The performance of various anthropometric assessment methods for predicting low birth weight in adolescent pregnant women.

Objective: To evaluate the performance of various anthropometric evaluation methods for adolescent pregnant women in the prediction of birth weight.

Methods: It is a cross-sectional study including 826 adolescent pregnant women. In the pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) classification, the recommendations of the World Health Organization were compared with that of the Brazilian Ministry of Health and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of 1992 and 2006.

[Evaluation of prenatal assistance in the point of view of puerperas and hetalth care professionals].

The aim of this study was to evaluate the prenatal assistance in a public maternity hospital in the point of view of puerperas and health care professionals. Nineteen puerperas and six health professionals took part in the study. The puerperas answered a semi-structured interview and the health professionals took part in a focus group.

[Pica: epidemiology and association with pregnancy complications].

Purpose: to verify the occurrence ratio of pica in pregnant women and its impact on the mother and newborn health.

Methods: prospective study with 227 adult pregnant women and their newborns treated at the Maternity School of Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, between 2005 and 2006. Pica has been considered as the ingestion of inedible substances or atypical food combinations.