Pregnancy weight: how much is too much?

Best to avoid the pregnancy pounds…

Current recommendations for weight gain during pregnancy – developed by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in 1990 – should be revised, according to an internationally recognized obesity expert and chairman of the department of obstetrics, gynecology and women’s health at Saint Louis University.

The editorial by Raul Artal, MD, who has conducted extensive research on obesity during pregnancy, appears in the March issue of Expert Review of Obstetrics and Gynecology, an international medical journal. Recommendations by the IOM, which are followed worldwide by obstetricians, encourage obese women to gain at least 15 pounds during pregnancy and specify no upper limit for weight gain. But Artal says that overweight or obese women don’t need to gain that much weight and should exercise and watch their calorie consumption during pregnancy:

“Pregnancy has become, over the years, a state of indulgence and confinement. It’s an ideal time for behavior modification that includes physical activity and with proper medical supervision it can be safely prescribed.”

If overweight pregnant women control the number of calories they consume and maintain a physically active lifestyle, they can fight problems that commonly come from obesity, such as hypertension and diabetes, he says; and he recommends that in uncomplicated pregnancies, all women should engage in physical activity: “Previous studies have demonstrated that exercise in pregnancy is safe. Obese pregnant women who engage in physical activity during their pregnancies reduce their risk of developing gestational diabetes by 50%.” In addition, he advises that obese women should limit the amount of weight they gain during pregnancy by eating only enough to provide adequate calories and nourishment for their growing babies.

Artal blames the obesity epidemic in part on excessive weight gain during pregnancy. “We can certainly speculate that for overweight and obese pregnant women who gained at least 15 pounds during their pregnancies (and evidence suggests that they gain more), pregnancy has become a major contributing factor to the epidemic of obesity, since the general tendency is to retain the weight post-partum.”

He urges overweight women who are pregnant to exercise and change their eating habits, which would have a trickle-down effect on the health of the entire family as everyone is likely to eat healthier.

 

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