Maternal weight and weight gain in pregnancy and obstetric outcome.

We studied 3002 antenatal patients to assess the relationship between maternal weight at booking in the first trimester and the total weight gain during the pregnancy and the birth weight of infants, pregnancy complications and mode of delivery. We found if the weight of the mother in the first trimester was lower or higher by 20% as compared with the standard weight, and the weight gain was more than 16 kg and less than 2.5 kg, there was higher incidences of maternal and fetal morbidity (P less than 0.01).