Associations between maternal metabolic parameters during pregnancy and fetal and child growth trajectories from 20 weeks' gestation to 5 years of age: Secondary analysis from the ROLO longitudinal birth cohort study

Objective

To examine the association between maternal metabolic parameters in pregnancy and growth trajectories up to 5 years of age.

Methods

Data from mother–child pairs who participated in the ROLO study, a randomized trial examining the impact of a low glycaemic index diet on the recurrence of macrosomia, were analysed. Fetal and child growth trajectories were developed from longitudinal measurements from 20 weeks gestation up to 5 years of age. We examined associations between maternal fasting glucose, insulin, HOMA-IR and leptin, taken in early pregnancy (14–16 weeks) and late pregnancy (28 weeks), and weight (kg) and abdominal circumference (cm) trajectories using linear spline multilevel models.

Results

We found no strong evidence of associations between any maternal metabolic parameters and fetal to childhood weight and abdominal circumference trajectories from 20 weeks gestation to 5 years.

Conclusion

In a cohort of women with obesity with infants at risk of macrosomia, maternal metabolic markers were not strongly associated with trajectories of weight or abdominal circumference from 20 weeks gestation to 5 years of age.