The scientists at Agharkar Research Institute (ARI ) and researchers of KEM hospital have found out in their study that seasonal energy stress among pregnant rural women has direct effect on the birth weight of their foetus. How a dry or wet season would change the diet of a pregnant rural mother and subsequently the size of her foetus has been explained by them through the study who now hope their findings would help improve the quality of maternal nutrition programmes.

The study points out that considering seasons was important in planning targeted strategies for implementing maternal nutrition programmes and improving the birth weight of the foetus in rural parts of the country. Dr C S Yajnik, director of the Diabetes unit of the KEM hospital, says the study showed that women among poor farming communities should reduce their activities during pregnancy especially in the harvest season, as this would improve the birth size of their foetus.

The study also found that exposure to winter season with less activity and higher maternal intakes of food has a positive effect and babies were born with high birth weight.

Dr Shobha Rao, scientist at ARI who along with others presented her findings in a research paper that was published in June this year in the International Journal of Epidemiology, says that a high prevalence of low birth weight (LBW) continues to be a major public health problem in rural India.

Previous studies have shown that LBW has detrimental consequences as it increases the risk for non-communicable diseases like hypertension, diabetes and cardiovascular disease in adults. Health policies should be targeted to reduce the prevalence of low birth weight, Rao said.

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