In 1990, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommended gestational weight gain (GWG) ranges for women in the United States to improve infant birth weight. Changes in the reproductive health of women of childbearing age, a rising prevalence of obesity, and noncommunicable diseases prompted the revision of IOM guidelines in 2009. However, there is no such recommendation available for Asian women. This systematic review assesses the utility of IOM-2009 approaches among Indian and other Asian pregnant women regarding maternal and fetal outcomes. Six hundred twenty-four citations were identified using PubMed and Google Scholar, out of which researchers included 13. Prospective/retrospective studies of healthy Asian women with a singleton pregnancy which specifically examined fetal-maternal outcomes relative to IOM-2009 guidelines, were included.
The majority of pregnant Indian women achieved less GWG than the recommendations, whereas researchers noticed a mixed trend among the other Asian pregnant women. Researchers found the most common fetal-maternal complications among the excessive GWG women to be macrosomia, large for gestational age and cesarean section, followed by gestational diabetes and hypertension. In contrast, low birth weight, small for gestational age and preterm birth, was associated with low GWG women. The findings highlight the need for appropriate GWG limits across the different body mass index levels, specifically for Indians and other Asian populations. However, there are not enough publications regarding the utility of IOM-2009 guidelines among Indian and Asian women. Thus, higher-quality researches are warranted in the future to validate the findings of the present review further.
Reference: https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jp/2019/3849596/
