Research Ties High Weight Gain During

Pregnancy To Overweight Children

Infants born to women who gain too much weight during pregnancy are more likely to become
overweight children and adults, according to a growing body of evidence challenging earlier
arguments that weight is mainly influenced by genetics, New York Times columnist Jane Brody
writes.

The research was designed to control for the effects of genetics by considering consecutive
pregnancies among more than 500,000 women. The study, published online Aug. 5 in the journal
Lancet, found a consistent association between the amount of weight women gained during
pregnancy and the birthweights of their infants. According to the study, women who gained more
than 53 pounds during a single-infant pregnancy were more than twice as likely as women who
gained 18 to 22 pounds to deliver infants weighing nine pounds or more.

The new study's finding "suggest that excessive weight gain during pregnancy could raise the
long-term risk of obesity-related disease in offspring" because birthweight is linked to BMI later
in life, the study's authors -- Janet Currie of Columbia University and David Ludwig of
Children's Hospital Boston -- wrote. Currie said, "There are a lot more high-birth-weight babies
being born, and this may have something to do with the increase in overweight [people] we're
now seeing in the population over all." She added, "There's no reason for a woman to gain more
than 40 pounds with a single baby."

In 2009, the Institute of Medicine revised its guidelines on pregnancy weight gain, advising that
women who are considered normal weight -- those with a body mass index of 18.6 to 24.9 -- gain
25 to 35 pounds during pregnancy. Women with a BMI of 18.5 or lower should gain 28 to 40
pounds, while overweight women -- those with a BMI of 25 to 29.9 -- should gain 15 to 25
pounds. Obese women, who have BMIs of 30 or higher, are advised to gain between 11 and 20
pounds.

More than one-third of normal-weight women and more than half of overweight and obese
women gain more weight than recommended during pregnancy, according to IOM. Data from
the National Center for Health Statistics indicate that an increasing number of women have
gained more than 40 pounds in a single-infant pregnancy since 1990 (Brody, New York Times,
9/7).

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