Effects of a nutrition intervention program during pregnancy: phase three

This study sought to identify the effects of an individual prescription for protein and kilocalorie requirements during pregnancy on subsequent maternal and infant outcomes using an experimental control group with 28 subjects in phase one, 15 subjects in phase two, and 23 subjects in phase three, for a total of 66 subjects. The method of nutritional counseling was found to have a significnat impact on increasing the amounts of protein (p=.03) and kilocalories (p=.04) consumed by the experimental group in the combined phases; findings indicate that those subjects who ate an adequate amount of both protein and kilocalories showed a trend towards larger birthweight infants than those who had inadequate nutritional intake (p=.06). However, those women who had an adequate early weight gain in addition to adequate prescription ingestion as compared to those with inadequate early weight gain and inadequate prescription ingestion gained significantly more weight (p=.002) and also showed a trend toward higher birthweight infants (p=.07).