Search Here

If you're pregnant, you might want to be extra careful about what you crave during those nine months. 

New research has suggested that among pregnant women who did not develop gestational diabetes, overweight women were 65 percent more likely, and obese women 163 percent more likely, to have overly large babies than their healthy weight counterparts. 

Researchers also found that gaining excess weight during pregnancy also contributed to having a large for gestational age baby, regardless of maternal weight or whether she developed gestational diabetes.

Researchers examined health records of nearly 10,000 women who received prenatal care and delivered their babies at the Kaiser Permanente Southern California Downey Medical Center. Their records were examined over a five-year period between October 30, 2005 and December 31, 2010. 

Sixty percent of these women were overweight or obese and 19 percent developed gestational diabetes.

Study co-author David A. Sacks said by losing weight to achieve a healthy weight before pregnancy and by keeping their weight gain during pregnancy within guidelines established by the Institute of Medicine, women may decrease the health risks to their unborn babies and themselves. 

"For children of overweight and obese women, the risks include an increased likelihood of having an excessive amount of body fat and being overweight or obese themselves, which can lead to high blood pressure, heart disease and type 2 diabetes later in life," Sacks said. 

In 2009, a review revealed that women who are obese during pregnancy have a higher risk than normal-weight women of having babies with certain birth defects, including neural tube defects such as spina bifida, heart problems, and cleft palate and lip. 

Researchers say unhealthy pre-pregnancy body weight, gestational diabetes and excess weight gain during pregnancy are all contributors to problems during pregnancy and at delivery. 

They also said that it is possible that a large percentage of these problems may be prevented by helping overweight or obese women lose weight before they become pregnant or control their weight gain during pregnancy, but future intervention studies are needed to substantiate this."