higher risk of excessive GWG (49.3%), delivery via C-section (69.3%), and large for gestational age babies (26.7%). Mothers who had low GWG were at a higher risk of having babies of appropriate size (80.1%) or small size for gestational age (13.1%). Mothers who had high GWG had a higher risk of having baby boys (58.9%), large for their gestational age (26.1%), with hypoglycemia at birth (20.6%).

Conclusion: Both extremes of BMI and GWG are linked to adverse neonatal outcomes. This highlights the importance of weight monitoring even during pregnancy to prevent its negative impact on neonates.