Researchers from the UK University of Southampton and the KEM Hospital, Pune, India, studied 633 women and their babies in a rural area of Maharashtra, India. Their results suggest that action to improve foetal growth may be needed even before pregnancy begins and may take more than one generation to show an effect. Thirty percent of new-born babies in India weigh less than 2.5kg. This poor foetal growth is partly due to malnutrition of the mother. There is a marked lack of non-fat soft tissues while subcutaneous fat is relatively spared.
Most measurements are smaller in firstborns than in subsequent babies.
In comparison to mothers in the UK, rural Indian mothers are younger, lighter, shorter and thinner. They also have considerably lower total intakes of energy and protein. The study revealed a direct correlation between the size of the mother's head and almost all measurements of their babies. This suggests that good nutrition is important throughout a woman s lifetime for optimal foetal growth during pregnancy. Other findings suggest that aspects of adult health and predisposition to diabetes may be established during pregnancy.