Early Weight Gain in Pregnancy May Be Bad Start for Infant
Mothers who put on too much weight early in their pregnancies have bigger, fatter babies, a new study shows.
Implementing preventive measures in the period before conception or in early pregnancy may be necessary to prevent early excessive gestational weight gain and its potential detrimental effects on the neonate.
The study was published online July 8 and in the August issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Previous research has shown that a mother’s weight can affect the health of her baby and that events in pregnancy can have a lifetime effect on the child’s health. However, few studies have looked at the timing of weight gain.
The researchers found that total maternal pre-pregnancy BMI correlated with total maternal weight gain, neonatal birth weight, and neonatal BMI.
Moreover, when the investigators compared infants whose mothers gained excessive weight early in pregnancy with those whose mothers gained excessive weight late in pregnancy, they found statistically significant (P < .05) differences in the infants’ weight, the percentage of those with a weight of at least 4000 g, the infants’ crown-to-heel length, and the infants’ BMI.
Why does early weight gain affect the size and fat of the newborn? The babies might simply be inheriting their mothers’ characteristics, the researchers note. However, they also point out that an earlier study found that even small differences in weight between pregnancies increased the probability of newborns who were large for their gestational age.
Obstet Gynecol. Published online July 8, 2013. Abstract
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