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The document discusses a study on how a mother's nutrition during pregnancy can have long-term health consequences for the child. The study mentions five ways fetal programming can occur, including how undernutrition causes adaptations that affect birth weight and growth potential, and how overnutrition increases diabetes risk. Maternal nutrition is concluded to exert long-lasting effects on offspring health through impacting fetal development and epigenetics.

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James Montemayor
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23 views

SDL

The document discusses a study on how a mother's nutrition during pregnancy can have long-term health consequences for the child. The study mentions five ways fetal programming can occur, including how undernutrition causes adaptations that affect birth weight and growth potential, and how overnutrition increases diabetes risk. Maternal nutrition is concluded to exert long-lasting effects on offspring health through impacting fetal development and epigenetics.

Uploaded by

James Montemayor
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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"Having a baby live in you is one of the most profound definitions of art in human form, nature is illustrated in the

most
dependent relationship between two life forms." With that being said, the study of Martin-Gronert, M.S. and Ozanne,
S.E. entitled Maternal Nutrition During Pregnancy and Health of the Offspring discusses more about how the dependent
relationship between mother and child can have long-term consequences; specifically in the mother's diet and the
child's health.

The researchers mentioned a process referred to as 'programming', any stimulus that occurs during the critical period of
development may cause a fetal response and adaptation that leads to long-term or permanent changes in the structure
or function of the body. The study mentioned five interconnecting 'programming' methods that happen in and out of the
mother's uterine environment.

1) Fetal Response and Adaptations to Undernutrition - The immediate response to undernutrition is catabolic
consumption of substrates to provide energy. The fetus changes its metabolic rate and alters the production of
hormones and the sensitivity of tissues to them. The fetus responds and adapts to that forecast in order to maximize its
chances of postnatal survival. The effects of undernutrition ultimately reduces the rate of fetal growth, and the birth of
an infant with lower birth weight, who did not reach its full growth potential.

2) 'Predictive Adaptive Response' Hypothesis - The hypothesis postulates that the developing fetus assesses the plane of
nutrition it receives in utero, predicts the postnatal nutritional plane that it will encounter and adapts to the predicted
environment in a way that it would give it the best chance of survival. This provides an explanation for the connection
between the fetal intra-uterine environment and the susceptibility to chronic diseases later in life.

3) Fetal Malnutrition and its Effect on the Long-Term Health of the Individual - The main effect of malnutrition is the
sussceptibility to the development of Type 2 diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular diseases and also the longevity of the
individual's life. An example given regarding this is that the worst glucose tolerance was observed in low birth weight
men who became obese.

4) Maternal Overnutrition - There is growing evidence that maternal overnutrition not only contributes to the
development of gestational diabetes and pre-eclampsia, but also has long-lasting consequences for the health of the
infant independently on whether exposure to overnutrition is or is not a feature of postnatal life. Fetal overnutrition
increases susceptibility to Type 2 diabetes in adulthood.

5) Maternal Nutrition and Epigenomics - Maternal nutrition during pregnancy and maternal metabolic status can
programme adult disease sussceptibility by altering the epigenetic state of the fetal genome.

In conclusion, maternal nutrition during pregnancy can exert long-lasting effects on the health of the offspring. It is vital
that the importance of diet during pregnancy is widely known and that the mechanisms by which it influences the long-
term health of the offspring are understood. The mother should be reminded that she is not alone, there is another life
that is resting on her shoulder, and that the responsibility for the chance of survival of the child is at her hands.

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