Weight Gain During Pregnancy: Reexamining the Guidelines

Review
Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2009.
The National Academies Collection: Reports funded by National Institutes of Health.

Excerpt

Sponsors asked the IOM's Food and Nutrition Board and the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education Board on Children, Youth, and Families to review and update the IOM (1990) recommendations for weight gain during pregnancy and recommend ways to encourage their adoption through consumer education, strategies to assist practitioners, and public health strategies.

The committee was asked to address the following tasks: 1. Review evidence on the relationship between weight gain patterns before, during, and after pregnancy and maternal and child health outcomes, with particular attention to the prevalence of maternal obesity racial/ethnic and age differences, components of GWG, and implications of weight during pregnancy on postpartum weight retention, maternal and child obesity, and later child health. 2. Within a life-stage framework consider factors in relation to GWG that are associated with maternal health outcomes such as lactation performance, postpartum weight retention, cardiovascular disease, metabolic processes including glucose and insulin-related issues, and risk of other chronic diseases; for infants and children, in addition to low birth weight, consider early developmental impacts and obesity-related consequences (e.g., mental health, diabetes). 3. Recommend revisions to the existing guidelines, where necessary, including the need for specific pregnancy weight guidelines for underweight, normal weight, and overweight and obese women and adolescents and women carrying twins or higher-order multiples. 4. Consider a range of approaches to promote appropriate weight gain, including: individual (behavior), psychosocial, community, health care, and health systems; timing and components of interventions; and ways to enhance awareness and adoption of the guidelines, including interdisciplinary approaches, consumer education to men and women, strategies to assist practitioners to use the guidelines, and public health strategies. 5. Identify gaps in knowledge and recommend research priorities.

Publication types

  • Review

Grants and funding

This study was supported by Contract No. HHSH250200446009I TO HHSH240G5806 between the National Academy of Sciences and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration; Contract No. 200-2007-M-21619 between the National Academy of Sciences and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity; Contract No. N01-OD-4-2139 TO 192 between the National Academy of Sciences and National Institutes of Health Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; Contract No. N01-OD-4-2139 TO 192 between the National Academy of Sciences and National Institutes of Health National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases; Contract No. HHSP23300700522P between the National Academy of Sciences and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women’s Health; Contract No. HHSP23320070071P between the National Academy of Sciences and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion; and Contract No. 21-FY07-576 between the National Academy of Sciences and March of Dimes. Additional support came from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health and the National Minority AIDS Council.