Submit Manuscript | http://medcraveonline.com Introduction Food security consists in granting everyone’s right to regular and permanent access to safe, nutritious and suffcient food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences in order to lead to an active and healthy life. 1 The main international measure to achieve food security is based on the frst United Nations Millennium Development Goals (eradicate hunger and poverty), 2 concurrent with the human right to proper food. It is estimated that one billion people in the world do not have access to suffcient food to meet basic nutritional needs or that they live in a situation of continuous hunger, a situation that indicates a severe food insecurity. 3 Food security / insecurity can be measured through individual dietary intake, anthropometry, food availability, among others. In international surveys the most used instrument to measure this insecurity is the “Household Food Security Survey Module”. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization report, 4 the prevalence of food insecurity in the world has improved, from 18.6% between 1990 and 1992 to 12.5% between 2010 and 2012. Food insecurity is determined mainly by poverty and social inequalities. Studies that analyze aspects associated with food insecurity are important for the planning of programs and public policies in a preventive way and health promotion. 4,5 The objective of this study is to review the factors associated with food insecurity during pregnancy. Food insecurity during the gestational period The effects of food insecurity can be seen mainly among the most vulnerable groups. Infant mortality, the damage of physical and mental development, low birth weight, maternal mortality, increased school dropouts, and decreased school performance are events related to the lack of healthy and quality food as a consequence of precarious access to income, goods and services. 6 Several international studies point to a direct relationship between food insecurity and losses in the children nutritional status. 7–11 Laraia et al., 12 have proposed three potential reasons why food insecurity may be of particular importance in pregnancy: nutritional needs are increased due to physiological changes in the pregnant woman’s organism (elevation of basal metabolic rate as a consequence of accelerated synthesis of fetal, placental, uterine, mammary and maternal reserve tissue; the increase in mass of metabolically active tissue and cardiorespiratory process), the effort required to prepare food may be more diffcult and pregnant women are forced to leave work, especially at the end of pregnancy, which leads to fnancial squeezing. These reasons may infuence nutrition, health conditions and nutritional maternal status and may have unsatisfactory pregnancy outcomes. 12 In this review the prevalence of food insecurity in women during the gestational period ranged from 9.0% to 87.9% (Table 1), with the lowest prevalence found in developed countries and the highest prevalence in underdeveloped or developing countries. 12–28 Although there are some studies on food insecurity during the gestational period, there is still little knowledge about the effects of this insecurity on maternal and child health. Food insecurity in the gestational period is associated with anemia, pre-gestational and gestational anthropometric nutritional status, birth defects, maternal depression/anxiety disorders in pregnancy, gestational complications (diabetes, hypertension and obesity), gestational weight gain, food intake, low birth weight and postpartum depression and suicide. The key determinants of food insecurity were the non-empowerment of women, the presence of women and children at home, polygamous family arrangements, maternal depression disorder, lower education level, depressive disorder symptoms, paternal absence, low income, black race, and maternal age. 10,12,14,18,20,21,24,28–38 More studies are needed to understand the impact of gestational food insecurity on maternal and child health in order to contribute to the development of health policies that can guarantee the food and nutritional security of the binomial mother and child. J Nutr Health Food Eng. 2017;7(4):337‒343. 337 © 2017 Ramalho et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and build upon your work non-commercially. Food insecurity during the gestational period and factors associated with maternal and child health Volume 7 Issue 4 - 2017 Alanderson Alves Ramalho, 1 Fernanda Andrade Martins, 1 Rosalina Jorge Koifman 2 1 Center of Health Sciences and Sports, Federal University of Acre, Brazil 2 National School of Public Health, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Brazil Correspondence: Alanderson Alves Ramalho, Center of Health Sciences and Sports, Federal University of Acre, Campus Universitário-BR 364, Km 04 -Distrito industrial-CEP: 69.920- 900, Rio Branco, Acre, Brazil, Email alandersonalves@hotmail.com Received: June 17, 2017 | Published: December 13, 2017 Abstract Food security consists in granting everyone’s right to regular and permanent access to safe, nutritious and suffcient food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences in order to lead to an active and healthy life. Studies that analyze aspects associated with food insecurity are important for the planning of programs and public policies in a preventive way and health promotion. The objective of this study is to review the factors associated with food insecurity during pregnancy. The prevalence of food insecurity in women during the gestational period ranged from 9.0% to 87.9%, with the lowest prevalence found in developed countries and the highest prevalence in underdeveloped or developing countries. Keywords: food security, food and nutrition security, pregnancy, women’s health, prenatal care Journal of Nutritional Health & Food Engineering Mini Review Open Access