**4. Conclusion**

It can be concluded that the maternal BMI plays a profound role and can be good indicators of birth weight and development of the fetus [42]. Apart from the risk factors associated with the delivery of a preterm and overweight baby, maternal BMI can be also an important indirect predictor of mothers at risk of delivering abnormal weight babies in developing, and poor countries [43, 44]. Also, nutrition plays a major role in fetal and maternal well being [42]. Increased risk of negative pregnancy outcomes like pre-term birth, low birth weight, intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR), small for gestational age (SGA) have shown to be associated with lower maternal pre-pregnancy BMI [45–48]. However, BMI alone cannot be an important anthropometric measurement factor for understanding the growth and development of the fetus. For a more detail understanding of the intrauterine fetal growth, other important factors like maternal height, weight, metabolic rate, total body water, and fetal body density should be also considered [5, 49].
