Maternal fat stores and fat accretion during pregnancy in relation to infant birthweight

Maternal fat stores and fat accretion during pregnancy were estimated from body weight and skinfold thicknesses and by the factorial method in a sample of 56 Swedish women in their second pregnancies who gave birth to singletons at term. Prepregnancy lean body mass, and not fat mass, were strongly correlated with infant birthweight. Total weight gain was significantly correlated with infant birthweight. A wide range of maternal fat accretion during pregnancy was observed, and the amount of fat accumulated was related to the total weight gain. In spite of this, maternal fat accretion during pregnancy was found to have little bearing on the infant birthweight at term.