The Influence of Prenatal Diet on the Mother and Child

Abstract

The prenatal diets of 400 women with low incomes were studied. One group found to be on a poor diet was left as a control, a second group on a poor diet was improved by supplying food during the last 3 or 4 months of pregnancy, and a third group, found to have moderately good prenatal diets was improved by education alone. During the whole course of pregnancy the mothers on a good or supplemented diet enjoyed better health, had fewer complications and proved to be better obstetrical risks than those left on poor prenatal diets. The incidence of miscarriages, stillbirths and premature births in the women on poor diets was much increased. The incidence of illness in the babies up to the age of 6 months and the number of deaths resulting from these illnesses were many times greater in the Poor Diet Group.