Obesity During Pregnancy Must be Avoided-Wall Stree Journal

at 12:26 PM

A large study has offered the most direct evidence yet that mothers who gain more weight during pregnancy have larger babies.  But we already knew that right?  Well, keep reading...
The results which were published in the Lancet bolster the recommendations that women limit weight gain during pregnancy because high birth-weight babies have a higher chance of being obese during adulthood.  High-birth-weight babies were defined as 8 pounds,13 ounces and women who gained more than 52 pounds were 2.3 times as likely to have a high-birth-weight baby as women who gained 18 to 22 pounds.  Previous studies have found a link between a high birth -weight and obesity later in the adulthood.

For pregnant women, substantial weight gain puts them at risk for developing gestational diabetes and pre-eclampsia, a condition involving high blood pressure.  But now there is evidence that weight gain during pregnancy is not only unhealthy for the mother but appears to have long term consequences for the baby.