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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Gaining too much weight during pregnancy may be harder on your baby than you think.
A new report from the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research shows those extra pounds can nearly double the risk of having a heavy baby.
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The study looked at more than 40,000 women who gave birth in Washington, Oregon and Hawaii from 1995-2003. It finds those who gained more than 40 pounds while they were pregnant were nearly twice as likely to have a heavy baby. Researchers say more than one in five women gains too much weight during pregnancy, doubling her chances of having a baby that weighs nine pounds or more.
This extra weight puts them at higher risk for having heavy babies, and these babies are programmed to become overweight or obese later in life, lead author Teresa Hillier, M.D., M.S., Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, was quoted as saying. A big baby also poses serious risks for both mom and baby at birth -- for mothers, vaginal tearing, bleeding, and often C-sections, and for the babies, stuck shoulders and broken collar bones.
Researchers have known about the link between diabetes during pregnancy and heavier birth weights. But this study shows women who gain too much weight during pregnancy are even more likely to have heavy babies than women with gestational diabetes.
Results show those at greatest risk are women who gain more than 40 pounds and also have gestational diabetes -- nearly 30-percent of them have heavy babies. The risk is reduced significantly -- to only 13 percent -- when women with gestational diabetes gain less than 40 pounds.
Researchers stress all pregnant women need to watch their weight gain, especially if they have risk factors like gestational diabetes.
SOURCE: Obstetrics & Gynecology, 2008;112
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