How Much Weight Should Women Gain During Pregnancy?
Maybe Less Than You Think By Miranda Hitti WebMD Health News Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD May 28, 2009 — Pregnant or thinking about getting pregnant? Then you need to know about new guidelines on how much weight to gain during pregnancy. Those new guidelines were issued today by an Institute of Medicine (IOM) committee of doctors, nutrition experts, and public health researchers. It’s the first time the IOM has issued pregnancy weight guidelines since 1990, and in the past 19 years, America’s obesity boom has only grown. But the new guidelines aren’t just for women who are overweight before pregnancy. They’re for women of all sizes, starting with a prepregnancy checkup that addresses weight, diet, and exercise — and a discussion about using contraception, too, until overweight or obese women reach a healthy weight. During pregnancy, many women gain “substantially more than we would like,” IOM committee chairwoman Kathleen Rasmussen, ScD, PhD, tells WebMD. “It is important for women t
