Abstract

               Background: Nutrition plays a very important role for women’s health during pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding. Objectives: 1) To investigate the risk factors for the nutritional status of pregnant women in third trimester of pregnancy. 2) To evaluate of the association between risk factors for nutritional status and pregnancy outcomes. Subjects and methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out on pregnant women giving birth at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Da Nang Family General Hospital from August 2022 to November 2022. 239 pregnant women were selected for follow-up and evaluate until discharge. Anthropometric characteristics, factors related to nutritional status and pregnancy outcomes were assessed through face-to-face interviews and medical records. Results: BMI before pregnancy averaged 20.3 ± 2.1 kg/m2. Weight gain during pregnancy averaged 13.5 ± 4.7 kg, mainly in the 2nd and 3rd trimesters. The proportion of women with recommended weight gain was 41.5%, follow by 32.6% and 25.9% of those with below and above the recommendation respectively. The most common nutrition-related diseases were diabetes and anemia with 11.3% and 10.5% respectively. There was a significant relation between pre-pregnancy BMI and weight gain (p = 0.023). Pre-pregnancy BMI, arm circumference and maternal weight gain were related to birth weight (p < 0.03; p < 0.001; p < 0.001). Conclusion: Some anthropometric indicators of the mother, the nutritional status of the mother have an influence on the pregnancy outcome of the fetus.