A study by Harvard's Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention of Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care released a report showing that pregnant women who gain too much weight or are overweight during pregnancy are four times more likely to have an obese child (click here to read Press release). The study examined 1,044 women throughout their pregnancy and recorded their children's weights at age 3. Overweight was defined as having a body mass index (BMI) greater than the 95th percentile for an average weight. Like obese adults, obese children are at a higher risk of developing high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol.The author of the study, Emily Oden, MD, MPH, said that because finding a long-term solution for obese children remains elusive, it is important to look for avenues of preventing childhood obesity before it happens. Oden recommends that The Institute of Medicine, which released guidelines for pregnancy weight gain 17 years ago, should revise their guidelines given the nation's obesity epidemic.
The current guidelines recommend that women with a prepregnancy BMI between 19.8 and 26 kg/m2, (considered normal by the IOM guidelines) should gain 11.5 to 16kg (25 to 35 pounds); that women with a BMI of less than 19.8 kg/m2 (considered underweight by the IOM guidelines) should gain 7 to 11.5 kg (15 to 25 pounds); and that women with a BMI of more than 29 kg/m2 (considered obese by the IOM guidelines) should gain at least 6 kg (13 pounds).
Click here to read an article by BabyCenter.com about how to manage weight when pregnant.
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