ADOLESCENT GESTATIONAL WEIGHT-GAIN AND BIRTH-WEIGHT

Objective. To examine the relationship among maternal age, prepregnancy weight, gestational weight gain, and birth weight in 141 low-income black adolescents and their infants. Study sample. One hundred forty-one consecutively enrolled, low-income, black adolescents who entered prenatal care prior to their 23rd week of gestation, were free of chronic diseases, took no regular medications, had no known uterine anomalies, and gave birth to one live neonate. Results. After controlling for prepregnancy weight and other potentially confounding variables, we found a significant relationship between gestational weight gain and infant birth weight among younger adolescents (<16 years old at conception), but not among older adolescents (16 through 19 years old at conception); younger adolescents contributed more of their gestational weight gain to their fetuses than did older adolescents. Among younger adolescents the rate of maternal weight gain during the entire gestation was significantly correlated with birth weight (r = .40; P < .01), whereas for older adolescents only maternal weight gain during the second half of gestation was significantly correlated with birth weight (r = .25, P < .05). Conclusions. The data do not support the thesis that younger adolescents compete with their fetuses for nutrients; in fact, younger study adolescents transferred more of their gestational weight gain to their fetuses than did older adolescents.