Obese Women: Don’t Gain Pregnancy Weight, Study Says

This post was originally posted at Nature’s Child, the site for sassy & sage natural parenting advice. And don’t forget to enter the Summer Essentials Contest while you’re there!

We all know someone who was thrilled when they learned they were pregnant. Yes, because they were bringing life into this world. But also because they could finally “eat for two” and let their diet go.

All of us with sense know that this is a pregnancy myth. You can’t actually eat for two and expect to lose the baby weight anytime in the next decade.

The eating “extra” may not be the best choice for every pregnant woman.

Pregnancy is not a time to eat twice as much, but twice as well.

Women who are already obese when they become pregnant may not need to gain “baby weight” as long as they and their care provider focus on a healthy diet.

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A researcher studied 232 clinically obese women who were pregnant, then made dietary interventions for half the women. The women who ate healthier diets and didn’t gain much weight were more likely to have more positive outcomes for labor and delivery and fewer interventions.

To read more about this study, click here and head to Nature’s Child.

Image: Torsten Mangner on Flickr under a Creative Commons License.

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