Maternal Anthropometry Predicts Benefit in Lactational Performance of Undernourished Guatemalan Women

Anthropometric measures of maternal nutritional status are known to be positively associated with concurrent lactational performance as measured by milk output (Brown et al., 1986; van Steenbergen et al., 1983; Institute of Medicine, 1991). However, concurrent relationships do not imply that the indicators are helpful in identifying women who would produce more breast milk or gain more weight, if subsequent improvements in maternal dietary intake follow. This last point is our concern, and it is a research priority identified by the Institute of Medicine (1991). We will focus on how maternal nutritional status in early lactation and subsequent improvements in dietary intake influence lactational performance jointly.