Pregnant mother is responsible for the good health of her baby and her proper weight gain in this condition is essential in ensuring that. Week by week weight gain during pregnancy needs to be monitored for its real cause. Very often women become overweight when pregnant and this does not help in the baby’s growth. You also have to contend with hormonal changes during pregnancy that bring about emotional upheavals along with the pregnancy bump which makes you feel distressed about your looks. You should monitor your weight gain keeping in mind certain facts.
Monitoring Weight Gain during Pregnancy
- You need to gain weight during pregnancy. Never make the mistake of eating less to avoid adding to your weight. That will lead to problems in the development of foetus.
- Check your weight only once a week. Doing it more often is not important and it can be irritating. You may find your weight gain to be more than expected but that is not something to worry about. Variations in weight gain during pregnancy are normal.
- Ask your healthcare provider to tell you about normal weight gain during pregnancy. It is not constant and varies from person to person based on height, weight, type of abdominal muscles and size of baby.
- Although it is important that you gain weight, the monitoring should not stop throughout pregnancy. If the weight gain is more than normal, it can result in delivery complications. It is often the cause of caesarean delivery. There is also the possibility of an obese baby or the mother retaining too much weight after delivery.
- Monitoring of weight during pregnancy is based on your weight before pregnancy. Based on whether you are underweight, normal, overweight or obese, the normal weight gain week by week would vary. It is better to have a normal BMI before planning to have a baby.
- An overweight woman runs the risk of developing preeclampsia and gestational diabetes while underweight women are at risk of having preterm deliveries or low birth weight of the baby.
For women with normal reading on the BMI scale, a weight gain of 25 to 35 lbs is acceptable. It is normally expected that women will gain 1 to 2 pounds every week in the last two trimesters and 3 to 5 pounds in the first trimester. The figures are different for underweight and overweight women and they will vary depending on the severity of the condition in them. Ask your healthcare provider to give you more information on this.
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