Role of nutrition in pregnancy and its effect on fetal birth weight

Objective: to assess the role of nutritional diet including macro and micro nutrients during pregnancy and its effect on fetal birth weight so that appropriate nutritional strategies should be developed. design: cross sectional study setting: chaudhry rehmat ali memorial trust teaching hospital lahore. subject: 580 primigravidae result: the incidence of low birth weight (<2.5kg) was higher (33%) among the primigravidae who were not taking nutritional supplement and their cereal based diet with very little pulses,vegetable and milk was poor,quantitatively and qualitatively in comparison with women taking supplement in which incidence was 4.6%. conclusion; nutritional supplement during pregnancy has great impact on health of mother and fetus especially on fetal weight.