Pregnancy Craving and Pica: 60 Years Later

Abstract

Purpose: To study pregnancy craving and pica in a cohort of women and compare our findings to a historic study. Methods: Prospective survey of women in the third trimester of pregnancy. Data were collected using the same questionnaire from a study published in Obstetrics and Gynecology in 1957. All surveys were conducted by clinicians at 35 0/7-41 6/7 weeks gesta-tional age. High risk pregnancies were excluded. Results: We included 547 women in the analysis. Of those, 60.8% reported food craving vs 65.7% in the 1957 cohort, p-value 0.09. The most common food craving was fruit, seen in 31.1% vs 13.6%, p-value < 0.00001. In the group of women with craving, 64.6% reported that they craved the food item prior to becoming pregnant, 76.0% could not wait until another day to satisfy their food craving, and 41.7% reported there was something they liked as much. Only 2.9% of women in our cohort had pica vs 9.0%, p-value 0.00001. The cohorts differed in fruit craving, (31.1% vs 13.6%), meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs, and nuts (21.0% vs 5.0%), milk, yogurt, and cheese, (17.0% vs 2.2%) and vegetable, (14.1% vs 6.9%), all with p-value < 0.00001. They did not differ in the category of bread, cereal, rice, and pasta, 17.9% vs 22.3, p-value 0.06. Conclusion: Food craving during the third trimester of pregnancy has remained constant for almost 60 years, although the items craved have changed. Pica was less common in our modern cohort of women.