Abstract
Nutritionists have long been interested in this state of vigorous anabolic activity, for the feto—maternal unit gains weight at a relatively rapid rate, a gain that amounts to about 20% of the mother’s prepregnant weight in a period of 40 weeks. Estimates of the average weight gain during the first trimester of pregnancy (13 weeks) are not very accurate, although it is generally held that it is only of the order of 1 kg. Thereafter there is an acceleration, so that by the 20th week about 4 kg of the average total gain of 12.5 kg has been accomplished. For the last half of pregnancy the average gain is 0.43 kg per week, or 60 g per day. However, the variations in recorded weight gain encompass a range of 100–1000 g per week. The fetus and amniotic fluid account for a little more than a third of the total weight gain, the remainder being the mother’s body per se.
There all the Learn’d shall at the labour stand, And Douglas lend his soft, obstetric hand.
Alexander Pope
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1987 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Forbes, G.B. (1987). Pregnancy. In: Human Body Composition. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4654-1_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4654-1_6
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-9100-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-4654-1
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive