While it is an acceptable fact that pregnant women are eating for two, studies reveal that it has gone beyond the acceptable food intake. According to the United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), at least half of U.S. women are gaining more than the recommended weight during pregnancy.
As reported in Medical Daily, the latest study has showed guidelines on the accepted gestational weight gain (GWG) of pregnant women. The Institute of Medicine has published GWG guidelines based on the body mass index (BMI). For example, when a woman has a normal BMI which is 18.5 to 24.9 should just gain 25 to 30 pounds while a woman with lower than the normal BMI which is below 18.5 should gain 28 to 40 pounds. Meanwhile women who have more than the normal BMI which are considered overweight or obese, the recommended weight gained should only be 11 to 20 pounds.
These guidelines were recommended since the weight that a woman gains during pregnancy has an important impact for both mother and child the CDC reported. The guidelines in particular were established to promote optimal health by balancing risks associated with too much or too little weight gain.
Furthermore, a recent study reveals that 21 percent of pregnant women gain less than the recommended weight gain and 47 percent gain more. These findings however were not observed on a state-level.
In turn, they analyzed 2013 birth data for U.S. resident women who delivered full-term infants from 43 jurisdictions. Full term infants are born between 37 to 41 weeks gestation. The locations include 41 states, New York City and the District of Columbia. These provided them with the mothers' height and weight before and after their pregnancies. The researchers also analyzed 2012 data from the Pregnancy Risk Management Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) to estimate prevalence for five states with available data that had not yet adopted the 2003 birth certificate. The final data covered almost 80 percent of all pregnant women in America.
The CDC states that excessive weight gain often begins early in pregnancy; however most women are advised to consume an additional 340-450 calories per day during the second and third trimesters.
The CDC urges health providers to implement early education and intervention to promote the accepted GWG.
The CDC report concludes: "To improve maternal and child health, intensified, multifaceted strategies are important for increasing the proportion of women who achieve appropriate GWG."