The relationship between fetal gender and neonatal birth weight with maternal weight gain during pregnancy in a sample of iraqi women

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine whether there is a significant relationship between maternal weight gain during pregnancy and the newborn sex ratio and neonatal birth weight. Study Design: A cross sectional study was done on 560 patients , data were collected from private clinics in different areas of Baghdad including Hay Aljameaa and Alharthya from the beginning of 2013 to the end of 2014, all 560 case had single pregnancy ,term births (>=37 weeks and >=2500 grams).Number of male fetuses = 292 and female fetuses = 268. Sex ratios were calculated by dividing the number of male newborns by those of female newborns,sex ratio (for total) =male / female ratio= 292/268 = 1.0895 and calculated for each maternal weight gain group during pregnancy. Results: The percentage of male/total increased with increasing maternal weight gain during pregnancy as with low weight gain < 5 kg the of male/total ratio is (40%) while in those with higher weight gain the ratio reaches (63.15%)in mothers gaining >18.1kg , so male/female ratio increase from (0.67) in those gaining < 5kg to (1.71) in the largest weight gaining group. most of women gaining <5 kg during pregnancy (53.3%)delivered neonates weighting 2.5-3 kg, while the largest % of women gaining =>18.1kg during pregnancy (31.6) (26.3%) delivered neonates weighting 4000 – 4499 and > 4.5 kg respectively. Conclusion: There is significant relationship between maternal weight gain during pregnancy and the newborn sex ratio and neonatal birth weight.pregnant women should advised to gain weight within the recommendation of IOM.