Aims: We aimed to evaluate how diet-related maternal weight gain (GWG) affected foetal growth in gestational diabetes (GDM)-complicated pregnancies.

Methods: This study involved 182 women who were sequentially diagnosed with GDM before 34 weeks of pregnancy and gave birth to live singletons at our hospital. To gauge compliance with an energy-limited “diabetic diet,” the women were divided into three groups based on their restricted (53%), appropriate (16%), and excessive (31%) weekly GWG. If necessary, insulin therapy was started in accordance with regional clinical recommendations.

Results: At the time of the diagnosis of GDM at 276 ± 51 weeks, the three groups' glucose tolerance, HbA1c, weekly GWG before dietary treatment, and SD score for foetal abdominal circumference were comparable. The women were monitored for 100 ± 51 weeks, during which time 54% of them got further insulin medication, and the average GWG during dietary therapy varied amongst the three groups, weighing 0 kg, 3 kg, and 5 kg. Increased HbA1c between the time of GDM diagnosis and late pregnancy was associated with excessive weekly GWG during dietary treatment, reflecting poor dietary adherence, and newborns had a birthweight-SD score of 0.59 ± 1.6.

Conclusions: In women with GDM, restricted GWG during nutritional therapy was linked to improved foetal growth. Clinical determinants of infant birthweight-SD score that are possibly modifiable include GWG during nutritional therapy and late-pregnancy HbA1c.

Disclosure

N.Kumar: None. S.C.Jha: None.

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