Maternal Fertility and Nutrition in Relation to Early Chidhood Survival

Abstract

Maternal nutrition has been accepted for a long time as in some way having an influence on the foetus. The importance of maternal nutrition also for the immediate postnatal life of a child has, to a certain extent, been recognized. In both instances, however, the mechanisms through which this maternal nutrition or lack of good nutrition during pregnancy and the immediate post-natal period act have not been completely clarafied. For a time, the fetus was considered a very good parasite. Opinion no longer holds that such is the case. Increasingly, the evidence is accumulating that, although the fetus is to a great extent a parasite, it is not a very complete parasite, and therefore is unable, given shortages of nutrients in the mother, to arrive with its full complement of nutrients or even to arrive with a full weight. Low birth weight has itself now been associated to a great extent with maternal nutritional influences. Thus, what happens during pregnancy, especially during the latter part of pregnancy, is of considerable importance for the early beginnings of a child. These early beginnings which were not considered to be of such great consequence in later life, are beginning also to appear as having a very important relationship to what happens to the child during the rest of its life, as measured by most development parameters.