[The components of body weight in pregnant women determined by electrical impedance measurements of the whole body (author's transl)].

For a long time estimating body weight has not been the sole parameter of knowledge of the body constituents and the method of measuring "skin folds" only was of value in differentiating between the "thin mass" and the "fat mass". The authors used Thomasset's method of determination of body fluid compartments by electrical impedance measurements to measure objectively the extra-cellular water content and the total water content, which means the thin mass and the fat mass of the body. It is possible in pregnancy to work out how much of the increase in weight comes from the maternal structures and how much from the utero-fetal mass. The authors point out that the impedance method makes it possible to determine independently the maternal body constituents and those of the fetus carried by the mother. In this way it is easy to work out in cases of pathological weight gain whether this has arisen because of oedema or because of becoming fat. Furthermore the authors point out that what they call "eutrophy of pregnancy", which is the normal weight gain brought about by pregnancy, is similar to the state of affairs brought about by women taking oral contraceptives, which they call "oestroprogestative eutrophy".