Abstract
Aim: This study was planned to compare the anthropometric measurements of term and preterm infants and mothers.
Methods: The study was conducted on 120 mothers and their babies (60 preterms, 60 term births) who delivered in a private hospital in Istanbul between November 2015-December 2015. The demographic characteristics of the participants were collected by face to face interview. Anthropometric measurements (such as height and weight of mothers and height, weight and head circumference of babies) were taken according to the standard protocol. Data were evaluated using the "SPSS 23.00" program.
Results: Mothers who had preterm babies, 41,7% were older than 35 years and 46,7% were graduated from high school, and most of them (66,7%) were housewives. 95% of term mothers and 51,7% of preterm mothers went to prenatal health control (p <0,001). While most of the mothers who had term births (93,3%) did not have any health problems, this rate is 10% in mothers who had preterm births, and the most common health problem was premature birth risk (p <0.001). 36,7% of preterm and 16,7% of term mothers had >12 kg weight gain; body weight of mothers who gave preterm births before pregnancy was 65,0±10,2 kg; 75,7±11,5 kg after pregnancy; the mothers who had term births were 56,2±5,4 kg and 66,4± 6,5 kg, respectively (p <0,001). In addition, the height of preterm boys was 37,3±5,3 cm, body weights were 1.388,8±572,8 g and head circumferences were 27,4±3,5 cm; in female infants, these values were 39,4± 5,1 cm, 1.610,0±576,3 g and 28,4±3,6 cm, respectively. During pregnancy; 73,3% of mothers who had preterm births had morning, 65% had lunch, 83,3% had evening; 100% of mothers who had term births had morning, 96,7% had lunch, 98,3% had eaten meals regularly.
Conclusion: It was seen that 68,3% of mothers who had term births, had 8-12 kg weight gain and during pregnancy, most of them were in normal body mass index (BMI) range before and after pregnancy. Follow-up is important for the healthy birth and babies’ weight gain and nutrition status during pregnancy so nutrition discipline and weight monitoring are very important.