TY - JOUR
T1 - Pregnancy as a Fundamental Determinant of Child Health
T2 - a Review
AU - Tette, Edem Magdalene Afua
AU - Intiful, Freda Dzifa
AU - Asare, Anita Ago
AU - Enos, Juliana Yartey
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2022/9
Y1 - 2022/9
N2 - Purpose of Review: Maternal conditions and exposures during pregnancy including over- and undernutrition are associated with poor childbirth outcomes, growth, development and chronic childhood diseases. We examined contemporary pregnancy-related determinants of child health. Recent Findings: While maternal undernutrition remains a major contributor to low birth weight, maternal obesity affects foetal growth, birth weight, survival and is associated with childhood obesity, asthma and autistic spectrum disorders. Emerging evidence suggests that epigenetic changes, the prenatal microbiome and maternal immune activation (MIA), a neuroinflammatory process induced by diet and other exposures cause foetal programming resulting in these chronic childhood diseases. Summary: Maternal diet is potentially a modifiable risk factor for controlling low birth weight, obesity and chronic disease in childhood. Further studies are warranted to refine guidance on dietary restriction and physical activity during pregnancy and determine how MIA and prenatal microbiota can be applied to control childhood diseases arising from programming.
AB - Purpose of Review: Maternal conditions and exposures during pregnancy including over- and undernutrition are associated with poor childbirth outcomes, growth, development and chronic childhood diseases. We examined contemporary pregnancy-related determinants of child health. Recent Findings: While maternal undernutrition remains a major contributor to low birth weight, maternal obesity affects foetal growth, birth weight, survival and is associated with childhood obesity, asthma and autistic spectrum disorders. Emerging evidence suggests that epigenetic changes, the prenatal microbiome and maternal immune activation (MIA), a neuroinflammatory process induced by diet and other exposures cause foetal programming resulting in these chronic childhood diseases. Summary: Maternal diet is potentially a modifiable risk factor for controlling low birth weight, obesity and chronic disease in childhood. Further studies are warranted to refine guidance on dietary restriction and physical activity during pregnancy and determine how MIA and prenatal microbiota can be applied to control childhood diseases arising from programming.
KW - Child health
KW - Low birth weight
KW - Maternal immune activation
KW - Maternal nutrition
KW - Pregnancy
KW - Prenatal microbiome
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85133435344&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s13668-022-00416-1
DO - 10.1007/s13668-022-00416-1
M3 - Review article
C2 - 35789475
AN - SCOPUS:85133435344
SN - 2161-3311
VL - 11
SP - 457
EP - 485
JO - Current Nutrition Reports
JF - Current Nutrition Reports
IS - 3
ER -