Gaining Weight Between Babies Risky
Gaining Weight Between Babies Risky
Even Modest Gains Increase Pregnancy Problems
Understanding how weight gain affects pregnancy is particularly important in light of the dramatic rise in overweight and obesity among women of childbearing age in developed countries such as the U.S. and Sweden.
Between 1960 and 2000, the incidence of obesity among women in the U.S. between the ages of 20 and 39 tripled, from 9% to 28%.
And during the period in which the study was conducted, between 1992 and 2001, the percentage of pregnant women in Sweden who were overweight or obese increased from 25% to 36%.
In an editorial accompanying the study, Aaron Caughey, MD, an assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, called for more research to find ways to help women lose postpartum weight as well as extra weight put on between pregnancies.
It is known, for example, that women who breastfeed their babies tend to have an easier time losing weight gained during pregnancy than women who don't.
"With the recent sustained increase in obesity, particularly in the developed world, such interventions are likely to affect not only future pregnancy outcomes but also long-term outcomes in women's health," Caughey wrote.
Gaining Weight Between Babies Risky
Even Modest Gains Increase Pregnancy Problems
Helping New Moms Get Fit
Understanding how weight gain affects pregnancy is particularly important in light of the dramatic rise in overweight and obesity among women of childbearing age in developed countries such as the U.S. and Sweden.
Between 1960 and 2000, the incidence of obesity among women in the U.S. between the ages of 20 and 39 tripled, from 9% to 28%.
And during the period in which the study was conducted, between 1992 and 2001, the percentage of pregnant women in Sweden who were overweight or obese increased from 25% to 36%.
In an editorial accompanying the study, Aaron Caughey, MD, an assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, called for more research to find ways to help women lose postpartum weight as well as extra weight put on between pregnancies.
It is known, for example, that women who breastfeed their babies tend to have an easier time losing weight gained during pregnancy than women who don't.
"With the recent sustained increase in obesity, particularly in the developed world, such interventions are likely to affect not only future pregnancy outcomes but also long-term outcomes in women's health," Caughey wrote.
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