Midwifery, Pregnancy & Birth :: Healthy Weight Gain
Appropriate Weight Gain is a Vital Safeguard for Future Health
- When a pregnant woman is careful to gain enough weight, her
child receives added protection against heart disease. That's because
an undernourished fetus shunts blood to its brain at the expense of the
organs of the abdomen. As a consequence, the baby's liver ends up being
smaller than normal, and therefore less efficient at clearing cholesterol
from the bloodstream. This can contribute to heart disease in adulthood.
- Sufficient weight gain also guards against a diabetic future.
When an expectant mother eats too little, her fetus develops a "thrifty"
metabolism that hoards every available calorie. Later, during childhood
and adulthood, when this metabolism is challenged by an abundance of food,
the individual is much more likely to become obese and to develop diabetes.
from Program Your Baby's
Health: The Pregnancy Diet for Your Child's Lifelong Well-being by
Barbara Luke and Tamara Eberlein
| |
BMI |
First Trimester Total |
Weight Gain
for Trimesters 2 & 3 |
Total Weight Gain |
Underweight
(BMI <20) |
5 pounds |
Slightly >1 pound per week |
28-40 pounds |
Normal weight
(BMI 20-<26) |
3.5 pounds |
Slightly <1 pound per week |
25-35 pounds |
Overweight
(BMI 26-29) |
2 pounds |
Approximately 2/3 pound per week |
15-25 pounds |
Overweight
(BMI>29) |
2 pounds |
Approximately 2/3 pound per week |
15+ pounds |
When You're Expecting Twins: "The goal when pregnant with multiples is to keep your babies
growing as well as if they were singletons, even though you may
deliver weeks or even months earlier. To accomplish this you need
to eat more, rest more, and gain more weight... The amount of weight
you need to gain to program [both] your babies for optimal health
depends on how much you weighed before you became pregnant... Normal
weight women should aim for 40-54 pounds by weeks 36 to 38."
from Program Your Baby's Health by Barbara Luke and Tamara Eberlein
