CALORIE REQUIREMENT OF THE PREGNANT WOMEN BASED ON TOTAL ENERGY EXPENDITURE

Abstract

Abstract The study was to assess the socio economic condition and proper energy requirements of pregnant women of different groups. This study is entirely conducted in the Chittagong district. 100 respondents from three Upaziallas are taken who was followed in their whole gestational period and data was collected from them by exclusive questionary. The collected data was later analyzed by MS-XL software. At first Total Energy Expenditure was calculated by the standard formula provided by World Health Organization (WHO). The result shows that the calorie requirement for the pregnant women varies between 2000-2700 kcal/day in the first trimester which increases 80-90kcal/day, 250-300kcal/day and 450-500kcal/day in 1st, 2nd and 3rd trimester respectively. This requirement increases with the increase of age and gestational period. Weight gain and energy requirement has a positive relation. It has also seen that order of pregnancy has a profound effect of the calorie requirement of the pregnant women. It also seen that carbohydrate is the major source of energy and it provides 72% of the total energy to the women of this region. Majority of the women does not take proper food and hence don’t get adequate energy which is worsening the health status of the overall situation of the health status of pregnant mother and her baby.