A nutrition study involving a group of pregnant women in Assisi, Italy. Part 1: Anthropometry, dietary intake and nutrition knowledge, practices and attitudes.

A study was conducted on a group of full term pregnant women in the gynaecology and obstetrics ward of the Assisi Hospital. The study included the anthropometric evaluation and a survey including information on eating habits, life styles, nutrition knowledge, food preferences and aversions during pregnancy, use of oral contraceptives, and cigarette smoking. A subset of 20 pregnant women was examined periodically from the beginning of the 2nd trimester until the end of pregnancy to ascertain anthropometric status and food consumption. In the same hospital the anthropometric measurements of 83 newborns were taken. In some cases there was a relatively small weight gain and therefore gain in body fat during pregnancy (6.3 kg), with obvious effects on the weight of their respective newborns. Eating habits showed notable quantitative and qualitative irrationalities and nutrition knowledge was poor. Oral contraceptives were not widely used.