[Design of a weight gain chart for pregnant women]. / Desarrollo de una curva patrón de incrementos ponderales para la embarazada.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: A low weight for height of pregnant women at the start of pregnancy and a low weight gain during pregnancy has a negative impact of fetal growth. AIM: To report the design of a weight gain chart for pregnant women that allows to classify mothers according to their nutritional status and to monitor weight gain during gestation. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Data from 1745 Chilean mothers who delivered their newborns in 1983 and 1984 were used to build this chart. RESULTS: The instrument could diagnose, from gestational week 10 onwards, mothers at risk of delivering babies with birth weight under 3000 g and set weight gain goals for each individual mother based on her nutritional status. Similarly, mothers at risk of delivering babies with birth weight over 3999 g could be early diagnosed during pregnancy and guided to have a prudent weight gain. CONCLUSIONS: The chart can be easily used in prenatal clinics of developing countries and is currently applied in several Latin American countries.