SATURDAY, April 19 (HealthDay News) -- Pregnancy has long been
considered a kind of gastronomical free-for-all. After all, a
pregnant woman has to nourish two bodies with the food she eats,
right?
The problem is, the baby's nutritional needs are only around 300
calories a day, and extra weight gain can increase the risk of
pregnancy complications for both mother and child.
And, weight concerns don't stop after the baby is born, because
extra weight gain after pregnancy increases the risk of
complications in subsequent pregnancies, even if a woman never
gains enough to be considered overweight.
"Women think they have carte blanche to eat whatever they want
during pregnancy, but that's not a good idea," said Dr. Miriam
Greene, a clinical assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology
at New York University Medical Center and the author of the book,
Frankly Pregnant: A Candid, Week-by-Week Guide to the Unexpected
Joys, Raging Hormones, and Common Experiences of Pregnancy.
"If you eat for two, you'll end up with complications you didn't
need to take on. Eat what your appetite tells you to eat, and eat
slowly, so you can tell when you're full," advised Dr. Marjorie
Greenfield, an obstetrician at MacDonald Women's Hospital at Case
Medical Center, University Hospitals in Cleveland, and author of
the book,
The Working Woman's Pregnancy Book.
During pregnancy, an average-weight woman should gain about 25
to 35 pounds, according to Greene. "You don't want your weight gain
to be less than 15 or greater than 40," she said.
But many women aren't heeding that advice. A recent report from
the Institute of Medicine (IOM) found that about one-quarter of
American women gain more than 40 pounds during their pregnancy. The
IOM is currently reviewing its guidelines on pregnancy weight gain
and expects to issue new guidelines during the summer of 2009.
In the meantime, the IOM recommends that women with a body mass
index (BMI, a ratio of weight to height) of less than 18.5 should
gain 28 to 40 pounds during pregnancy, while women with an average
BMI -- 18.5 to 24.9 -- should keep weight gain between 25 and 35
pounds. Overweight women with BMIs of 25 to 29.9 should try to gain
between 15 and 25 pounds throughout their pregnancy, and obese
women with BMIs over 30 need only gain 15 pounds.
Gaining too much weight during pregnancy puts both baby and mom
at risk of complications, such as gestational diabetes and high
blood pressure, labor complications, stillbirth and delivery of a
large-for-gestational age baby, according to the March of
Dimes.
Greene said about two-thirds of her patients manage to stay
within the guidelines. And those who don't are very disappointed at
how hard the weight is to get off afterward.
She recommends that her pregnant patients eat well-balanced
diets and that they don't give in to every food craving. "It's not
healthy to gain weight eating pints of ice cream," she said.
Greenfield is also a fan of most exercises during pregnancy. Not
only can exercise help you stave off pregnancy weight gain, it
improves overall well-being as well, she said.
"Pregnancy is a special time when a lot of women will take
better care of themselves to take care of the baby. It's a golden
opportunity to take care of yourself, and you may have an impact on
your health and your baby's health in the long run," Greenfield
noted.
And, it's not just during pregnancy that women have to be
concerned about extra pounds. A recent study found that every one
or two point increase in a woman's BMI between pregnancies
translated to an increased risk of gestational diabetes, high blood
pressure and delivering a large baby by 20 percent to 40 percent.
Women who increased their BMI more than three points between
pregnancies had a 63 percent increased risk of delivering a
stillborn baby.
The increases in the risks of complications held true even if
the BMI changes didn't place a woman into the overweight or obese
category, the study found.
More information
To learn more about weight gain during pregnancy, visit the
American Pregnancy Association.
