To Assess Knowledge and Perception of Pregnant Women Regarding Excess Maternal Weight, Gestational Weight Gain and their Impact on Foetomaternal Outcomes: A Cross-sectional Study

Introduction: Well recognised associations exist between maternal obesity, Gestational Weight Gain (GWG) and adverse health outcomes for mothers and their babies. Studies regarding women’s knowledge of the risks of excess maternal weight and GWG are limited in both the populations assessed and also in their description of knowledge.

Aim: To examine women’s perception of their own weight in pregnancy and to assess pregnant women’s knowledge of complications of obesity and excess GWG and ways to manage the appropriate GWG.

Materials and Methods: A total of 216 pregnant women were recruited in this cross-sectional study from the antenatal clinic of Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India between May and June 2018. Data was collected using an interviewer administered prestructured and pretested questionnaire. Statistical analyses were performed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0.

Results: Mean age of study population was 25.02±4.6 years. Mean Body Mass Index (BMI) was 24.55±4.07 kg/m2. Frequent misclassification of their own BMI and inappropriate estimation of GWG by pregnant women was found in the present study. Overweight and obese women were more prone to inaccurate self-classification as 68.7% of overweight women and 62.5% of obese women underestimated their weight. Women had optimum knowledge for complications of obesity (69.4%) to mothers but knowledge is poor regarding complications to babies (45.5%). Also, awareness is significantly lower in obese women as compared to normal weight women p<0.05.

Conclusion: Notable deficiencies in the knowledge and perception of pregnant women regarding their weight, obesity, GWG and their impact on foetomaternal outcomes were found in the present study. Bridging this knowledge gap would be an important step towards improving short and long-term adverse maternal and perinatal outcomes.