Introduction: The increasing adoption of strict vegetarian diets during pregnancy has raised concerns about their effects on maternal and neonatal outcomes. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to assess the impact of strict vegetarian diets on key pregnancy outcomes, including neonatal birth weight, small-for-gestational-age (SGA) infants, gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), hypertensive disorders, and gestational weight gain (GWG).
Methods: A comprehensive literature search across multiple databases yielded eight studies from various countries, involving a total of 72,284 participants.