Doctoral Dissertation Research: Maternal Energetic Strategies During Human Pregnancy

与我们的近亲相比，人类的新生儿在很多方面都相对晚夭，或者说发育不成熟。这可能是由于人类妊娠期长度的进化限制，特别是人类母亲可能无法承受超过9个月的能量消耗。以能量学为中心的方法提供了一种从生理学角度研究人类妊娠限制的方法，这为理解妊娠长度提供了更传统的、以解剖学为重点的观点的重要补充。本博士论文研究项目对高活动孕妇的日常身体活动和能量消耗测量进行配对和评估，并通过研究设计进一步加深对这些过程的理解，该研究设计包括对同一名妇女在整个怀孕期间的重复测量。这项研究的结果有助于研究人类怀孕的进化，并迫切需要了解人类怀孕和分娩的生理学，因为在美国和全球孕产妇和婴儿健康状况不佳的比率很高。这个项目测试了日常体力活动、能量消耗、妊娠期体重增加和妊娠结局之间的关系，在一个高度活跃的孕妇样本中。妊娠期体重增加和母体代谢参数测量两次，每日收集身体活动数据。测量每日总能量消耗、基础代谢率和身体组成用于测试产妇身体活动、代谢参数和妊娠结局之间的关联。研究结果解决了关于妊娠期长短与产妇活动水平之间关系的产妇代谢限制假说，并可为促进身体活动和健康妊娠结局的策略提供信息。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Human newborns are relatively altricial – or, developmentally immature – in many ways compared to those of our closest living relatives. This may be due to evolutionary constraints on the length of human gestation, specifically, energetic costs that human mothers may be unable to bear beyond nine months. An approach centered on energetics provides a way to investigate constraints of human pregnancy from a physiological perspective, which offers an important complement to more traditional and anatomically focused views on understanding pregnancy length. This doctoral dissertation research project pairs and evaluates daily physical activity and energy expenditure measures in highly active pregnant women, and further builds out a deeper understanding of these processes with a study design that includes repeated measures on the same women throughout their pregnancies. The results of this research contribute to the study of the evolution of human pregnancy, and to the urgent need to understand the physiology of human pregnancy and birth, due to the high rates of poor maternal and infant health outcomes in the United States and globally.This project tests the associations between daily physical activity, energy expenditure, gestational weight gain, and pregnancy outcomes in a highly active sample of pregnant mothers. Gestational weight gain and maternal metabolic parameters are measured twice during pregnancy, and physical activity data are collected daily. Measurements of total daily energy expenditure, basal metabolic rate, and body composition are used to test associations between maternal physical activity, metabolic parameters, and pregnancy outcomes. Results address the maternal metabolic limits hypotheses regarding pregnancy length in relationship to maternal activity levels and can inform strategies that promote physical activity and healthy pregnancy outcomes.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.