Pregnancy Signs & Symptoms, Week by Week Pregnancy Guide

Overweight women can reduce the risk of delivering an overweight baby if they enroll in a healthy lifestyle. Researchers from the University of Adelaide’s Robinson Institute and from Women’s and Children’s Hospital revealed that exercise and diet can decrease the risk of having a baby prone to diabetes or cardiovascular diseases due to obesity.

The biggest study ever conducted before in this area, called LIMIT, showed relevant results, never discovered before. It was conducted on 2200 pregnant women which suffered from obesity or overweight issues.

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Exercise and Diet to Reduce the Baby’s Overweight Risk

Researchers discovered that a healthy lifestyle, which included a diet and an exercise schedule, can decrease the risk of giving birth to an overweight baby. A baby is considered overweight if he or she exceeds 4kg. Pregnant women must ask for a specialist’s advice regarding what and when to eat and how to exercise without harming the baby.

Less Weight, Less Diabetes

Overweight babies have twice the risk to develop obesity and childhood diabetes, which will never outgrow. In fact, as they reach adulthood former obese children are prone to develop cardiovascular diseases. Due to excessive weight their joints are also prone to develop inflammatory processes, this being an issue for overweight pregnant women as well.

How Many Women Face this Issue?

Almost 50% of all pregnant women have weights issues and can deliver an overweight baby.  Women enrolled in the study were advised by specialists on how to take up a healthy diet and an exercise program during their antenatal care. The rest of the pregnant women carried on with regular recommendation.

First Results

Those who followed the specialist’s advice managed to decrease their babies weight and, along with it, have decreased his/her risk of developing chronic severe conditions in adulthood and during childhood years. The set of recommendations consist of a healthy diet and daily exercise which can be followed by any woman.

Same Amount of Pregnancy Weight

Women who took up the recommendations did not gained less pregnancy weight than those who benefited from regular care. Researchers highlight that a healthy lifestyle does not have any impact on how much weight can a woman put on during pregnancy. There is no connection between the baby’s weight and the weight an expectant mother will gain as there are other heavy items like the placenta which can add weight to a pregnancy.

Researchers want to conduct another study to show the changes made by the women enrolled in the first study on their diet and overall daily activity.