Adequate Iron Consumption during Pregnancy to Prevent Babies Born with Stunting
Introduction: Until early 2024, stunting is still a national problem in Indonesia. Stunting can be predicted early on using the length of the baby's birth. However, many people do not care about the length of the baby's body at birth. Many factors influence a baby's body length at birth, including genetic and external factors. Anemia in pregnant women is a critical factor in stunting, so giving iron tablets is very important to prevent stunting.
Objectives: The purpose of this study was to analyses the relationship between iron tablet consumption and the baby's length at birth.
Methods: This is an analytical survey that studies the characteristics of mothers who had short-term babies between 2019 and 2023 in Tugurejo village, Tanggamus Regency, Lampung, Indonesia. The data comes from notes in the maternal and child health/MCH book and direct interviews with research subjects. The number of samples in this study was all live births in Tugurejo Village between 2019 and 2023: 108 babies. The collected data was analyzed using the logistic regression test.
Results: there was a significant relationship between abstinence from consuming one source of protein (p-value=0.034), complete intake of iron tablets during pregnancy (p-value=0.043), maternal age during pregnancy (p-value=0.001) and exposure to cigarette smoke in the house during pregnancy (p=0.050) with birth length. Meanwhile, the mother's height and the habit of drinking milk during pregnancy were not significantly related to the body length of the baby born.
Conclusions showed the most dominant variables were the completeness of iron tablet consumption (p-value=0.050) & the mother's age (p-value=0.001). Efforts are needed to prevent marriage and pregnancy at a very young age & to increase iron intake during pregnancy.
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