Mon 30 Aug 2010
Pregnancy No Longer an Excuse for Pigging Out (darn)
Posted by cindy under Fertility , Health & Body at 9:57 am[4] Comments
A friend shared this WebMD article about weight gains during pregnancy affecting the child’s health afterwards. This link (between mother’s pregnancy and child’s future health) is pretty predictable. What surprised me, is the guideline on weight gain found in the study.
So according to this article, a pregnant woman should not gain ANY weight in the first 14 weeks (3.5 months, for those of us like me who don’t think in terms of weeks). AND, after 14 weeks, the weight gain should only be 1.1 lbs per week (for a total max weight gain of 24.2 lbs through 9 months of pregnancy). The consequences of blowing this limit is that by age 9, the child may show signs of “having high body fat, low levels of good HDL cholesterol, a big waistline, high blood pressure, and other risk factors for heart disease.” Apparently the more weight the mom gains between weeks 14 and 36 (3.5 months to 9 months) of pregnancy, the higher the baby’s risk for all these things. BUT…if you gain weight AFTER week 36, no effect is shown on the child. You hear that, mothers-to-be? If you’re gonna put on weight, do so AFTER 9 months, when the baby’s already out of you. =P
The study also points out that women who start off pregnancy being overweight are more likely to have overweight or obese children. So THIS is something I could check right now. I checked my body mass index (BMI) (22.3), waist-to-height ratio (0.42), and weight range. Everything falls within “normal” and “healthy,” altho I’d like to be on the lower end of these calculations, just to be safe and give myself wiggle room. (Wanna check your stats? Use WebMD’s calculator, which is what I used, here.)
I guess I ought to write an email to my mom thanking her for increasing her pre-pregnancy weight of 87 lbs to only 110 by 9 months, cuz I DO have low blood pressure, high HDL, and a healthy heart. Pregnancy is starting to look more challenging.
Wait…fat people have fat kids? Who knew…?
I feel like the study is missing some of the causes and effects. When overweight parents have overweight kids, it is very often because the same eating and exercise habits that led to the parents obesity are being taught to the kids.
And therefore, women who gain huge amounts of weight probably don’t have great eating and exercise habits as it is, and are more likely to have kids that are the same.
Given how active you are, and how diet conscious, I would be pretty surprised if you had unhealthy kids…and I don’t think it matters how much weight you put on while pregnant. Your kids will be active and healthy because you will make them so.
For those same reasons, I would be really surprised if you totally blew up during pregnancy, as well.
HAHAHAHAHA! Your first and last paragraphs almost got me in trouble for laughing out loud in court!
Good point; one of the primary things taught in scientific study analysis is that correlation doesn’t automatically mean causation. People used to think that because mice are seen coming out of dirty piles of clothes, that dirty clothes spontaneously create mice. The cause-and-effects here would probably be more believable if the kids were showing signs of heart disease shortly after birth, cuz you know their own lifestyles or habits couldn’t have contributed. But by age 9, that’s 9 years of (possible) inactivity or bad eating the kid had personally participated in.
Okay, I feel better. =) This is one of the reasons I blog. Thanks, AM!
My sister was over weight before she got pregnant. She gained a TON of weight during pregnancy. My niece is 11 and is skinny as a rail. Everyone is different…and remember they are JUST statistics. You’ll be a cute, healthy preggo mommy, and have healthy children.
Thanks! =) I’m counting on you for being right.