Health and medical status of pregnant women from 2 socio-economic strata from Mumbai City

The nutritional status of women when becoming pregnant and during pregnancy can have significant influence on foetus. Micronutrient deficiencies could lead to poor maternal health outcomes and pregnancy complications. Poor maternal weight gain in pregnancy due to an inadequate diet increases the risk of complications. A pre-tested questionnaire was used to collect information regarding medical history and supplementation from 100 pregnant women. Overall (27%) women were underweight, (54%) normal weight, (16%) overweight and (3%) obese. (38%) pregnant women had constipation, (43%) heartburn, (25%) nausea, (38%) vomiting, (5%) asthma, (1%) depression, (5%) urinary tract infection, (8%) edema and (3%) preeclampsia. Significantly higher percentage of pregnant women visiting government hospital suffered from vomiting (χ2 = 4.244, p<0.05) Overall 18% women had moderate anemia and 39% had mild anemia. There was a significant association of type of hospital  and the supplements consumed like calcium, iron, folic acid, vitamin B12,  protein and multivitamin by the pregnant women with higher percentage of  women from private hospitals consuming all the 6 nutritional supplements and specifically multivitamin as compared to government hospitals (χ2=13.691, p=0.018), (χ2=31.57, p<0.05). Health awareness programs need to be planned to improve the medical and health status of pregnant women from government hospitals.