CONCLUSION
Greater abdominal muscle thicknesses and a smaller IRD during late pregnancy appear to be related to better neonate CB gas values. Further studies are need to determine whether hormones are released in greater quantity by thicker skeletal muscles, and how higher concentrations might affect foetal oxygenation.
Acknowledgements: The authors thank funders and Adrian Burton for editing assistance.
Disclosure of Interests: None to declare.
Contribution to Authorship: LBG had full access to all of the data in the study, took responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analyses and interpreted the data and drafted the initial manuscript; OOC, MFA, IRC, PAM, and VAA conceptualized and designed the study, interpreted the data, and collected data. All authors were involved in drafting the article and revising it for important intellectual content. All authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript and agreed with the order of presentation of the authors.
Details of Ethics Approval : The GESTAFIT project was approved by the Clinical Research Ethics Committee (code: GESTAFIT-0448-N-15, approved on 19/05/2015).
Funding: The present study was partially funded by the Regional Ministry of Health of the Junta de AndalucĂ­a (PI-0395-2016) and the Research and Knowledge Transfer Fund (PPIT) 2016, Excellence Actions Programme: Scientific Units of Excellence (UCEES), and the Regional Ministry of Economy, Knowledge, Enterprises and University, European Regional Development Funds (ref. SOMM17/6107/UGR). MFA was additionally funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports (Grant number FPU17/03715).