Women who tend to gain weight during their pregnancy also tend to have heavier babies. According to researchers, these babies are prone to obesity as adults. Still there is a no definite result which shows that the obesity occurs from the mother’s weight gain or some other factors like genetics which the mother and baby share. Read on to know more about how child’s obesity risk is partly set in the mother’s womb.
The Study
The study emphasized on nearly 513,000 American women. This was published on the online issue of The Lancet, a medical journal. Researchers compared the results of those babies who were successively born to the same mothers between the time period of 1989-2003. This was done to eliminate any genetic causes behind the high birth weight in babies.
According to Dr. David Ludwig, the study co-author, the findings of the study have important implications to the general public health as high birth weight increases the risk of diseases like asthma and cancer and most importantly, obesity in later life.
Study Findings
Researchers found that women who gained around 53 pounds during their pregnancy had newborns who were 5.2 ounces or 150 grams heavier than the newborns of women who gained around 22 pounds. Nearly 12% of all births accounted for high-birth weight infants. They weighed around 8.8 lbs or more than that.
But still there is a dilemma about whether high birth mass of babies was a cause or resulted from the weight gain of their pregnant mothers’. In the first trimester, healthy women are usually advised to gain a little weight.
During pregnancy, prevention of obesity should be encouraged in women by improving their diet and exercise instead of trimming down. This study was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
