Obesity and pregnancy

St. Louis researchers have found that obese women who gained little or no weight during pregnancy could escape complications. They were at lower risk for developing high blood pressure and delivering by cesarean section and more likely to have a normal-weight baby. The study found that women of different weights should gain or even lose different amounts of weight. It is a matter of note because previously it was concluded that women should gain certain amount of weight(at least 15 lb) during pregnancy. Relying on birth certificate data, the study analyzed the pregnancies of more than 120,000 obese women from Missouri to see how weight gain affected pregnancy-related high blood pressure, cesarean delivery and the baby's birth weight. Three categories of women were examined ,not heavy to heaviest and conclusions are found as follows.

The least-heavy obese women had best outcomes when they gained 10 to 25 pounds.

The next heavier group of obese women had the best outcomes if they gained zero to 10 pounds.

The heaviest obese women had the best outcomes if they lost weight.
The Missouri study found that the least-heavy obese women who restricted their weight gain were at somewhat higher risk to have a low birth-weight baby.But too obese women who gained
weight have a risk of having low-birth-weight baby.
Obesity increases the risk of miscarriage and can at least double the woman's chances of gestational diabetes or a condition called pre-eclampsia, which can be life-threatening to mother and fetus.If someone is extremely obese should try to lessen the weight during pregnancy.