Doctoral Dissertation Research: Maternal Energetic Strategies During Human Pregnancy

人类新生儿在许多方面与我们最近的亲属相比相对较晚-或者说发育不成熟。这可能是由于人类怀孕时间的进化限制，特别是人类母亲可能无法承受超过9个月的能量成本。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，这为更传统和解剖学上理解妊娠长度的观点提供了重要的补充。 这个博士论文研究项目配对并评估了高度活跃的孕妇的日常身体活动和能量消耗措施，并通过研究设计进一步加深了对这些过程的理解，该研究设计包括在整个怀孕期间对同一女性进行重复测量。这项研究的结果有助于研究人类怀孕的演变，并迫切需要了解人类怀孕和分娩的生理学，由于美国和全球的孕产妇和婴儿健康结果不佳的比率很高。该项目测试了日常体力活动，能量消耗，妊娠体重增加，和妊娠结局的关系。在怀孕期间测量两次妊娠期体重增加和母体代谢参数，每天收集体力活动数据。每日总能量消耗，基础代谢率和身体成分的测量用于测试母体体力活动，代谢参数和妊娠结局之间的关联。结果解决了产妇代谢限制的假设怀孕时间与产妇活动水平的关系，并可以告知战略，促进体力活动和健康的妊娠outcomes.This奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

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.