page_title: Prenatal nutrition
section_title: High birth weight
hierarchical_section_title: Prenatal nutrition / Recommendations for low and high birth weight / High birth weight
caption_attribution_description: English: Medical ultrasound examination of a pregnant woman.
context_page_description: Prenatal nutrition addresses nutrient recommendations before and during pregnancy. Nutrition and weight management before and during pregnancy has a profound effect on the development of infants. This is a rather critical time for healthy development since infants rely heavily on maternal stores and nutrient for optimal growth and health outcome later in life.
  Prenatal nutrition has a strong influence on birth weight and further development of the infant. There was a study at the National Institution of Health which found that babies born from an obese mother have a higher probability to fail tests of fine motor skills which is the movement of small muscles such as the hands and fingers.
  A common saying that a woman "is eating for two" while pregnant implies that a mother should consume twice as much during pregnancy, but is misleading. Although maternal consumption will directly affect both herself and the growing fetus, overeating excessively will compromise the baby's health as the infant will have to work extra hard to become healthy in the future. Compared with the infant, the mother possesses the least biological risk.
context_section_description: Research shows that when birth weights of infants are greater than the 90th percentile of the growth chart for babies of the same gestational age, they are considered large for gestational age or LGA. This indicates that these babies are weighing more than 90% of babies of the same gestational age.
  Many factors account for LGA babies, including genetics and excessive nutrient supply. It seems that a common factor for LGA babies is whether or not the mother has diabetes when she is pregnant. An indicator for excessive growth, regardless of gestational age, is the appearance of macrosomia. Many complications are observed for LGA babies and their mothers. A longer delivery time may be expected since it is a difficult birth. The infant would likely suffer hypoglycemia (low glucose level in the blood) after birth. The infant would also have difficulty breathing.
  There might be a need for early delivery if the baby gets too big and perhaps Caesarean section would be needed. Since the baby is bigger, there's a higher chance of injury when coming out of the mother's body. To increase the blood glucose level in blood, a glucose/water solution can be offered to the infant.
  There are ways to help prevent LGA babies. It is necessary to monitor fetal growth and perform pregnancy examinations to determine health status and detect any possibility of unrecognized diabetes. For diabetic mothers, careful management of diabetes during pregnancy period would be helpful in terms of lowering some of the risks of LGA.
caption: Ultrasound examination.
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