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Introduction: The aim of this study was to investigate weight gain during pregnancy and birth weight in rural regions of Tabriz, a province in the northwest of Iran. Materials & Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using routinely collected data of pregnant mothers from rural health centers. Eight health centers were randomly selected in rural areas of Tabriz. Totally, 874 women aged 24.86±5.08 years with singleton term that regularly attended health centers for prenatal care and delivered between 2002 and 2007 entered the study. The data on pre-pregnancy weight, height, total weight gain during pregnancy, mother’s age, parity, newborn's birth weight, mother’s education and working status were extracted from the health records. The women were categorized based on their pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) as underweight, normal weight, overweight and obese. Pregnancy weight gain was compared with new (2009) and old (1990) recommendations of Institute of Medicine (IOM). Results: 86.1% of underweight and 77.7% of normal weight pregnant women gained weight during their pregnancy below the lower limits of recommended ranges. While weight gain in none of the underweight pregnant women was more than the new IOM recommendations, 1.1% of normal weight, 17.8% of overweight and 36.4% of obese women gained weight more than the upper limits of the new IOM recommendations. Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that according to IOM guidelines, most of Iranian rural pregnant women gain weight during pregnancy less than minimum recommendations.

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Introduction: Obese and overweight women are more prone to gestational diabetes. Body mass index and weight gain during pregnancy play an important role in pregnancy and is considered as an important indicator of maternal and neonatal health. Because the prevalence of obesity in Yazd is remarkable, we studied the relationship between gestational diabetes with Pre-pregnancy BMI and weight gaining during pregnancy in pregnant women in Yazd.
Methods: This case-control study was conducted on 336 pregnant women who had just given birth, who they consisted of 168 pregnant women with gestational diabetes and 168 healthy pregnant women as case and control group, respectively. We gathered data from the information recorded in the health information system. In this study, Chi-square, independent t-test, and correlation test were used to analyze the data by using the SPSS₂₃ software.
Results: The present study showed that the average pre-pregnancy BMI and the average weight gaining during pregnancy until screening for gestational diabetes were significantly higher in cases than controls (P<0.05). Also, there was a significant reverse correlation between pre-pregnancy BMI and weight gain during pregnancy(r = -0.27, P <0.001).
Conclusion: Since BMI is one of the modifiable risk factors, we should give all women good training on the quality of their diet for having proper weight before pregnancy and appropriate weight gain during pregnancy.