Characterizing the body composition of pregnant women at the doctor's office is a challenge. Usually, the assessment of the nutritional status of pregnant women aims to monitor the weight gain throughout pregnancy, as well as identifying and providing the appropriate guidelines.

In general, the body mass index (BMI) and weight are assessed during pregnancy. Pre-pregnancy weight indicates the woman's nutritional status before pregnancy and it is ranked as "low", "adequate", "overweight", or "obese". This way, the necessary guidelines to be followed are determined, as well as the ideal gain of weight during pregnancy.

However, this method does not take into account the distribution of body composition and does not differentiate between maternal and fetal contributions. Furthermore, wouldn't there be another assessment tool that could better assist those mothers and their babies?

Lipowise is the perfect tool for that! It is a smart skinfold calliper with its own mobile app, which saves and monitors the data gathered during the course of pregnancy. And why is that so important? Because the measurement of the skinfold thickness has been proposed for use in pregnancy, as they are reproducible with specific training and adherence to defined protocols.

References:

Gain W, Pregnancy D. Committee opinion. 2013;5(548):2009-2011

Robič T, Benedik E, Mis NF, Bratanič B, Rogelj I, Golja P. Challenges in Determining Body Fat in Pregnant Women. Ann Nutr Metab. 2013; 63:341–349. DOI: 10.1159/000358339