Extremely obese women may not need to gain as much weight during
pregnancy as current guidelines suggest, according to a new
study presented today at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine
annual meeting. Severely obese women who gained less than the
recommended amount of weight during the second and third
trimester of pregnancy suffered no ill effects, nor did their
babies. In contrast, obese and non-obese women who gained less
weight in the second and third trimester had undesirable
outcomes, including a higher likelihood of delivering a baby
that is small for gestational age – smaller than the usual
weight for the number of weeks of pregnancy. "The study suggests
that even the recommended amounts of weight gain might be more
than is needed for the most obese women," said Eva Pressman,
M.D., director of Maternal Fetal Medicine at the University of
Rochester Medical Center. In 2009, the Institute of Medicine
released new guidelines for how much weight a woman should gain
during pregnancy, taking into accoun