Journal of the American College of Nutrition, Vol 10, Issue 3 185-189, Copyright © 1991 by American College of Nutrition

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Pregnancy weight gain in adolescents and young adults

C. S. Johnston, F. S. Christopher and L. A. Kandell
Department of Family Resources and Human Development, Arizona State University, Tempe 85287.

We examined whether adolescents required greater prenatal weight gains than nonadolescents to deliver equal weight babies following a low-risk pregnancy. Maternal characteristics and monthly weight gains were collected from medical records obtained from a private health maintenance organization (n = 423). Maternal weight gain, gestational age, parity, and cigarette use during pregnancy were significant predictors of infant birth weight in our regression models. Subjects were nonsmokers with a gestational age greater than 37 weeks and a parity equal to 0 who entered prenatal care during the first trimester of pregnancy. Mean total weight gains for the adolescents (16.2 +/- 4.8 kg; n = 51) and adults (15.2 +/- 5.4 kg; n = 65), and infant birth weights were similar. Mean infant birth weight was 3473 +/- 394 g for the adolescents and 3339 +/- 453 g for the young adults, whereas the optimal weight range for newborns is about 3500-3999 g. Modifiable risks are the important predictors of infant birth weight, and adolescents do not appear to require a greater weight gain than young adults to deliver similar weight babies.

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