Gestational Weight - Smart-phone Calculator: A Case Study of Pregnant Women in India | Chapter 11 | Advancement and New Understanding in Medical Science Vol. 1

Pregnancy is an anabolic state with increased nutritional requirements to support the growth and metabolism of maternal and fetal tissues, nutrient storage in the fetus, and preparation of maternal tissues for lactation. International IOM 2009 recommendations for gestational weight gain during pregnancy are highly contested in Asia by Indians and East-Asian scholars (China, Korea, Japan etc..). They even use "Asian adapted" overweight and obese classifications (e.g. obesity ≥ 27.5 kg/m² instead of 30 kg/m²). The study investigates the possibilities of establishing quickly a Smart-Phone calculator for Optimal Gestational Weight Gain, especially for Indian Pregnant women.

Four years ago we demonstarted that if we chose as perequisite rationale that the maternal optimal gestational weight in term pregnancies (optGWG) is to have Appropriate for Gestational Age (AGA) term newborns (by definition 80% of a neonatal population, with 10% of SGA -small for gestational age- as well as 10% of LGA -Large for gestational age-), there is an association with maternal PRE-pregnancy Body Mass Index (ppBMI), and that this association is a linear curve (y= ax+b).

We propose then an alternative solution for Indian scientists/epidemiologists to confirm in the Indian population our preceding findings and establish in India their specific linear equation knowing the specific SGA-LGA definitions of term newborns in India.

It will be easy to make this linear equation accessible everywhere on smartphones for health workers and women themselves. The Indian calculator will give therefore indispensable councils since the beginning of pregnancy to each pregnant woman, and should be useful also for the great "Indian diaspora" around the planet (e.g. Mauritius, Trinidad and Tobago, Fiji, French overseas territories and others), where obesity is a huge rising problem in this community. The study concluded that we could lower probably the rate of low-birthweights babies in lean women (by higher GWG than the international IOM 2009 recommendations) by using the Indian Calculator.

Author(s) Details:

Pierre-Yves Robillard,
Service de Néonatologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Sud Réunion, La Réunion, France and Centre d’Etudes Périnatales Océan Indien (CEPOI), Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Sud Réunion, La Réunion, France.

Please see the link here: https://stm.bookpi.org/ANUMS-V1/article/view/13022