Prenatal Nutrition Education

With 38% of infant deaths in the US linked to modifiable lifestyle factors such as maternal diet, maternal weight status and weight gain during pregnancy, Anna-Maria Siega Riz believes we need physicians trained on how to start conversations with obese women about their weight status before they conceive.  In her presentation, she looks at the relationship between different dietary patterns and birth outcomes, and particularly shares the results of recent research in this area which looks at gestational diabetes, hypertensive disorders and preterm births and birth-weights.  Now is an opportune time to teach mothers or would-be mothers about how to nutritionally take care of themselves as well as their newborns.