Obese Women Experience More Difficulty in Losing Weight After Pregnancy

We all know how important it is to stay healthy, and maintain a healthy lifestyle while pregnant.  What we feed the baby whether it be food, emotions, or anything that we do is important for the baby’s development.

Unfortunately not all women are healthy, or try to stay healthy during pregnancy.  Studies show that young women and first time mothers are those most at risk to gain too much weight while pregnant.  This can lead to complications such as hypertension, diabetes, preeclampsia, and caesarian sections.

These complications during pregnancy especially affect obese women.  Women who are obese are those women who have a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more.  A clear cut example would be a woman who is around 5 foot 7.  Her would be considered obese if she had a body mass index of 30 and would weigh 195 pounds.

A study was conducted on 1656 women who were obese and had a BMI at least 30 or more at the beginning of their pregnancies.  A follow up was made on the women a year and a half after their pregnancy.  What the studies showed was that women who are obese gain more weight than they should while pregnant, are more likely to keep the weight gained after birth.  Nearly 75% of the women that participated in the study gained about 15 pounds, and of that 15 pounds, 40% of it was retained even after giving birth, nearly a full year after the pregnancy.

The study suggests that obese women, should not gain any weight during pregnancy in order to give the baby a healthier start.  This definitely would be hard to do for any women, but a change in lifestyle is necessary in order for the woman and her baby to have better chances at a healthy life and fewer complications.

Hopefully this study will enlighten pregnant women, especially those who are overweight or obese to switch to a healthier lifestyle.  A healthy lifestyle can have multiple benefits, and two immediate benefits would be a healthier baby, and of course a healthier mommy.