Study: Overweight pregnancy puts mom, baby at risk
You might want to hold off on that third helping of pickles and ice cream. Moms who put on more than 40 pounds are at twice the risk of having a 9-pound baby, according to a new study sponsored by the American Diabetes Association.
A big baby increases the need for a Caesarean section and could put the mother at risk for vaginal tearing and bleeding. The newborns may suffer stuck shoulders and broken collar bones. They may also be prone to obesity and type 2 diabetes later in life, according to the study in the November issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.
Researchers from the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research looked into the cases of 41,540 pregnant women in the Pacific Northwest and Hawaii. All of them were tested for gestational diabetes, which is diabetes that occurs when a woman is pregnant.
Thirty percent of the moms who gained more than 40 pounds — the maximum weight limit recommended — and had gestational diabetes delivered heavy babies. Those who had gestational diabetes but gained less than 40 pounds were in better shape — just 13 percent of them had heavy babies.
“This is one more good reason to counsel women to gain the ideal amount of weight when they are pregnant,” study co-author Dr. Kim Vesco, an obstetrician and gynecologist with Kaiser Permanente in Portland, Ore, said in a news release. “From a practical standpoint, women who gain too much weight during pregnancy can have a very difficult time losing the weight after the baby is born.”
Tips for a healthy diet during pregnancy can be found here.
