A growing number of women are overweight or obese when they become pregnant, a condition that is risky to both mother and baby, a new study conducted by researchers at the University at Buffalo has shown.
An analysis of the prepregnancy body mass index of more than 79,000 women in eight counties of Western New York who became pregnant between 1999 and 2003 found that the number of women who were overweight when they became pregnant increased by 11 percent and the number who were obese increased by 8 percent over that time period.
There was a corresponding decrease in the percentage of women who were normal weight or underweight in the prepregnancy period over those five years, results showed. The shift applied regardless of age, ethnicity (black or white), education level, type of insurance, previous live births, urbanization status, median family income and smoking status.
The study appears in the current (Dec. 2005) issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.