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Low birth weight is one of the leading factors for infant morbidity and mortality. To a large extent affect, various maternal risk factors are associated with pregnancy outcomes by increasing odds of delivering an infant with low birth weight. Despite this association, understanding the maternal risk factors affecting term low birth weight has been a challenging task. To date, limited studies have been conducted in India that exert independent magnitude of these effects on term low birth weight. The aim of this review is to examine the current knowledge of maternal risk factors that contribute to term low birth weight in the Indian population. In order to identify the potentially relevant articles, an extensive literature search was conducted using PubMed, Goggle Scholar and IndMed databases (1993 - Dec 2020). Our results indicate that maternal age, educational status, socio-economic status, ethnicity, parity, pre-pregnancy weight, maternal stature, maternal body mass index, obstetric history, maternal anaemia, gestational weight gain, short pregnancy outcome, hypertension during pregnancy, infection, antepartum haemorrhage, tobacco consumption, maternal occupation, maternal psychological stress, alcohol consumption, antenatal care and mid-upper arm circumference have all independent effects on term low birth weight in the Indian population. Further, we argue that exploration for various other dimensions of maternal factors and underlying pathways can be useful for a better understanding of how it exerts independent association on term low birth weight in the Indian sub-continent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Systematic review and meta-analysis conducted to investigate the effect of stratified pre-pregnancy maternal body mass index on twenty maternal and fetal/neonatal adverse outcomes. PubMed, Google Scholar, Medline, Embase, Web of Science databases were searched from inception till July 11, 2020. Cohort studies were included. The pooled odds ratio with 95% confidence interval was reported considering the random effect and the quality effect model. The sub-group analysis and meta-regression were conducted for BMI cut-offs, geographical region, source of BMI, and sample size. Overall, 86 studies representing 20,328,777 pregnant women were included in this meta-analysis. Our study reveals that overweight and obese mothers are at increased odds of cesarean delivery, elective cesarean delivery, emergency cesarean delivery, gestational diabetes, gestational hypertension, induction of labor, postpartum hemorrhage, pre-eclampsia, pre-term premature rupture of membrane, and the fetuses/neonates of overweight and obese mothers are at increased risk of admission in the newborn intensive care unit, APGAR scores less than 7 at 5 min, large for gestational age, macrosomia, extreme pre-term birth in pregnant mothers compared with standard BMI mothers. However, the underweight mothers showed increased odds for small for gestational age infant and pre-term birth, whereas obese mothers were at higher risk for post-term birth and stillbirths. The subgroup and meta-regression analyses have shown the impact of BMI cut-offs, geographical region, source of BMI, and sample size on several maternal, fetal/neonatal adverse outcomes. The meta-analysis confirmed the association of elevated pre-pregnancy maternal BMI with higher odds of adverse maternal and fetal/neonatal outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]