Impact of Nutrition on Pregnancy, Lactation and Growth Performance of Extero-Gestate Foetus

Population growth has become one of the most serious development problems in world ecology. It appears to have an independent momentum that does not respond spontaneously and automatically to other developmental variables. Better nutrition could be used as a means of arresting the population growth. Better infant nutrition would kindle the desire of individuals to control the number of their offsprings but such a trend is impossible in the presence of high infant and maternal mortality. There is little knowledge about the effects of better nutrition on the reproductive capacity, foetal wastage and the ability of the mother to breast feed her baby successfully. Therefore this study was undertaken to assess the impact of the nutritional status of expectant mothers on the health status of the infants and their lactation.