ATTENTION TO DIET CAN HELP MOMS WITH IBD HAVE BIGGER BABIES

Pregnant women with IBD (inflammatory bowel disease) can have problems with their pregnancy, such as earlier (preterm) deliveries and small babies. However, we don't know why. Does active IBD directly causes pregnancy complications? Or, does having IBD cause poor nutrition which affects the development of the fetus?  

Researchers in Norway looked at 423 pregnant women with IBD (183 had Crohn's disease and 240 had ulcerative colitis). They compared dietary patterns with pregnancy outcomes (specifically preterm deliveries and small babies) using data collected from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) (1999-2008).  Within the MoBa data, the researchers found that most of the women followed 1 of 3 diet patterns.

Dietary Patterns of the women from MoBa

Prudent diet

• High in: fruits, vegetables (raw and cooked), poultry, beans, nuts, cereal, olive oil, and tuna
• Low in: processed meats, white bread
• Similar to Mediterranean diet

Western Diet

• High in: sugary/fatty foods and drinks (soda, pancakes, white bread, cake, dairy desserts, fried potatoes, mayonnaise, processed meats)
• Similar to Standard American Diet

Traditional (Norwegian) Diet

• High in: fish, gravy, potatoes, cooked vegetables, rice porridge
• Low in: pizza, tacos, poultry
• Similar to traditional diet in the Scandinavian Peninsula

Results

The researchers found that those who were on a "traditional" diet had a lower risk of having small babies; however, there was no difference in preterm births. Currently, it is unclear why the traditional Norwegian diet was the best for mothers with IBD. Possibly, in the prudent diet, the high fiber foods were too hard to digest and too low in calories. In comparison, the traditional Norwegian diet had high calorie, easy to digest foods such as potatoes, rice porridge, and cooked vegetables.