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By Kathryn Doyle
Reuters

Compared to obese mothers-to-be without special care, those given individualized calorie goals and weekly conferences gained less weight while along with fewer oversized newborns from a new study.

\”More than one half of women in the U.S. begin with their pregnancies obese or overweight, and approximately part of all pregnant women gain far too much weight while carrying a child, trigger increasing overweight and obesity,\” said lead author Dr. Kimberly K. Vesco from the Center for Health Research at Kaiser Permanente, Northwest, in Portland, Oregon.

\”Women who gain an excessive amount of weight while pregnant may retain a few of that more weight and enter their next pregnancy in a higher weight than their prior pregnancy, which often can better their risk for pregnancy complications like gestational diabetes, high blood pressure levels, babies which might be too large and cesarean section,\” Vesco, a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist, told Reuters Health by email.

The U.S. Institute of medication (IOM), a government advisory body, has issued guidelines for healthy degrees of fat gain while being pregnant, even though they remain controversial (see Reuters Health story of November 17, 2010, here: http://reut.rs/1AXzmJz).

The guidelines propose that normal-weight women gain around 25 pounds while pregnant, but that obese women limit their weight gain to between 11 and 20 pounds.

For the modern study, rather then giving obese women the IOM target range, Vesco\’s team asked 114 of these to try to maintain their body weight at the start of the research, which has been at the start of pregnancy, and assumed the girls would acquire a little weight anyway.

Vesco and her team divided the participants, who have been all obese and a minimum of seven weeks pregnant when recruited in the study, into two groups. Women in just one group received just one advice session from the dietician with general information about eating diet plans while pregnant and usual care for the most their pregnancies.

The second group attended two individualized counseling sessions where the dietician gave each woman tailored diet and exercising guidelines, recommending a minimum of Around 30 minutes of moderate activity per day, aimed at helping them gain at most 3 % of their total current weight throughout pregnancy.

For a 200-pound woman, that may mean gaining not more than six pounds.

Once that they had their individual goals, the girls started attending weekly 90-minute group sessions covering topics including nutrition, exercise and behavioral change. They were also given a goal for training over the following week. The women kept food and activity journals and tracked their weight a week.

By week 34 of pregnancy, women during the weight-control group had gained around 11 pounds and women within the comparison group had gained 18.5 pounds.

By 2 weeks after giving birth, moms from the weight control group were commonly almost six pounds lighter than as soon as they decided upon your research, whereas while in the comparison group moms were generally 2.6 pounds heavier.

Nine percent of babies born to mothers during the weight-control group were large with regards to gestational age – which boosts the potential for birth injury and infant low blood sugar level – when compared with 26 % of babies in the other group, in accordance with the results published in the journal Obesity.

\”A common misconception while pregnant is women need to eat for two,\” Vesco said. \”That\’s not true. Most expectant women need no extra calories within the first trimester and only 200-300 extra calories during the second and third trimesters,\” she said.

\”Our study saw that limited or no fat gain a wonderful idea for mom and baby, but we still larger studies to be sure of these bits of information ahead of the IOM guidelines can adjust,\” Vesco said.

Doctors can assist women control their pregnancy weight by weighing them, calculating their body mass index and it will weight-gain targets for pregnancy, said Dr. Alexis Shub, a senior lecturer during the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology on the University of Melbourne gold coast australia.

\”In our personal research we have found that many obese women don\’t know that they\’re obese, and several overestimate the correct gaining weight for pregnancy C so education by scientific research is really important,\” she told Reuters Health by email.

\”It is laudable that research is happening to answer questions affecting couples and babies we see everyday in clinical practice, and the managing gaining weight for such women could have a long term role in her own health insurance and the well-being of their kids,\” said Shub, merely not involved with the study.

But, she noted, in excess of 1000 women declined to remain the trial, so the ones that participated were highly motivated. A less motivated group could are actually less successful, she said.

Most women, not just for those who\’re obese, can be helped by setting fat loss gain goal and pursuing the eating plan, Vesco said.

Implementing this strategy, with 90-minute weekly meetings and behavioral specialists, may very well be designed in reality even so it would require ongoing resources and commitment at a health plan, this is unclear just how much it would cost, she said.

\”Women whorrrre obese as soon as they conceive should talk to their practitioner and together set how much gain goals,\” Vesco said. \”They can seek dietary advice from their practitioner or a dietician.\”

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/XVvpam Obesity, online August 28, 2014.