Assessment of Nutrition Profile of Pregnant Women in Rural Area (Mymensingh District) of Bangladesh

Malnutrition is the most common nutritional disorders in the developing countries like Bangladesh. The most vulnerable groups of population to malnutrition are under-5 children, pregnant women and lactating mother. This study makes an attempt to investigate the nutritional status of pregnant women and to correlate different factors with pregnancy. The cross-sectional study was followed to determine nutritional status by anthropometric and biochemical assessment as well as clinical appearance. The obtaining result of all assessments was compared with standard data (NCHS & UNHCR/WFP). A total of 380 pregnant women were randomly selected from health care centers (governments and non-governments) in the Mymensingh district of Bangladesh from early June 2007 to January 2008. The result of research showed that 30.52% severely malnourished, 36.57% moderately malnourished, and 23.15% well nourished and 9.73% were overnourished by calculating weight gain during different stages of pregnancy. By using Mid-Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) 28.94%, 35%, 25.26% and 10.78% pregnant women were found severely malnourished, moderately malnourished, well nourished and overnourished respectively. It observed that the prevalence of nutritional status to pregnant women were found 29.69% severely malnourished, 34.39% moderately malnourished, 26.36% well nourished and 9.56% over nourished by observing the clinical appearance. In average it showed that 29.71% were severely malnourished, 35.32% were moderately malnourished, 24.92% were well nourished and 10.02% were overnourished. By estimating hemoglobin (Hb) level during pregnancy it obtained that 5.52% severely anemic, 61.84% moderately anemic, 18.15% mildly anemic and 14.47% pregnant women were nonanemic. In my study, 12.63 % pregnant women were under 18 years old while 50% were severely malnourished and 30.4% were malnourished. It found that the primary education levels were 16.57% and total monthly family incomes of 16.57% pregnant women were below Tk. 5000. Most of them (73.66%) were malnourished because of those stated reasons. In Mymensingh district, the major responsible factors were younger marriage, frequent birth, illiteracy, poverty, misconceptions, food taboos, lack of nutritional knowledge, geographical location (hill tract region) etc. The data obtained from my study is very much alarming and need to address by governments and nongovernments organization.