Abstract

Introduction: Pregnancy is a crucial period with increased metabolic demands. Vitamins, minerals and folic acids are the major determinants of not only the child’s health but also the pregnant woman. Objective: To evaluate maternal intakes of folic acids during pregnancy and assess its impact on child’s birth weight. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 395 women with live birth in Duwakot of Bhaktapur, Nepal. In this study, maternal intake of folic acid during pregnancy was assessed by a questionnaire and birth weight of child was verified by the certificate issued by the Hospital. The correlation between these intakes and birth weight were evaluated and analyzed. Results: Prevalence of women taking folic acid during pregnancy was 69.87%. This study found the positive effect of the folic acid intake of mothers on birth weight of their child, 80.07% of child with normal birth weight were the child whose mothers took folic acid during the pregnancy whereas only 37.18% child were of normal birth weight whose mothers were not taking folic acid during pregnancy. Folic acid intake during pregnancy was significantly correlated with birth weight (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Intake of folic acid by mothers during pregnancy was strongly related to normal birth weight of the child. So awareness campaign on folic acid intake and other vitamins during pregnancy should be emphasized to make our society healthy with normal birth weight child.

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