Nutritional Supplementation in Pregnancy to Neutralize Heat Stress

Junaid Iqbal of Aga Khan University in Pakistan will test the effects of daily supplemental feeding for women in rural Pakistan to mitigate the negative effects of heat stress during pregnancy on maternal and neonatal health outcomes. They will enroll 250 women, comparing pregnancy in the summer and winter and with and without daily supplemental feeding in the first trimester. The supplemental food will be designed for increased nutritional value, based on ingredients from local diets. They will measure a variety of clinical outcomes in mother and child, including maternal ultrasound measurements and newborn anthropometry. To explore potential mechanisms underlying the effects of heat stress and their potential mitigation by supplemental feeding, they will also use maternal samples taken at the time of delivery to assess serum micronutrients, the gut microbiome, and the placental transcriptome.